WHEN HE’S NOT ROCKING OUT ON THE ELECTRIC GUITAR WITH THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA (BUT ACTUALLY), GRAD STUDENT MARK DANCIGERS LOVES KE$HA, MUSCLE MILK, AND PRINCETON UNDERGRADS (awwwwww).

Name: Mark Dancigers, Ph.D candidate in Music Composition

What was the best part of playing your electric guitar concerto with a hundred-person orchestra?
What wasn’t the best part?! The experience was fantastic. I had a great time working with Michael Pratt, the conductor. And it was really cool to actually feel the sound of an orchestra behind me. But feeding off the energy from the musicians on stage was the best part.

What’s the weirdest advice you’ve ever gotten from a composition professor?
One lesson that really stuck with me was when I brought a teacher a set of electric guitar etudes I was working on. His advice was to play through what I was writing very, very slowly. He then went to the piano and started playing the first Chopin etude through very slowly, which was so weird because you always hear etudes played so fast; that’s the whole point, isn’t it? It was a kind of otherworldly experience but eventually I think I figured out what he was trying to tell me: calm down!

What’s been the biggest surprise coming to Princeton from Yale, where you did your bachelors and masters degrees?
Princeton has electricity and running water! I heard otherwise.