Students Guess the Favorite Songs of Faculty & Staff

As a fun way to end a long and challenging school year, Dana Self, Upper School Performing Arts Teacher, invited the Upper School faculty and staff to share their favorite song and artist. Fifty-six song titles were submitted.

“In less than five minutes of sending out the initial request to my colleagues, I received over 20 submissions,” said Self. “Numerous colleagues shared with me that the hardest part was narrowing it down to only one song. The final playlist is incredibly diverse, ranging from classical to pop, church hymns to Nine Inch Nails, Elton John to Queen, and everything in between. The most exciting part was hearing the kids talk about the conversations that this activity sparked with their teachers about music and how they have found some new favorite songs to add to their own playlists. And it was fun to see so many faculty and staff playing along as well.”

During one of their final classes of the year, the Upper School band, strings, and choir students were provided with the list of songs along with a listing of those faculty and staff who submitted a title, with the goal being to match the teacher to the song. The faculty and staff were also provided with the same list and invited to play along during the final week of classes.

“Some faculty and staff were easier to figure out than others. For example, Lost in the Library (Saint Etienne) was the favorite of Katie Voss, Upper School Librarian; In the Atmosphere (John Mayer) was the top choice for Kelly Anderson, Upper School Science Teacher; and Chaconne, Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin (J.S. Bach) was the submission from David Doherty, Upper School Strings Teacher.

“And there were a few titles that the students thought they had pegged from the beginning, only to learn that their guess was incorrect, such as Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen) was not submitted by the track coach; Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.) was not the nurse’s favorite song; and Please Don’t Make Me Cry (Lianne La Havas) was not submitted by the counselor.”

“I wasn’t expecting how cool the teachers would be,” said Annabelle Abramov ’22. “It was so fun seeing that some of my favorite songs were also the favorite songs of my teachers. They have great taste in music!”

Looking for new music, or to revisit old favorites? Check out this amazing playlist!

Curious about which faculty or staff member belongs to each song on the playlist? Check out the answers here!