There was a homecoming of sorts on Wednesday night for two Musicians at Lyndon Institute.

Jazz musician Jennifer Hartswick has toured with famous musicians such as Trey Anastacio of Phish, and she returned with her group's drummer, Conor Elms, to the school they both graduated from.

Hartswick said, "I grew up in a really musical family, it was kind of what we did. I have five aunts and uncles who are all music teachers, all musicians... So it was just kind of what we did. Some kids play baseball, some play soccer, we just played music. So it was kind of a natural thing."

The night started with the L.I. jazz combo, followed by the L.I. Jazz Band. Throughout the day, the students had been working with Jennifer who shared her expertise. Freshman Matt Nolan explained "they came in at like 8 o'clock and we went through all our pieces. Jennifer worked with us and fixed all our mistakes and really helped us out".
The teaching got more advanced later in the day says Senior Derek Piette, "then in the later part of the day we worked on improvisation and just basically how to have fun with what we do".

And although fun was had all around, the turnout for the concert was clearly affected by the recent illness going around that caused the school to cancel classes. The Band Director Jim Nolan commented that "just from our group we had three students that were out sick tonight. I'm willing to bet that if this sickness wasn't going around we possibly would have had a complete full house here tonight".

Sickness or not, the audience had a great time and the show closed with a standing ovation.