Boston College’s Student Eboard on the BC bOp! Jazz Ensemble

From “traditional big band to modern fusions” (bc.edu), BC bOp! celebrates jazz music at Boston College. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students, bOp! is proud to be the only university-level jazz ensemble that combines both jazz instrumentalists and vocalists into one, cohesive group. 

Since its founding in 1987, Sebastian (Seb) Bonaiuto has directed BC bOp! to great success, conducting the “big band” as they received the BC Arts Council Student Group Award in 2024 and sold out their third consecutive year of performances inside BC’s Robsham Theater. Not only that, BC bOp! has also taken their jazz music global, performing everywhere from Washington DC’s Midatlantic Jazz Festival, Birdland in New York City, and venues in Chicago, Reno, and Moscow.

However, he couldn’t have done it alone. After all, BC bOp! is one of the largest musical ensembles on campus. So, alongside the Vocal Directorship of Shannon Jacob, BC bOp! elects an annual student Eboard. Led by Avery Suza, Allie Eidt, Madeline David, Jett Takazawa, and Max Jellinek-Knight for the 2025-2026 season; these talented musicians agreed to sit down with me for an interview. Here we talk “big band” concerts, fondest bOp! memories, and what performing jazz means for the music scene, and beyond, at Boston College.

Hey guys! So wonderful to speak with you. Would you mind first telling me how you’re involved in BC bOp! and what your positions are?

Madeline: I’m Madeline. I’m the vocal section leader from BC bOp! and also an Eboard member. As vocal section leader, I help to print out music and choose repertoire. This helped a lot also at the beginning for auditions, since we have nine vocalists in our group this year. We have some new members this year, so we, in the summer, did a lot of promotion to reach out and recruit new members. Now, week to week, I help lead one rehearsal and also run the sound system. As Eboard members we also have a weekly meeting and help to plan shows and events.

Max: My name is Max. I’m a trombone player, specifically trombone one. I’m also on the Eboard and the head of the group’s graphic design. I’m not the trombone section leader, though. That duty belongs to a wonderful man named James Halkias. […] I would also come up every week in the summer to talk to the incoming freshman orientation sessions, and we moved in early to be there. And then we do a lot of repertoire picks for the year. We try to span across a lot of styles and include a lot of different featured sections or artists in the band. We also communicate with the band, and we organize and host concerts.

Allie: My name’s Allie, and I have been a member of BC bOp! since I started college, and then my sophomore year I was elected to the student Eboard. I am also on the Eboard this year for my junior year. So, I am a member like everyone else, playing in the rehearsals and concerts, but as a student on Eboard, I also have a role in leading the band. I meet with Seb, our director, and Lauren, our Assistant Director, in the band’s office to coordinate all sorts of stuff, talk about the repertoire that we play at organized concerts, communication with band members and then also showing up as a support system to help the band members with academics and things like that. You know, outside of just, I suppose I should say, outside of just planning and leading and organizing all the details that need to be done, we also take a role in actively creating a community and making [bOp!] a space where people feel supported. It’s more than just playing music.

Jett: I’m a member of bOp!. I play in the rhythm section. I’m also on the Eboard with four other members. For this semester, it’s three because Allie is abroad. I also play the bass, both electric and stand-up. And then on some songs, I’ll play ukulele which is really fun.

Avery: I’m on the student executive board. I’m also the trumpet section leader.

How does performing in a big band environment compare to other musical groups on campus? For example, marching band, chorale, soloist performers? How is BC bOp! different? 

(All members of Eboard answered each question, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll record two responses per topic).

Madeline: I think it’s very position as a vocalist, since we’re the only group on campus that has both vocals and instrumental players playing at the same time. And I’m glad because it gives the perspective of having the instruments behind you, working together as a full group and knowing your different parts as a vocalist. Since we’re “on mic,” getting used to singing with mics was an adjustment at first. For all of our performances we also have monitors and a whole sound system, and hearing yourself against the band can be hard at times. But it’s a challenge that we all love, and it also gives accountability, since you have to know your part very well. But I enjoy the wide variety of music that we perform as part of a vocalist in bOp!

Max: For an instrumentalist there’s not as many opportunities [on campus], especially as a horn player. For horns, there’s the marching band, the pep band, the Jazz Ensemble, the wind ensemble, the Symphonic Band, and the orchestra. Of those, the marching band and pep band don’t play one to a part, which is, I mean, that’s not a bad thing. It’s just a very different kind of music. And out of the remainder, bOp! is the only one that does anything other than classical or contemporary classical. So, it’s a remarkably unique ensemble in that way at BC. And there’s a joy to playing one to a part with other people. You can go and play in a combo and be the only sound, and it’s all up to you. That’s fun. But there’s also a certain camaraderie required with one to a part ensembles, and especially in jazz, with a lot of syncopated rhythms. I don’t know, man, I just love the music. I’ve never played in a big band before I came to college. I had only ever played, you know, small ensemble combos. So, it’s fun to have, for me, a big band that’s a mix between classically playing and jazz, which I grew up doing.

I have to ask, favorite bOp! memory?

Jett: I think my favorite bOp! memory is when we go…well, I guess this happened twice, so both times are very memorable, and I had a great time… to the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival in Washington, DC. It’s held within the first two weeks of February, and, right after we land, we always go to this restaurant that I think is called “Silver Diner.” It was one of the first diner experiences I’ve ever had, like true, authentic food. So, it was really good to bond with the other members, see what everyone else is going to order, you know, like, get to have a big family dinner with the whole group. Both years I had a really great time, just like getting to enjoy meals with the other musicians that I’m always spending time with. You know, yeah, bOp! is a good thing, I think, in the sense of the community aspect. It’s a big band, but it’s not too big. People are able to form that pretty tight connection, and, yeah, that’s what I like.

