‘Student Spotlight’ shines a light on musicians at Five Towns
By Clarissa Biener
FTC students illustrated their musical talents when the Music Department hosted their “Student Spotlight” as part of the Live at the Upbeat series on March 10th during Common Hour.
The event, organized by Professor Jess Chertock, featured vocal performances ranging from melodic Broadway songs like “You Matter” (Waitress) and “Journey to the Past” (Anastasia), to powerhouse rock songs like “Bad Reputation” (Joan Jett), to fresh pop songs like “Nice to Each Other” (Olivia Dean), “Ordinary” (Alex Warren), and “Gabriela” (Katseye).
Sofia Haintz, who co-hosted with Franki Dobias-Moskowitz, has hosted several Live at the Upbeat programs before. “Events like this are important because they get to showcase the creativity and the artistry of the students here at the school, and there’s a big variety of them,” said Haintz, a Music Education major. “Everybody performs a different genre, everyone has their own sound, and so it’s a great opportunity for people like that to be able to perform and showcase what they’ve been working on and to just put themselves out there.”
Music Performance major Kaleeb Barrett impressed the crowd with two performances. The first song, “Ribbon in the Sky” by Stevie Wonder, was well-suited for his beautiful, clear voice. For the second song, his Clueless bandmates Ryan Levenberg, Mia Leigh, and Will Pena joined him to perform “Fix You” by Coldplay. “It’s been a while, actually, since we performed, and we haven’t hit the stage in like, I want to say over four months,” said Barrett. “It’s a testament to how strong we are as a unit because we just kind of snapped into it.”
Here’s a peak at some of the performances:
“When I was a freshman and sophomore, I would usually just use events like this to test the waters and like, find my comfortability in performing because I know as a performer it’s very scary and like, it’s very nerve-racking,” continued Barrett. “I find it when you go up there with people who you’re surrounded by consistently and people who push you and motivate you, it gets easier.”
Students in the Upbeat cheered on their fellow classmates, dancing and clapping to the beat of the songs. “The performances were really, really good,” said Mass Communications major Mia Napoli. “It really gives everyone, like, a chance to shine and show off their creativity and their talents, especially for it being like a musical arts school and just an arts school in general.”
FTC students can keep an eye on their inboxes for updates on upcoming campus events after Spring Break.
