Musicians form friendships through Mako Band

By Danna Bertel and Kayla McGee •

PHOTO BY DANNA BERTEL Mako Band practices alongside the Bossa Nova Chorale to prepare for the upcoming spring concert.

Lavan Naveh, 24, senior computer science major, has played the drums for 17 years. He found the opportunity to keep playing in Mako Band.

“I didn’t really know about Mako Band when I first came to Nova, and then someone told me that there was a band that I could do voluntarily and not even have to sign up for as a class. I still wanted to continue my musical progression, just not professionally,” Naveh said.

NSU’s Mako Band is composed of 11 students who play a variety of instruments, such as piano, drums, trombone, bass, guitar, trumpet and clarinet. Carlo Ricchi, adjunct faculty and director of Mako Band, said anyone is welcome to play as long as they attend the 4 p.m. Tuesday meetings in room 309 in the Don Taft University Center.

“Learning how to play an instrument is ideal. Being really good at it is also ideal,” Ricchi said. “You don’t have to be a music major, music minor or theatre minor or anything. As long as you’re there and you know your parts, we’ll work with you.”

Mako Band has performed at “Peace 2023: A Musical Celebration” and “The Golden Hour,” and will perform at the spring concert on April 19 with the Bossa Nova Chorale, NSU’s choir ensemble.

The members of Mako Band come from different musical backgrounds, but all come together in rehearsals.

“You have a lot of people that have either marching band background, jazz background or musical theater background. They’ll come in the same room and just hash things out,” Ricchi said. “The background doesn’t really matter where everybody wants to go, and the fact that everybody wants to work together is really the biggest factor.”

Through Mako Band, Naveh got the opportunity to play with others and also form friendships.

“You can listen to music all the time, but you don’t really ever get the opportunity to always play with people. So having that opportunity here at NSU has been life-changing. We meet here only once a week but these are friends, as well,” Naveh said.