Avery: Robsham last year was my favorite bOp! memory. That was probably my favorite performance, yeah… like ever. Everyone who showed up was super, super happy that they saw it, and it was a really good show.

What do you guys think BC bOp!’s mission is? That can be for performers, what you’re trying to convey for the audience, etc. In other words, what is your goal with and for this group?

Max: I have a kind of a cop out answer. But I think it works. One of my teachers in middle school told me that a mission statement should be really short, and they described TED Talks’ mission statement about sharing ideas. And I think, on the most simplistic level, we’re here to share music. The word share is really important here because it implies that it’s not just within the group. It implies that we’re there, doing it for the audience, but the music is ours, or like it’s ours to play. So yeah, I think sharing music is what we’re here to do. […] You could also say that it’s about connection between the band members. It’s connection, you know, within the community. And you could also say it’s like connection to the history of jazz and of music and of players. But, yeah, I think there’s a big community aspect, especially when we’re focused on a campus. We play for students. We are students. We’re talking to the community. There’s a level of connection there which is different from any other band setting outside of a school or university.

Allie: If I were to say, you know, a more official on paper answer, I would say kind of what we have in our handbook, what we have on the website. It says to perform Jazz at a high quality level, right, like high quality musicianship, and, you know, perform music for others to enjoy. But I generally think that it also applies to other musical ensembles. And I think what gets to more of the root of what playing music means is that playing music with a community, and for a community, is one of the places where we find hope in this world. It’s  where we find and spread love, where we, you know, find humanity in each other. 

I have to credit this partially to Sofia Burke who was our vocal section leader and also an Eboard member last year because I am paraphrasing from words that she said. But I think it’s so true, and she says it wonderfully, that music is where we find power and hope and love in the world. So, for bOp!, of course you want to perform music at a high standard. But [it’s] so much more. […] There’s something really, really powerful in music. It moves people, it lifts people up, you know. It literally feeds your soul. And so, I think that’s the greater mission involved with bOp!. It’s to keep that going. I mean, all of the members, except a few, we don’t study music. We’re not necessarily at BC to become musicians. […] We are doing this because our souls need this. We need music in our lives, and we want to share that with people. That’s what makes bOp! special. We dedicate our own time to feeding ourselves and feeding others in our BC community.

We talk a lot about bOp! as a community, so, speaking on that, as you know, jazz music is richly intertwined with so many different cultural traditions, mainly African American artists and African American traditions. And as a school with a predominantly white student population, how do we honor the diversity of these Black communities and the culture that we’re embracing when we perform?

Allie: It’s a really important thing to recognize for any jazz musician. This is something that should always be worked towards. And I think that, in reality, bOp! has only recently started to think about this, and I could be completely wrong, during last year. It really came into focus with our Robsham’s theme being Princess and Frog, which you know, is a movie about the Black experience in New Orleans, and the music is so central to that. It brought into focus the question of how we need to present this in the right way, especially because we are a predominantly white university and a predominantly white ensemble. And so, it brought up a conversation that I think is still alive and goals that are still being realized and actively thought about. What music are we playing? Who is it played by, and, especially for vocalists, what does this song say? Where does it come from? What’s the message for vocal music? I think all these questions are so important because we want to be cognizant of what words we’re saying. 

We even had a notice in the program last year that recognized that we are playing from this culture and that we are trying to perform this culture in all its forms, because jazz is wonderful, and you know, it should be celebrated by all that want to celebrate and play and sing, right? But with that recognition we also understand that this music comes from a place of struggle, and it comes from a time in history where there was a lot of oppression. I think that, you know, we can always be better, and we’re, you know, we want to honor it in the correct way. We’re all very aware of it, and it’s a continued conversation in all of our meetings when we’re selecting repertoire because we do want to honor and recognize it in the way that it should be. 

Avery: I think definitely becoming knowledgeable about the art is important. Knowing where [jazz] is rooted, also knowing key players in that genre, just taking a minute to kind of like embrace that sound or that character, kind of just staying true to what it is… it matters. I think maybe something we could do is kind of promote diversity within the ensemble. Obviously, we perform jazz music, but we’re still, I mean, it’s still challenging being at a predominantly white school. But I think, you know, pursuing, diversity within the group itself goes towards that overall mission.

Okay, last, but not least, what’s on the horizon for BC bOp!? 

Madeline: Yes, well, we just came from tabling, actually. We have a concert this Saturday at 8pm. It’s a free concert in the Vandy Cabaret room, and we’re very excited. This past Friday, we had our first concert, but it was outside Lower Live, our dining hall. And this one upcoming is our more formal event at night. So, we’re very excited to see all the audience members, share our music with them, and just be on stage all together for the first time with this group.

Jett: Here’s my vision for next semester. I want to kind of bring back, well, introduce playing in combos, because I’ve had a lot of experience playing in them. This would be where it’s, maybe, like four or five members. It could be kind of like how Berkelee [College of Music] runs it. They do small jazz combos, like a rhythm section, couple horns, and then they do some gigs on the side. I feel that within BC bOp!, in, I guess, big band settings, it’s very hard to have a single soloist rip on their own section. […] I already have a professor in mind, Professor Eric Kniffin. He’s the improv guitarist, the improv expert. I want to bring him into bOp! and be like, “We’re gonna do an open combo session for anyone who wants to practice improv, practice scatting, etc. and then just jam over some standards.” So that’s, my plan to bring into motion. We’ll see what Seb says. […] I mean, BC bOp! has the talent to make some really great jazz combos. It could be so beautiful.