From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowie's Work Through Photos
During the spring 2026 semester, I served as creative director for Music and Meaning in the Works of David Bowie, a course and concert experience guided by Gretchen Shae, associate professor of liberal arts and sciences, at the Berklee Performance Center.
This year, the course included three interconnected events: a master class with legendary Bowie guitarist Earl Slick, who had joined us onstage the previous year and returned this spring as a source of inspiration and living artistic history; a full musical adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 staged through Bowie's Diamond Dogs album, directed by professors John Gallegos and Michael Sean Harris using Shae's original script; and the Music and Meaning concert on May 5, where new and returning students brought their own voices and interpretations of Bowie's catalog to the Berklee Performance Center stage.
Together with musical director Albin Strundstrom and an extraordinary group of collaborators, we worked to honor Bowie's legacy not by replicating it, but by embodying the fearlessness and curiosity that defined his career.
Explore the creative journey, told chronologically through the decisions, the people, and the photographs that shaped it—from first concept to final bow.
Tessa Cullen (left), Juno Meyers (center), and Sarah Koury (right) pose beneath the production projections during a staged promotional shoot for the 1984 musical. As creative director, I organized and photographed these scenes specifically for social media promotion, capturing the visual world of the production before audiences ever saw it live.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Opal Gibbons (center), Carter Siebels (left), and Rhysa (right) pose in a second promotional setup beneath the projections.This series of posed shots was designed to introduce the cast and the aesthetic of the production across Instagram and TikTok, building anticipation ahead of the final performance.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Opal Gibbons warms up in rehearsal, moving through a ballet sequence in the quiet before the full company arrives. I captured this candid moment during her personal warmup, drawn to the stillness and intention of it. It was an early glimpse into the physical storytelling that would define her presence in the production.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Kaylee Choate is caught in a single spotlight during the final performance of the 1984 musical. The light isolates her completely, turning a moment of performance into something closer to portraiture. This shot captures the theatrical intensity that defined the production's visual language throughout the night.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Tessa Cullen (center), Carter Siebels (left), and Jay (right) are caught mid-movement during the finale of the 1984 show. The energy in this frame reflects the release of a production that had been weeks in the making, a full company giving everything in the closing moments of the night.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Carter Siebels (right) and Rhysa (left) share a quiet embrace during a silent moment in the play. Against the noise and theatricality of the production, this stillness stood out. I caught it instinctively, knowing it told a different side of the story.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Jay leans on a cane while Carter Siebels stands nearby during the final performance. The staging here was deliberate and visually striking, and this frame captures the physical character work both performers brought to the production.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Carter Siebels looks back over his shoulder, bound to a chair in one of the production's most striking images of the night. The restraint, the gaze, and the stillness of the moment distill everything the 1984 adaptation was reaching for: control, resistance, and the weight of a dystopian world brought fully to life.
image by Áine Lindsay
Earl Slick (right) works through material with members of the student band during rehearsal. This was one of the first times I photographed him at Berklee, and the informality of the rehearsal space made for an intimate, candid frame. His presence in the room, even in rehearsal, carried the full weight of his history with Bowie's music.
Image by Áine Lindsay
A wide shot of the master class in full swing at the David Friend Recital Hall. Earl Slick performs alongside Tessa Cullen, Juno Meyers, Albin Strundstrom, and Jake Ryan. As musical director, Strundstrom anchored the ensemble while students stepped into Bowie's sonic world alongside one of the guitarists who helped define it. I shot this from a distance to capture the full scale of the room and the energy between Slick and the students.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Opal Gibbons performs a solo during the master class, photographed in motion. Having documented her warmup in rehearsal weeks earlier, capturing her here in full performance felt like a complete arc. This motion shot was intentional, letting the blur carry the feeling of movement rather than freezing it.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Juno Meyers is caught in a wash of blue light during the master class, another intentional motion shot. The color and movement give this frame a quality closer to album art than documentary photography, which felt right for a performer stepping into Bowie's world.
Image by Áine Lindsay
A wide shot from behind the stage captures Ollie Gullick's full band during their set at the Berklee Performance Center concert. Shooting from behind gave the frame depth and scale, placing the audience in view and showing the full scope of what the ensemble brought to the night.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Fiona Skyskein applies her makeup backstage before the show, channeling Bowie's iconic and wildly theatrical looks in preparation for her performance. This behind-the-scenes moment captures the transformation that Bowie's aesthetic demands and the intentionality every performer brought to embodying his world.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Ollie Gullick performs as Bowie during the concert. This is the image the whole photo essay has been building toward: a student fully inhabiting Bowie's presence, on the stage of the Berklee Performance Center, in a concert that began with a rehearsal, a master class, a musical, and weeks of creative work. The show, and this essay, end here.
Image by Áine Lindsay
Áine Lindsay studies music industry and leadership innovation at Berklee College of Music. She is a Boston-based creative specializing in artist branding, photography, and social media strategy.
