For students interested in jazz performance on campus, there’s no shortage of offerings in the music department, which is home to a jazz orchestra and two small jazz ensembles. However, Freshman 15 offers something a little different. Created by Ben Lanzi during his freshman year in 2019, Freshman 15 is Tufts’ first and only student-run jazz big band. After Lanzi’s graduation in 2023, leadership of the band passed to seniors Matt Torres and Arielle Klein. Upon Torres’ and Klein’s departures last spring, it was up to the band’s younger members to step up into new leadership roles.
“This year, after Matt graduated, we also thought it would be a really tough transitionary period, because Matt was like Ben, he was a pure conductor,” junior Mark Martirosian said. “And we were like, dang, we don’t really have that anymore.”
But the band made it through this transition, establishing a “triumvirate” of co-directors led by sophomores Daniel Voner, Jack Mandell and Julian Dutemple. The three co-directors split up their responsibilities, along with sophomore Sam Cranston, the assistant director, and Martirosian, the band’s manager.
For Voner, Cranston and Martirosian, jazz music has been a lifelong passion. All three have played their respective instruments (trombone for Cranston, trumpet for Voner and Martirosian) since the fourth grade, and they played in jazz bands in middle or high school. By the time they arrived at Tufts, joining Freshman 15 was an easy decision.
Voner says he knew he wanted to stick with Freshman 15 after just one rehearsal.
“I was in [Tufts Jazz Orchestra] instead, so I was like, well, I don’t know if I want to do two jazz bands, but I auditioned,” Voner said. “And after the first rehearsal, I was like, yeah, I think this is where I want to be.”
While many members join the band as freshmen, Cranston's first performance with the ensemble took place before he was even a Tufts student.
“I went to high school with Mark. We were in jazz band together, so I’d been playing with him for a while,” Cranston said. “The spring before my freshman fall, they had Ben Lanzi’s senior concert. All the trombones got sick, so Mark called me in. So I played at that, and I was like, oh shoot, this band’s really cool … so I was like, day one, getting on campus, how do I join this band?”
Though Tufts has department-run jazz ensembles, the band’s leadership emphasized the importance of having a student-run jazz band on campus as well.
“I think people are more comfortable and confident when they’re in a group with their peers, as opposed to having some sort of professor who’s obviously way more qualified looking down on you,” Cranston said. “And I feel like we’re trying more and more to showcase what people want to be doing in the band. We’ll ask people, is there a tune you want to play? How can we feature [these people]? So it’s a lot more about the members.”
Freshman 15 currently has about two dozen members. The band brings in the most new members in the fall after doing recruitment at the Student Organizations Fair, but they will often bring people in mid-year to meet the needs of the group. When choosing a repertoire, the band’s leaders try to cater the songs to the composition of the group, with a variety of tempos, genres and arrangements.
Although the band has a leadership structure, every member of the band, regardless of seniority, is welcome to contribute during rehearsals.
“We take suggestions from every member of the band. It’s not just us five, because everybody knows what good music sounds like,” Voner said. “So if they think we can do something better and they have suggestions, there’s no reason to not take that.”
Freshman 15 puts on a concert at the end of every semester, showcasing their months of hard work. Last semester, they had the opportunity to perform in Goddard Chapel, which Voner described as a highlight of his time in the ensemble.
Serving in a leadership role in Freshman 15 can be incredibly rewarding, especially when your hard work finally pays off in the form of a successful performance.
“If you’re in the audience, you just see the end product, and if you’re just a member of the band, you know the work that you’ve put in,” Voner said. “As E-Board members … we know what’s been going on since before the semester started, up until that point. So it’s the most rewarding feeling.”
Correction: In an earlier version of this article, Daniel Voner's quotes were misattributed to Sam Cranston, and vice versa. The Daily regrets this error.
