“I understand my life and the world through music,” says Bienen student Conner VanderBeek in a Northwestern Magazine article featuring Seniors to Watch. The South Asian studies, music composition and ethnomusicology major from Salida, California, appears in a section highlighting The Creatives.
VanderBeek, whose mother is from Punjab, plans to spend a year in New Delhi before studying music composition in graduate school. Since traveling to India last fall to study the music of Sikhism, he has found South Asian influences mixing into his music.
“There’s a certain spaciousness and conversational element in Indian music that I really love. I’m excited to hopefully get involved in the music scene in Delhi,” says VanderBeek, a Beinecke Scholarship winner.
Established in 1971, the Beinecke Scholarship Program provides substantial scholarships for exceptional undergraduates to pursue graduate education. Colleges and universities can select only one student from their school to apply for the award. VanderBeek was one of 20 undergraduates out of 88 students selected by their institutions of higher learning to compete for the prestigious scholarship. The award will support his graduate education in music composition and ethnomusicology.
Read more about VanderBeek and the Beinecke Scholarship.