For the second time this semester, the Student Programming Association will host a Student Showcase.
The talents of six student musical groups will be on display Friday during SPA’s Noontime Concert Series, in the first-floor lounge of the HUB-Robeson Center.
The acts include Electric Empire, James Millican, TonyP, Mike Lloyd, Sunny B and Nick & Derek. Noontime Concert Series Chairwoman Carolyn Lederach said the mix of musicians will cover a variety of genres.
“There will be rap, R&B, electric-guitar instrumentals, piano and acoustic vocals,” Lederach (senior-advertising) said. “I’m hoping it will appeal to a lot of different people and everyone can find something they are interested in.”
This is the first time SPA Noontime has hosted two showcases in the same semester. Lederach said there are two reasons why the group decided to add another showcase to the lineup.
“We’ve been having a large number of really good acts try out for the showcases, so it made sense at this point to expand it,” Lederach said. “We wanted to give more students the opportunity to perform.”
She also said the Student Showcase is one of the most popular events for the Noontime series, so it is a good chance for student performers to play in front of a large audience of fellow students.
Lederach said the showcase earlier in the semester brought in a good crowd, and SPA expects a similar situation for Friday’s showcase.
“You never know how many people are going to show up, but everyone seems to be pretty excited about it,” Lederach said. “Hopefully we will have a good turnout.”
For Caitlin Doyle, a member of Electric Empire, the Noontime concert will be her first performance with the other members of the band — Ethan Fried (junior-secondary education and history) and Chris Franklin (senior-journalism and political science). Fried and Franklin recently recruited Doyle (junior-information sciences and technology) to play the cajon — a type of hand drum — for the band.
“I’m definitely excited, since the only other time I’ve performed was beat-boxing with another group,” Doyle said. “Personally, I’m excited that I get to show off another part of my talents, but I think that Ethan and Chris are very talented songwriters and people will enjoy their songs a lot.”
Electric Empire will perform original, alternative-rock pieces.
“We thought it would be a good place to start, kind of get our feet wet and see where we can take it,” Doyle said. “This is how people get started — you play the music and the audience can show if they like it or not. I think this is a great opportunity that SPA gives us.”
Mike Lloyd (senior-information sciences and technology) will perform rock-and-roll guitar solos. He said he is looking forward to Friday’s performance because it gives him the chance to play for a larger audience than what he is used to with open-mic nights.
“I’ll have a couple more eyes or, in this case, ears listening to me,” Lloyd said. “But it doesn’t matter for me how many people are there. Whenever I perform I give it my all, no matter what.”
