Great Gig Rocks Houses of the Holy

Some 80 students were involved in the artistic recreation of the album, participating as vocalists; instrumentalists; video designers; and visual, audio and video technicians. Gilles Pugatch, Upper School music teacher who has worked on Great Gig since its inception in 2012, said that he was “hoping to emulate the experience that happened when we did the first project Dark Side of the Moon, which was a record that most students didn’t have deep familiarity with. It was a sense of discovery for everyone to experience the record as a whole.” Pugatch enjoyed seeing the collaboration between and excitement of all the students involved. “Even though groups were preparing separately, they all felt unified,” he said.

The annual event, spearheaded by the Department of Performing Arts, is an interdisciplinary project wherein students collaborate to recreate a music album in its entirety through a live performance. The first Great Gig in the Sky, which took place in 2012, was a performance of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Previous albums have also included Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Green Day’s American Idiot.

To watch a video of the Great Gig performance in its entirety, please click here.