GEMA ROCKED!
Marcel Arsenault (C ’07)
“You better send me one of your songs…I’ve been telling everyone how great a songwriter you are and I haven’t actually heard a single line you’ve written!” two-time Grammy winner Bill Danoff (I ’68) laughed as we toasted the weekend’s success. A few beers later, Rich Battista (’86), president of Fox National Cable Networks and GEMA Founder, DJ’d a dance party while the floor was mercilessly torn up by a rowdy group of business execs, songwriters, teachers, analysts, musicians and students. Welcome to the after party of GEMA ROCKS 2010, the event that singlehandedly revived my dreams of becoming a rock star and gave me the tools to make it a reality…now that’s what I call a liberal arts education.
GEMA ROCKS is one of those ideas that almost never makes it out of the bar. After a couple of gin & tonics at an industry gathering, someone says “wouldn’t it be amazing if…?” everyone agrees but then goes back to their lives and the idea is forgotten. Thanks to Teddy Zambetti (C ’80), this was not to be the fate of GEMA ROCKS. With his vision and determination, Teddy transformed it from the kind of event that sounds too good to be true, to one that is too good to miss.
For me, the anticipation began back in November with an invitation from Teddy to play trumpet in the show. I had moved to NYC two years ago with dreams of pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter with a side-job, but soon became a full time side-jobber with a singing hobby once I discovered the cost of living in the city. Teddy’s invitation put GEMA ROCKS on the horizon as a chance for me to reconnect with what I was truly passionate about: writing and performing good music. Over the next few months, each email (“do you rap?! thx TZ”) increased my involvement with the show and drew me deeper into the fold of these Hoyas who were giving so much of their time and effort to get this year’s show off the ground. Soon I was putting together and arranging for a horn section, dusting off and tuning up my neglected guitar, and doing daily vocal warmups (to the endless amusement of my roommates). But in mid-March, things really got serious when Teddy asked if I’d co-host the event with Bill Danoff (Country Roads, Afternoon Delight) and Greta Gaines (C ’89) - possibly the coolest women ever. Not only was I getting the chance to reconnect with my passion, but it would be in the company of real life rock stars.
I remember walking through the career fair senior year, past the booths of the bank reps, consulting firms, and non-profits and feeling like the booth for my field was nowhere to be found. Three years later, GEMA ROCKS was my career fair. Not a place where I could apply for a job, but a place full of people that refused to believe that Georgetown wasn’t a school for music, and had come together to prove it.
The day before the show, over 35 Hoya alumni and students, from the media industry and beyond, converged on the Davis Performing Arts Center stage for the first rehearsal. We knew that in order pull this show off, we’d need to cram a week’s worth of rehearsal into the next 36 hours. Under such time pressures, networking is not an option, but bonding is a necessity. As the clock ticked away, these strangers were united through midnight background vocal sessions, a 15-hour rehearsal, and on the spot arranging. By the time the curtain rose, these strangers had become friends and those friends had formed a band.
For me, what happened on stage those three nights was nothing short of euphoric. I went from cubical slave to rock star overnight, playing aside Grammy winners, hit-makers, and an incredible community of inspirational artists and performers. As the lights cooled each night, the parties began and a veritable “who’s who” of the media industry appeared- the intended consequence of making GEMA ROCKS a part of a larger GEMA FEST. The connections that I made over that weekend may or may not be the ones that propel my career as a singer-songwriter to the next level, but the advice, the encouragement and example set by these Hoyas who are living their dreams have reinvigorated my passion for writing and performing. Oh yeah, and I did end up sending a couple of my songs to Bill Danoff. I’m pleased to report that he liked them.
Click here to see photos from GEMA ROCKS |
