Regina Spektor will be one of this year’s Dillo Day headliners.
Mayfest teamed up in an unprecedented partnership with Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern to bring the singer/songwriter and pianist to campus.
“Regina Spektor has a really strong grounding in her own Jewish background, and we thought that would really speak to the Jewish community on that level,” said SESP junior Merrie Aaron, president of Hillel.
Katie Halpern, co-chair of Mayfest, said it would not have been possible to bring Spektor to campus without Hillel’s financial support.
“We have done co-sponsorships in the past, but this is one of the first times we’ve teamed up with another group for a headliner,” the Weinberg senior said. “One thing that’s so exciting about this year is that by working with Hillel, we really got to come together and bring an artist that we both really, really wanted for very specific reasons, rather than just the more general support we’ve had in the past.”
Halpern and Mayfest co-chair Michael Gebhardt said Spektor will be one of Dillo Day’s daytime headliners.
They said Mayfest approached Hillel with the idea to team up because they wanted to bring Spektor to campus for several reasons, including her broad appeal on campus.
“(Mayfest has) been looking at Regina Spektor since I’ve been a student here,” Gebhardt, a Weinberg junior, said. “In terms of her qualities as an artist, we’ve always loved bringing singer/songwriters during the day. We haven’t brought a singer/songwriter of her caliber, or of any caliber, since Ben Folds, which was five years ago. We’re really excited to kind of get back to that, and she’s obviously awesomely talented and really has a large following in the Northwestern student body.”
Halpern said Spektor also represents Mayfest’s efforts to diversify the performers at Dillo Day each year.
“We haven’t brought such a strong singer/songwriter in quite a while, and we also haven’t brought a female headliner since I can remember. We’re really excited that not only is she female, but she has mainstream appeal.”
Halpern and Gebhardt said working with Hillel has been a positive experience for both groups and will hopefully spread goodwill throughout the student body.
“Mayfest likes to consider ourselves a unifying student group,” Gebhardt said. “We have the unique opportunity to bring students together for one day. Not just in bringing Regina but also in production and promoting, we get to work very closely with another student group, which we normally don’t have the opportunity to do.”
Halpern and Gebhardt said Mayfest cannot confirm at this time which other groups will perform on Dillo Day.
Aaron said Spektor’s background will hopefully make her appealing to both Jewish and non-Jewish students.
“Regina Spektor actually went to Orthodox Jewish day school, so she’s someone who would speak to all aspects of what Hillel and the Jewish community encompass through the social and religious side of things.”[email protected]
