As Meghan Chen hit the final note of her keytar on “Gritted Teeth,” the room boomed in intensity with thunderous drums and chaotic crashes of sound. Excitement and audiences leapt into applause when the Thornton School of Music’s popular music senior cohort rang out its final showcase with a bang.
On Sunday, a selection of popular music students presented original songs at the Popular Music: Senior Showcase at the El Rey Theatre. The lineup featured 13 student-written and -produced songs, performed by student bands. The compositions spanned genres including pop, rock, country, funk, folk and alternative.
Tim Kobza, who teaches Popular Music Performance III, a course that supports students in creating pieces for the Senior Showcase, curated the showcase along with Greg Phillinganes, an adjunct instructor of popular music performance.
“We intend to get them on stable footing so they can navigate and keep learning and keep adapting and have a great career,” said Kobza, an associate professor of popular music performance and studio and jazz guitar.
The showcase began with joyful energy as MC of the night, KOSINE, a producer who has worked with Rihanna and John Legend, engaged with the crowd and delivered charismatic introductions of each performer. Celia Porter kicked off the night and performed her song, “Sofa (Whatever Feels Right),” with a resonating voice that set the energy of the crowd as they rejoiced in her performance.
Following Porter, Eyén Paredes, a songwriter, singer and violinist, performed her song “Babel.” In the process of recording “Babel,” Paredes said that through live studio sessions for the NPR Tiny Desk contest, her bond with her Senior Showcase band arose, which allowed them to better learn and perfect the song in rehearsals.
“I felt very comfortable, and the process wasn’t stressful, because I trusted the musicians,” Paredes said. “They knew the song and they know my artistic vision, and so it’s really nice, because I feel like they really help bring that to life.”
As Parades sang “Babel” at the Senior Showcase, her lyricism invited the audience into narratives surrounding belief and growth and created an intimate yet expressive environment on stage.
“It’s been a really wonderful process going from a very private, personal thing to being able to find my voice and style and share it,” Paredes said on her songwriting experience.
KOSINE addressed the crowd to prepare them for “I’m So Addicted to Male Validation” by Joshua Grossman, who is more known by his stage name Moray.
Trey Gordon and Adin Joseph, seniors majoring in dance, appeared on stage before Moray assumed center stage. Moray’s performance enticed the crowd, and audience members came flocking to the foot of the stage to get the best view. When the song concluded, Moray, Gordon and Joseph stood poised in their final pose, allowing the audience to come to a roaring applause.
Prior to the showcase, Moray released the music video for his original song, which featured expanded choreography by Kyson Kai, a senior majoring in integrated design, business and technology. In adapting the choreography for the live showcase, Moray and Kai included excerpts from the video choreography while making it applicable to two background dancers.
“It’s just really nice that the program automatically sets us up with an opportunity to play with each other and learn and grow from each other’s differences and play off each other’s strengths,” Moray said. “We’re all just feeling really proud of each other and the ways that we’ve all grown and helped each other grow throughout these past four years.”
Sofia Silvestri, a songwriter and performer, said she wrote her song, “Guilty Conscience,” a week before the submission deadline for the showcase. She said she intended to capture the passion and her emotional release behind the song when performing it live, describing it as a “therapeutic release.”
“Guilty Conscience”’s emotional content was displayed through band instrumentation and intense supplements of a live string quartet.
“It really brings the gravitas to the song, and it brings the claim and the argument that I’m speaking on to life,” Silvestri said. “The musicality of my performance holds on to the piano and the vocal, and the beautification of the instrumentation, all coming together to create a visual masterpiece, as much as a sonic masterpiece.”
Throughout the night, the performers immersed themselves in the music, causing the audience to embrace the students’ vulnerability and talents through attentive listening and dancing.
“A lot of our students are at the level of what it takes to be on the biggest stages in the world. By the time they’re juniors and seniors, they just are,” Kobza said. “They’re ready to launch.”