By Yosef Rosenfield, Features Editor
On Sunday, May 2 at 3 p.m. EDT, I will livestream via Zoom my last solo concert as a singer-songwriter. Following this performance and my graduation from YU, I will no longer be active as a solo writer and musician except on Patreon, releasing all songs, covers, podcasts and other music-related content to my newly launched artist page. The upcoming show is titled “Curtain Call,” as it marks the end of a series of nine YU musical performances in which I participated; this goes back nearly four years to May 14, 2017, when I played at Schottenstein Theatre with my family rock band, The Dorons, before I was even a student at YU. I then spent three semesters as the lead vocalist of the YU Rock Ensemble — founded in 2014 by my brother when he was a Yeshiva College music major — before going solo to perform a Maroon 5 and Panic! At The Disco tribute concert in September 2019. As a junior, I performed my own songs for the very first time at my January 2020 “This Is Satire” concert — followed by my senior recital in December, which once again featured my band, The Dorons. I continued performing original songs for my February “Road to Recovery” show, and I now look ahead to my final performance on May 2.
The “Curtain Call” setlist in May will consist of original songs only, at least eight of which I have never played live. Among these are “Spare Me” — which will be featured on The Dorons’ upcoming debut album (“The Doronic Verses”) — and “Jaded,” a song that confronts my love-hate relationship with music. Furthermore, “The Painful Sound of Your Voice” speaks about my lingering desire to maintain friendships long after they’ve faded. Although I am most excited to perform my newer material, I also look forward to playing a few older songs of mine from earlier concerts. (Follow this link to view a sneak peek at the setlist for my upcoming show, along with a complete list of the 100+ songs that I will have performed at my nine total YU concerts.) “Good Enough for You,” for example, is a song that still resonates with me a year and a half after writing it, because it reflects our natural tendencies to try to impress or compare ourselves to others — even when doing so is unwarranted and/or unhealthy.
I expect this final show to be pretty bittersweet for me. As a senior music major, I’ve put in years of theory, practice, writing and performance toward something that is so much more than an area of study. Music has been my lifeline; it has pulled me through some of the most depressing periods of adolescence, brought me countless moments of joy and provided me with endless opportunities for creative expression. While I recognize that my upcoming concert likely represents my last hurrah as a musical performer, I am comforted by the fact that Patreon has offered me an outlet to share my endless passion for music. I would love to hear your feedback from my livestreamed concert on May 2 at 3 p.m. EDT, so be sure to check out my Patreon page and let me know what you think of my new content. I’ll see you on the other side…
Concert Zoom link: https://yeshiva-university.zoom.us/j/97357025980
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Photo Credit: Yosef Rosenfield