Dasha Koltunyuk, a 2015 alumna and marketing and outreach manager in the Department of Music, at the piano, and Uchechi Kalu, a 2014 alumnus and jazz vocalist, presented an improvisational live music meditation, in which the audience was invited to close their eyes and experience the music while focusing on their breath.
Koltunyuk, who participated in Princeton’s collaboration with the Royal College of Music in London in her junior year, said she and Kalu met in an improvisation ensemble of classical and jazz musicians. “As a classically trained musician, I felt very vulnerable improvising, and I was in awe of Uchechi’s confidence and openness as we improvised together,” Koltunyuk said. “In a way, that raw and exciting combination of feeling both exposed and fearless is so much a part of the experience of being a woman at Princeton. Reuniting with Uchechi through music as part of ‘She Roars’ has taken our relationship with one another and with music to an even deeper level,” she said.