EAR Concert

Students and faculty gathered in Agora, anticipating the debut of new student musicians and returning to hear well-known artists of the Exeter community. The Exeter Association of Rock (EAR) held its first concert of the school year last Saturday, Oct. 1. Students of all grades signed up for the open mic style event and shared songs from artists such as One Republic to Lin-Manuel Miranda.EAR gives students the opportunity to perform in a casual environment, while still allowing them to showcase their talents. EAR co-head and senior Kevin Elaba enjoys being a part of the club because it shows a different side of students. “The kids, hopefully, aren’t as stressed about singing on stage, since EAR concerts are very laid-back, and [they] can be themselves,” he said. Elaba explained that students tend to have a more formal demeanor when they perform choir and chamber music, which might help make a balanced sound, but personally, he has a lot more fun letting himself go on stage and singing with friends next to him.Lowers Adrian Venzon and Emeline Scales enjoyed performing “Lullaby” by Lateeya. Last year, the two would have fun playing ukulele and singing, and although Venzon proposed the idea of performing at an EAR event, they did not plan on it until the beginning of this year. Venzon explained that the chords that he learned to play on the ukulele were easy to pick up. They never got tired of doing Lullaby, and Venzon said that it suited Scales’ voice well. Looking back on it, Venzon found it to be an amazing experience. “I loved performing because it gave us a chance to share our love for that song and love for music in general. It was so much fun and so many people came to watch,” he said.Upper Isabella Abate performed “Let Me Try” by Nathan Sharp of the YouTube channel “NateWantsToBattle.” Abate chose this song because she was a fan of the show that inspired it. “I really like playing music, so I figured I’d jump right in early in the year,” she said. Abate liked how it sounded with her voice, and she felt comfortable playing a song she knew well on stage. “I love the feeling of being on stage and performing and knowing I’m doing something people are enjoying watching, but I have really bad stage fright so I don’t do it as much as I’d like to,” Abate said.

“The kids, hopefully, aren’t as stressed about singing on stage, since EAR concerts are very laid-back, and they can be themselves.”

Performing at EAR was a whole different experience for upper Tess Aalto, an involved singer in music lessons and choir groups at Exeter. She said that she’s always loved “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” and although she was initially scared because she had never performed a solo, she saw all of her friends and had fun performing. “I definitely think everyone should try putting themselves outside their comfort zone at Exeter. You never know what could make you so so incredibly happy,” Aalto said.She added that she was thankful to everyone who came out and supported, especially those who stayed the entire time.New students such as prep Pepper Pieroni sang for the first time in front of fellow Exeter students. She decided to sing “I Will Follow You into the Dark” by the band Death Cab for Cutie. She got the idea from her friend and upper Sagar Rao after he told her that he recently heard the song on a Skype call, and it became “ingrained into [her] head.”For Pieroni, performing gives her an opportunity to share the gift of music with others. “I find that music is one of the best ways to portray emotion and thought, for expression is useless unless it is shared,” she said. Pieroni is no novice to performance, but she loved the setting of EAR in particular. “The audience was there to have a fun time and support their peers, and I think that's a really cool thing,” she said.Before she sang, she self-promoted her second album entitled “Sometimes,” a project over one year in the making. Her first album, Breathe, was more of a “trial and error type of ordeal,” and even though she was not too proud of her first album, she admitted, “Music is a process, and I shouldn’t be ashamed of what I created.” Of all of her original songs, only about 15 percent make it to an album. “Writing music is an excellent outlet for me, and it makes me really happy that other people are able to experience it as well,” she added.The relaxed atmosphere of Agora allowed students to have conversations during the event, but some felt that the noise became too overwhelming. Upper Kate Lu understood that being in Agora created a casual setting, but she said that she “wished that people stopped talking while other were singing.” Upper Maria Lee agreed with Lu and also added that she loved listening to the regular performers, but she was extremely impressed with the people whom she had never expected to see on stage.Elaba also said that the audience was rowdy at first because at the beginning of the concert, the lights were all fully lit and he did not remember to tell everyone to quiet down. He noted that students got quieter when listening to the performers, but in between acts, they resumed talking pretty loudly with one another. “I personally didn't mind it,” he said, “probably because I was preoccupied with getting the performers ready to go on stage, but it might have been intimidating for the students performing to see 60 to 80 students in Agora talking to each other and not paying attention to the music.”He wanted to fix this type of atmosphere for the future EAR concerts, and at the next concert on Nov. 11, it will hopefully “seem more like a real concert, and less like an open mic.”