Student Spotlight: Alex Peck, trumpet
Everyone stood still as the siren sounded. It was sundown, 8pm on May 3, which marks the beginning of Yom Hazikaron, Israel's memorial day. Senior Alex Peck stood amidst these sirens in the city of Tiberias, Israel.
"We all stood in silence during those [the sirens]," Peck said. "People stopped their cars and got out into the street; everything came to a complete standstill."
Peck was in the middle of Birthright, a free ten day journey to Israel for young adults of Jewish faith.
"I went through the organization Hillel with other Michigan students," Peck said. "We toured the country and had some conversations about various facets of Jewish life and talked about histories, controversy, and how our personal relationship with Judaism fits into the overall Jewish picture and into the state of Israel. Originally when I signed up to go it was because it was a free trip to Israel and I thought it would be neat. I ended up making a lot of connections with my peers and found that many of them had similar relationships to Judaism. Having that shift in perspective was something I found to be meaningful and significant."
Peck traveled with a group of thirty-one other students, only one of whom he knew prior to taking the trip.
"For half our trip we were joined by israel soldiers," Peck said. "They were all around our age, but in Israel, they have mandatory military conscription right out of high school, so they had very different experiences, and we were able to have really fascinating conversations, as well as really normal conversations that I didn't expect. I had a really in-depth conversation with one girl. She was born in New York, but she had lived in Israel most of her life. One of the topics that came up naturally was the conflicts in Israel. I was surprised when I realized that we were all very indecisive about how to feel, regardless of whether we had grown up in the U.S. or in Israel. We also talked about how we grew up. I lived in a pretty Jewish community and it was neat to see how we had similar experiences."
Throughout his Birthright, Peck was able to explore the city of Jerusalem, ride camels in the Negev desert, and visit Tzfat.
"Tzfat is a really cool, really ancient town with so much artwork everywhere, galleries, and some very very good falafel," Peck said. "Pita, falafel, and hummus has been ruined for me because none of it will be as good as it is in Israel."
At Michigan, Peck studies cognitive science. He is a four year member of the MMB and plays the trumpet. Peck is also involved in basketball band and he is the president of Blue Bop Jazz Orchestra, a student-lead jazz ensemble on campus.
"The ensemble atmosphere of Blue Bop is very fun," Peck said. "Everyone there just loves to play music, and rehearsals are always something people look forward to. Being president of blue bop was far more work than expected. There is a lot of coordination and bureaucratic procedures that I did not anticipate. It was a bit of a culture shock this year especially after we weren't able to do anything at all with COVID, but I do like having a say in all the music we get to play. I purchased an obscene amount of music with the money leftover from our annual budget and it's just waiting to be torn open and played."
Peck first joined the ensemble when he auditioned his freshman year, 2019. While he occasionally plays the trumpet for certain pieces, Peck's primary instrument in Blue Bop is the guitar.
"Music is important to me because it not only gives me a place to be myself, it gives me the ability to create something that people enjoy, and that is very meaningful," Peck said. "I love being able to perform music, and I love the feedback we get from people. It's also just fun to be sporadic and spontaneous with other musicians; people will create things that you just don't expect."
More information on Blue Bop can be found on their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/bluebopjazz/ or on their instagram @bluebop.jazz
