Fostering Connections Through Music

There are many benefits of playing music to a live crowd based on what these Tabor alums have to say. They talk about performing as their greatest joy, but on top of that, they also get to connect with their local communities.

For Julia Peterson ’18 of the Jules & Gerry duo, it was at Tabor that she found her voice. Coming from a family of musicians, she had always been surrounded by music. Peterson first picked up a guitar when she was about ten years old so she could sing around the campfire with family and friends. 

When she got to Tabor, Peterson joined the Madrigals, the Nightingales, and the Mixed Chorus. During her freshman year, she plucked up the courage to perform at an open mic night orchestrated by her Honors Geometry teacher Gerry Dineen. From then on, Peterson became a staple of Tabor open mic nights for the years that followed. 

“Tabor opened me up a little bit,” admits Peterson. “I’m constantly thinking about how thankful I am for Tabor and the opportunities that were there for me musically.” 

Dineen had a different experience with music while he was growing up. His family was not musical, but he made money mowing lawns when he was 16 and decided to buy a guitar. He taught himself how to play, and by the time he was a junior in high school, “I was just infatuated with the instrument,” he says. “I just played and played and played.” 

He joined a band when he got to college, and his performing career took off from there between the band and solo sets. He only put down his guitar for the years when he had young kids, but he missed music so much that he reached out to a local restaurant in Marion to do a solo act. He only gave himself one month to put together a three-hour show after making the decision to return to performing. 

“I knew I needed that goal to get going, and then I never looked back,” says Dineen. 

Dineen always had music playing before class and while his students were working, and it was in the math wing of the academic center that he and Peterson began discussing U2, Fleetwood Mac, and other bands that they both loved. He became her advisor in her sophomore year, and the two bonded over their love for music—both listening to it and performing. But it wasn’t until Peterson’s senior year that they thought of playing together. 

“We thought it’d be nice to play together before she left for college,” says Dineen. So, for Peterson’s senior project, they put together a duo set that they performed in the Lyndons. 

After Peterson graduated, Dineen was booked for two days in a row at the Pilot House in Sandwich over the Fourth of July holiday. He didn’t want to do a solo set twice, so he asked Peterson if she wanted to do their duo set for a crowd on July 4. 

“That was kind of the start of it all,” reflects Peterson. “To me, that was the biggest thing in the world.” 

And so, Jules & Gerry was born. 

David Allen ’79 had a similar experience to Peterson in terms of growing up with music. Having started playing piano when he was seven, Allen’s foundation in music was laid from a young age. 

What really drew him to music was that his parents’ home in Corning, New York, was right near the community college. There were concerts there on the weekends, and at night, he could hear them from his bedroom window. He used to crawl out of his window and go see the shows at the college down the road. 

“No one ever stopped me or questioned me,” says Allen, even though he was only eight or nine years old at the time. “At a very young age, I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be on stage.’” 

He described that experience of being drawn out of his bedroom by the music almost spiritually. 

“It just pulled me,” Allen says. “I didn’t really choose it, it chose me.” While Allen focuses on mostly modern country now as the bass player in both a Toby Keith tribute band and a Kenny Chesney tribute band, his roots are in metal and classic rock as a drummer. When he was at Tabor in the 70s, he brought his drum set to school and kept it in the basement of Wickenden Chapel where he would go and practice. 

After Tabor, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in computer science and an MBA from Northeastern University. Though Allen has spent his career in engineering, music has always been a huge focus for him. 

Allen has played with various bands at the Tsongas Arena, Fenway Park, Gillette Stadium, and the famed Indian Ranch, to name a few venues. He has opened for artists like Blake Shelton, Gretchen Wilson, Uncle Kracker, Dierks Bentley, and Alan Jackson. He even signed his name under Steven Tyler’s in the green room at the Hard Rock in Boston. 

“I’ve had amazing opportunities playing at incredible venues,” says Allen. “I’ve played big ones, I’ve played dive bars, and everything in between.” 

Allen commented that there’s a big difference between playing big venues and playing small venues. 

“When it’s a small venue there’s an assumption that this is your hobby, and when it’s a big venue there’s an assumption that this is your profession,” he shares, “and people’s attention to what you’re doing on stage varies accordingly.” 

He notes that concertgoers almost don’t treat musicians as real people at bigger venues, oftentimes forgetting that musicians are usually just regular people performing as a side gig to their careers. 

Allen did fondly remember an experience performing at the 102.5 Street Party on Lansdowne Street in Boston. He was hoping to see other bands after finishing his own set, but even after changing his outfit, he couldn’t get through the crowds of people who wanted autographs and pictures. 

“There were thousands of enthusiastic fans,” remembers Allen. “It was super fun. I was like a celebrity for the afternoon, but the next morning was just a regular workday.” 

Something that all of these musicians have in common is that they absolutely love performing. 

“I feel the most alive when I’m playing on stage,” says Allen. 

Peterson agrees, noting that being on stage is one of the most comfortable places for her. “Music is such a good way to spread joy.” 

That joy resulted in an immense sense of belonging for both performers as they worked together and developed their own strategy for working together. Dineen recognized that they’d struck gold after their first few performances, noting that the immediate ease they found in playing together was something special.   

He describes their method as a constant back and forth of sending each other different ideas and trying them out. At the beginning, they each took their solo sets and tried to see if they could morph them together, but now it’s more of a trial-and-error process with learning new songs as a duo.   

“We’re kind of all over the place,” he explains. “Over time we’ve figured out what works for us and what doesn’t.” 

Allen emphasizes a similar point. “When you’re starting out, there are challenges. Sometimes being in a band is a good way to make an enemy out of a perfectly good friend,” he says. “It can be a little bit of a journey to find like-minded, like-capability people, but once you start to build that community and you know people, the doors start to open.”

Music also helps connect local musicians to their greater communities.

Since Jules & Gerry became a staple at the Pilot House in Sandwich and other local venues, Dineen says that he feels so much more connected to the world outside of Tabor than he ever would have been without music. 

“There’s so many different people out there, and I think that for me music is a really powerful way to connect with a whole different group of people,” he says. 

Jules & Gerry consider each other family now, after eight years of playing together. When they get to play for a crowd full of people that they love, “It’s probably the happiest we are,” adds Peterson. “It’s definitely something to be grateful for.” 

The joy of music appears to be not only in connecting with other musicians, but also in fostering connections with the crowd. Allen notes that for a musician on stage, the crowd is the show; providing an outlet for them and bringing them happiness is equally as enjoyable for him as just playing the music. “It’s just so much fun to see people you know that are working hard, they’ve got a lot going on in their lives, and then there they are letting loose, enjoying themselves, enjoying the music,” he says. “That feels good.” 

Peterson feels similarly, explaining that music can change the mood, spread joy, and help people escape their problems. “I feel like music is something that everyone can connect to in some way,” she says. “Maybe we don’t have a lot to say, but music says a lot in its own way.” 

Allen adds, “The universal nature of music is that a song can take you to a different place, and it instantly connects you with people, places, and phases of your life ... I just think that’s what’s so cool about it."