Saddleback Star competition announces finalists
The first-ever Saddleback Star Competition named its finalists after auditions took place Feb. 21. The competition, run by Commercial Music Professor Ariel Alexander, will take place March 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the McKinney Theatre.
“I was hired to start a commercial music program here at Saddleback, and this is covering a whole new genre of music that we haven’t reached before, because traditionally the music program has served classical and jazz musicians,” Alexander said. “This program caters to kids in pop and rock and soul. So this event is part of our program and it’s a way to kind of publicize our new program and do something different.”.
The students featured a variety of genres, from rap to pop to classic rock, and even some self-written songs, such as 20-year-old Brian Gomez’s rap “It’s So Good.”
“I started out rapping when I was like 15 as a joke with my friends, and then I realized I was actually pretty good,” Gomez said. “After that, I just started writing some stuff — nothing crazy — but when I was 17 I actually tried to do this (rapping) and that’s when I started taking it more seriously.”
Although auditions had been on a sign-up basis, it became mostly walk-ins that took the stage in FA 101.
The show costs $10 general and $7 students/seniors.
FINALISTS:
Chasen Tengwall
Brian Gomez
Alexandra Rivera
Paloma Pallante
Anastasya Korol
Jean-Luc Rollando
Meryl Lumboy
Ariana Mozafari
Evito Romero
Maureen Eberhardt
Laurie Lewins
Isamar Negrete
Meghan Riopelle
Joe Marx
Mercedes Mears
Thorin Murphy-Fahlgren