Music bloomed in Whitman’s amphitheater Thursday, April 9 as first-year Adriel Borshansky’s band performed their concert “Dabbles in Bloom” in front of a large crowd.
Borshansky, singer, song writer and guitarist, was joined by other first-years Rimmy Doowa (vocals), Sam Epstein (bass and saxophone), Aaron Zalman (guitar) and senior Nick Gottschall (drums).
Zalman opened the show, singing a few songs while playing acoustic guitar as the crowd gathered. Opening with “Forgotten Fairytales,” the band performed 11 original songs written by Borshansky. Each song was introduced by Borshansky with a quirky story that reflected the nature of the lyrics. As the concert drew to a close, much of the audience danced to the final song which ended in a storm of clapping and cheering.

“Dabbles in Bloom,” a name that incidentally came to Borshansky as he was falling asleep, is the second performance by Borshansky, Doowa and Epstein, who performed together at Coffeehouse first semester. Several songs they performed at Coffeehouse were repeated in this concert along with several new songs. With the addition of Jan-start Zalman and senior Gottschall, this concert, according to Borshansky, brought the music to a “new level.”

Borshansky, who has been writing music since high school said, “I felt like I was expanding and with where my music is going I wanted to showcase the expansion.”

After being turned off by organized music in school, he chose to focus his “creative energy” on writing his own music.”I started off writing really bad music,” he said. “About a year and a half into it, I decided maybe my music is good.”

Borshansky chose to put on his own concert to promote independent music on the campus. He preferred the amphitheater as the venue for his show over the more traditional Coffeehouse route or party scene. “I think I just really like the amphitheatre; it feels natural and it is a really good set up,” he said. “It’s imperfect which I like and my music suits the outdoors. I think we are pretty chill, so this setting works.”

This sentiment was shared by band member Epstein who said, “I think that Coffeehouse and playing at parties are great and I’ve done both of those. But this is a new way to perform and the venue matches the type of music perfectly.”

Doowa, Epstein and Zalman have all been involved in music since elementary school as well. Doowa began singing classical Indian music called raag. She has competed in and won numerous talent shows and she performed with her elite high school choir at venues such as the U.N. building in Bangkok and for the Princess of Thailand.

Epstein, who plays a number of instruments, has been involved in jazz since the sixth grade and recently took up bass: performing the instrument for the first time at this concert.

Zalman has played guitar since the seventh grade and has been involved with several jazz and funk bands, performing throughout high school. Although Borshansky wrote all the songs performed, he clearly is open to collaboration with his band members.

“We all have ideas and make suggestions,” said Zalman.   “Adriel writes his songs. Then I harmonize and improvise as I feel the music – which is something we both enjoy doing. I listen to his music and try to make it sound better […]   to give it depth and a richness of sound,” said Doowa. “He has a base, the words, the tune, and then we build it up together.”

The vision, however, is still clearly Borshansky’s.

“Adriel is not afraid to tell you if he wants you to play something else,” said Epstein. “He has a clear vision of what he wants us to do and this produces really good results.”
In an effort to produce a diverse body of music, Borshansky’s lyrics feature four different languages: English, Spanish, Hebrew and Hindi.

“I hope to create one coherent group that can produce a wide variety of music,” he said. “The worst thing I can imagine is being stuck in one formulaic way of performing.”
Borshansky sees himself, Doowa, Epstein and Zalman as a permanent group. He anticipates performing with them throughout college.

While waiting for a sequel performance to “Dabbles in Bloom,” check out Borshansky’s music on MySpace (myspace.com/adrieljarrod) and iTunes.