Ben Weeden '98 (Music Executive, Live Nation, House of Blues Entertainment)

By Sara Melson '90

Ben Weeden '98 seems to have been born under a lucky star. His story is one of being in the right place at the right time, combined with the talent and skills to deliver on the opportunity.

After graduating Harvard in 1998 as an economics major, Ben was working in finance at Bear Stearns in New York. One of their clients was SFX Entertainment, which was rolling up many of the regional concert promoters, amphitheaters, theaters, and clubs in the US and was starting to do the same in Europe. "What SFX was doing seemed so much more fun.” Weeden went to work for SFX in Business Development, and after two months in the New York office, he was transferred to the London office, which at the time was a very small operation, consisting of only a couple promoters.

Lauren Greenfield '87 (Photojournalist & Director)

By Sara Melson '90

Lauren Greenfield '87 picked up her first camera at her alternative elementary school, Area D, and continued to develop a passion for photography that grew over childhood and throughout high school. From the beginning, she was drawn to photograph people and real situations, observing culture from her own unique perspective. Still, says Lauren, "I never considered myself an artist.” Then, over the course of her junior year at Harvard, an international honors program afforded her an opportunity to travel the world with a select group of students and faculty mentors for nine months, intensively studying film and anthropology both on screen and in the field, and interfacing with luminaries from museums and film institutes in each country. This trip was "life-changing” according to Lauren.

"We watched many indigenous films, and we met with amazing directors. It was on that trip that I realized my calling. I wasn't sure if it would be sociology, film, photography, or anthropology, but looking at culture was my calling. When I got back to Harvard, I switched my major from Social Studies to Visual Studies. I soon realized that theory wasn't my medium, and I moved toward filmmaking and photography. The work from that year has really influenced my photography. I even met my husband, Frank Evers '87, in Vienna during that fateful trip.”

Alison Brown '84 (Musician & Founder of Compass Records)

By Sara Melson '90

I ring the doorbell of a quaint craftsman-style house off of Music Row in Nashville, and a young intern lets me into the magical world of Compass Records (named "one of the greatest independent labels of the last decade" by Billboard Magazine). From its inception in 1994 by Alison Brown '84 and bandmate/husband Garry West, Compass has steadily established itself as the premier independent record label for folk music, with releases ranging from the award-winning bluegrass of the Gibson Brothers and Dale Ann Bradley to banjo prodigy extraordinaire Noam Pikelny and the largest current catalog of classic Celtic music in the world from the famed Green Linnet and Mulligan catalogs, which Compass acquired in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Alison takes me on a tour of the house, which it turns out was home to the notorious "Outlaw" group in Nashville in the mid-70s. The Outlaws—Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser—were, as Alison puts it, "cool before it was cool."

D. A. Wallach '07 (Musician, CHESTER FRENCH)

By Sara Melson '90

D.A. Wallach’s popular, ever-entertaining, and elucidating blog is called "D.A.’s Wild Ride,” and for good reason. His ascension, along with bandmate Max Drummey (together they make up the group CHESTER FRENCH), from college student to public pop persona can only be described as dizzying. The duo’s debut, LOVE THE FUTURE, recorded at Harvard during their senior year, was released on Pharrell’s Star Trak label in 2008, just a year after graduation. A huge array of flattering press ensued, with the pair written up in numerous magazines and featured in glossy color photos in adorably ironic outfits that were best described by Vibe magazine as "glee-club glam.”

Anne Preven '86 (Singer / Songwriter)

By Sara Melson '90

Anne Preven '86 wrote her first song in the tenth grade, as part of a creative-writing assignment. "I got encouraging feedback from my teacher,” she recalls, "even though I forced my cousin to write the lyrics, and I borrowed the chord progression from a Neil Young song.”

At Harvard, Anne was actively singing, but not songwriting. She sang in (and for one year was musical director of) THE OPPORTUNES, performed in a cabaret-style show called MOOD INDIGO, and was an occasional guest vocalist in a friend’s band. She didn’t actually write another song until after she’d graduated Harvard and was living in New York. "A friend I sang with in college, who had graduated two years before me, basically called me from the real world and said, ‘Avoid a regular job at ALL cost.’ So we formed a little band, and after getting terrible songs from an ad we had placed in the Village Voice, I decided I would just write the songs myself. I got a hold of a little Casio keyboard and a simple recording setup, and went to work.”

http://www.youtube.com/v/RfWikSQJ_FU&hl=en 

This was shot in my apartment in Beachwood Canyon.  The song is from my record Dirty Mind, available now! Cheers... Sara B. Melson

http://www.youtube.com/v/hWkjNQfkzHY&hl=en