Who could blame Lawrence University voice teacher Chris Salerno for feeling doubly happy these days?
For the first time in its history, two Lawrence students — Charlie Christenson and Megan Hamm — have been recognized for excellence in the same year by Down Beat magazine.
Christenson, a senior from Neenah, and Hamm, a junior from Madison, were individually cited as “outstanding performers” in the college jazz voice category in Down Beat’s 28th annual student music awards contest. Both are students in Salerno’s voice studio.
The awards — known as “DBs” — are considered among the highest honors accorded college and high school music students. Announced in the magazine’s June edition that hit newsstands May 2, Christenson’s and Hamm’s DBs are the 11th and 12th earned by Lawrence students since first winning one in 1985.
Prior to Christenson and Hamm, the Lawrence University Jazz Singers were honored with their second Down Beat honor in 2002, sharing the “outstanding performance” award in the college division vocal group category.
“It is incredibly exciting to have two of my jazz voice students receive these kind of outstanding national awards,” said Salerno, who also had a hand in the Jazz Singers’ 2002 DB as the group’s co-director. “Charlie and Megan are two of the most talented and self-motivated individuals I have ever had the pleasure to work with. It is a great honor to have their talents recognized by Down Beat and I couldn’t be happier for them. They’re both so deserving.”
“All credit must go to Megan, Charlie and vocal jazz professor Chris Salerno,” said Fred Sturm, director of jazz and improvisational music at Lawrence. “Within the scope of her part-time faculty appointment on the conservatory faculty, Chris has expanded Lawrence vocal jazz offerings well beyond the Jazz Singers to incorporate a special focus upon jazz solo singing.
“Since the Lawrence Jazz Singers have already been recognized twice in the DB competition, it’s great to see our individual soloists earn these highly coveted national awards,” Sturm added. ” I’m particularly happy to see Chris being recognized nationally for the superb jazz educator that she is.”
For Christenson, winning a DB means one less thing on his to-do list.
“When I was a sophomore, I told one of my friends that my only goal at Lawrence was to win a Down Beat award before I left, which, of course, we kind of all just laughed about at the time,” said Christenson, a 2001 graduate of Neenah High School. “But now that it’s actually happened, I just can’t quite seem to wrap my mind around it. Some of my all-time favorite musicians have been linked with this award in the past. I’m so proud to be a part of that tradition.”
A trumpet player and classical singer in high school, Christenson credits a Bobby McFerrin concert at Lawrence for his jazz epiphany.
“I came to Lawrence wanting to be a choir director, which is still a definite possibility, but after attending a Bobby McFerrin concert my freshman year, I decided jazz was something I wanted to try,” said the music education major who plays piano with the LU Jazz Band and with Vale Todo, the Lawrence salsa band. “I hadn’t played or listened to hardly any jazz before coming to Lawrence, but I liked the freedom that jazz musicians got to play with while they performed.”
Christenson displayed some of that musical freedom on the audition tape he submitted to Down Beat, recording four pieces for the competition: “Seven Steps to Heaven,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Beyond the Sea” and “Caravan.”
“I recorded the tape with my usual ‘gigging’ trio of John Sutton (bass) and Nick Kraus (drums),” said Christenson. “We recorded the tracks live with no overdubbing. I improvised on all of the tracks and on ‘Caravan,’ I improvised using a poem by Allen Ginsberg called ‘Vision 1948.’”
The first time proved to be the charm for Hamm. Her audition tape was the first solo recording of any kind that she had ever made. Accompanied by students Karl McComas-Reichl on bass, Eric Cline on piano and Zach Preston on drums, Hamm sang Miles Davis’ up-tempo tune “Four” and the classic Thelonious Monk ballad “’Round Midnight.”
Hamm, who took up the piano at the age of six, got turned on to jazz by listening to Ella Fitzgerald scat on a rendition of “How High the Moon.”
“I joined my high school’s jazz band as a junior, mainly to play the piano but I did some occasional singing, too,” said the 2002 graduate of Madison East High School. “I’ve been performing with the Lawrence’s Jazz Singers since my freshman year and have been taking jazz voice lessons with Ms. Salerno for more than a year.”
News of the awards put Christenson’s powers of concentration to the test, while Hamm was only partially caught off guard.
“Chris (Salerno) called my cell phone while I was in class taking a psychology mid-term exam,” said Christenson. “She was yelling about how proud and ecstatic she was about us winning the award. I called Megan later and we both talked about how amazing it was that we had won together.
“The last few years, Megan and I have had a lot of the same teachers and have spent a lot of time together on jazz singing, performing and listening to music with each other. Now we have both won this award and I can’t think of anyone else in the voice department whom I would rather share this sort of honor with.”
“When I heard that Charlie and I had both won Down Beat awards, I was only half surprised because I kind of figured Charlie would get one at some point,” said Hamm, also a music education major. “It’s really cool that we both won one in the same year. I was so excited and surprised to learn that I’d won. I never would have thought it was possible.”
This fall, Christenson will spend a semester teaching music at an inner city Chicago school through the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s Urban Education program. While on the program, he’s hoping to hook up with one of his idols, Kurt Elling, who lives in Chicago.
“I hope this award leads to many more great opportunities and experiences,” said Christenson. “I’m ready to get out in public and show people what I can do.”
With another year of school to go, Hamm is still trying to sort out which direction in which to steer her musical talents.
“I’m studying classical voice as well as jazz” said Hamm, who was cast in the role of Hansel in Lawrence’s opera production of “Hansel and Gretel” earlier this year. “Lawrence is a really unique place in that sense because I’m able to study both, which is rare for vocalists.
“I’m still swimming around in the middle, because I enjoy both styles a great deal. I’ve decided I’m not going to take the Down Beat award as some kind of ‘sign’ that I should focus on jazz. I’m just hoping that if I am forced into one area or the other, that I won’t have to make that decision for long, long time.”
