Toshiyuki Shimada

On the top of the list Yo-Yo Ma, although he is a Harvard grad. He can cross over to any type of music. And I am sure he can also cross over to Yale. My all-time favorite from the past was Frank Zappa, a very wild and unpredictable character, but he had created great music, including symphonic works.  He was crazy enough that he could have set a fire on Woolsey Hall, literally speaking. How about the Sesame Street Show? It is most students’s comfort zone, shown all over the world and in many languages.  I would love to see the Big Bird and Rick Levin interact. Why not? It is supposed to be an educational show.

Shimada is the Director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and an Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Conducting.

Maria Trumpler

Indigo Girls because I fell in love with their music.

Trumpler is a Senior Lecturer of Women’s, Gender, And Sexuality Studies and the Director of the Office of LGBTQ Resources.

Nuno Monteiro

I’d pick Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti or the Sun City Girls. Because it would be that or Alfred Brendel, and Brendel, though possibly closer to the spirit of the Yale Spring Fling, is no longer performing live.

Monteiro is an Assistant Professor of Political Science.

Jolyon Howorth

Brassens — he is a poet and a philosopher of the most elementary human and social realities. His songs speak to the universal rebellion of the human individual against external constraints of every type.

Howorth is a Visiting Professor of Political Science.

Kathryn Lofton

I think Michael Hutchence deserved one more chance at pop redemption. But for pure Spring Fling joy, Teresa Brewer would be my pick.

Lofton is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies.