Jessica Guerrucci—Reporter
After several months of rehearsing and perfecting performances, 21 voices came together to put on a show that nearly filled Garner Recital Hall.
NOTEtorious held their second annual showcase on May 2. The group performed seven songs and featured several soloists. The last song they performed, “I Lived” by One Republic, was a tribute to the four graduating seniors including NOTEtorious’ president, Emily Velidow.
“It’s crazy,” said Velidow. “It’s especially weird. I mean, I started the group three years ago, so it’s very bittersweet leaving it behind, but I know they’re going to carry it on and do amazing things with it.”
Freshman Ellie Sherry, a journalism major, who was one of the soloists, said she was happy how everything turned out after rehearsing for so long.
“It was really fun. We worked really hard all semester, and we wrote all of our own music and composed it ourselves, so it was really nice to finally see everything put together,” said Sherry.
Sophomore Jackson Lamar, a journalism major, who also handles public relations for NOTEtorious, said he created flyers and coordinated the fundraising event that allowed audience members to attach notes to roses that were presented to the group at the end of the show.
In comparison to last year’s showcase, Lamar said he was expecting a larger crowd than last year, but the only other difference between this year’s performance and the last was that there was no intermission performer. Instead, there were several new songs.
“Last year was the first showcase. I was a freshman then, a lot of fun,” said Lamar. “It honestly blew our expectations then, so I’m excited for what this week is going to bring.”
The audience was filled with family members and students, and for junior and computer science major Cameron Rho, his taekwondo team came to watch him perform as well.
“It definitely hyped my energy up even more, because I would look out at the audience and see them dancing along, and I would dance even harder. Then they would dance harder, and we were just really rebounding energy off each other,” said Rho.
Of the seven songs that were performed, Rho said the “River Mashup” was his favorite because of the way that it was arranged.
“Samantha Foggle, the one who arranged that song, she just did a really amazing job. It just really sounds so beautiful when all of our voices come together,” said Rho.
Freshman and psychology major Karina Peña, sang the solo when the group preformed “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles. She said it was emotionally overwhelming because the song has played a big role in her life.
“When I was on stage singing it, it was kind of surreal, and having everyone behind me, like supporting me, was just a huge rush of emotions that came through me at that time, which really got me choked up for the next ten seconds after I sang the song,” said Peña.
Despite some minor issues with the microphones in the first half of the show, overall, Velidow said she was happy with how the show came together and was proud of her group because they worked hard all year.
“I never expected to be doing our second showcase and have almost a full house, so it’s really, really special,” said Velidow. “I mean this was just a group of ten to 15 people a few years ago, and now there’s 21 of us, and they all just want to stay and sing. It’s just really special.”
