By Lydia Schouten
Performing in the homecoming talent show, Cobbcella, takes dedication, skill and confidence. Whether you are performing with a group of people like Dance Club or the band Last Minute Dream, or on your own like Colin Massah or Addie O’Konek, you must put in time preparing and have the passion for what you are doing. These are some dedicated student musicians who performed in Cobbcella this year and how they got there.
Colin Massah’s Debut for Original Music
Many students decide to show off some kind of musical talent and Colin Massah falls into this category. Earlier in September, Massah released his first ever EP, under the stage name Seth Summers, and for him, Cobber’s Got Talent was the perfect opportunity to debut its first live performances. Massah says, “I just recently released an EP and I decided to take two of those songs, the most popular ones, and perform them for my act.” The songs Massah performed are called “Last Night” and “House on a Hill.” However, recording songs for an EP is much different than performing live. In the past Massah has used backing tracks but this time he explains, “I really wanted the style of these two songs to feel natural, so I asked my friends to join me.” The songs he performed were written from a very personal place, “I decided to draw from things in the past, emotions in the past, and pull those up through the words of ‘Last Night’ and ‘House on a Hill’.” Even though performing personal songs can feel vulnerable and scary, Massah says, “I’m hoping to make connections with the audience” and “I’m hoping that people can relate and choose to listen to my music even when I’m not on stage.” Many student musicians performed in Cobbcella to promote themselves as well, Massah’s music can be found on Spotify under the name Seth..Summers. Those who are interested in music created by students on campus should listen!
Briea Freeman’s Dedication
The multi-talented Briea Freeman is a third year at Concordia and dancing has always been her passion, “I find the exercise to be enjoyable as well as the artistic and creative expression” she says. She is the president of Dance Club and taught the choreography for one of the dances they performed at Cobbcella. She put in two to three hours just learning the dance on her own so she could then teach it to the rest of the club members at multiple practices. Freeman really cares about the members of the club and their comfort in performing at an event like this, as she says, “I want to make sure everyone is confident about the performance.” On top of working as the president of Dance Club, Freeman was also on the homecoming subcommittee for Cobbcella. On Thursday she worked hard backstage decorating and organizing in addition to performing on stage. She had to “set up the event, organize and ask for materials, help decorate the room, run sound checks and all that jazz.” Students also might be shocked to learn that homecoming preparations start much earlier than most might think, as Freeman says, “we started in the early spring of last school year.” Even though, “it will be a long day” and “I always get pre-show jitters right before I perform,” you can’t be as involved in this event as Freeman and not look forward to it. If students are interested in joining Dance Club they meet on Wednesday nights from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. Freeman invites everyone who is interested to join.
The Iconic Band, Last Minute Dream
Music performances were popular this year and the band of Concordia students, Last Minute Dream, were the grand finale. Participating in the talent show is a great opportunity for them, as band member Ephriam Cooper says, “we want to get in front of as many eyes as possible and Cobbcella is a great way to do that.” Member Autumn Dovre also adds, “it gives us an excuse to meet up more often.” Behind the scenes of what you see in a performance, there is a lot that goes into collaborating in a band. Member Charlie DeToffol plays bass guitar on stage and says, “I would consider myself a songwriter, that is my main artistic focus in terms of expression.” However, writing the music takes more than one person, as Cooper says, “I’m a good person to bounce ideas off of.” Everyone in the band has their own musical and collaborative roles they play when making music and they all contribute when writing songs. As the drummer of the band, Noah Nielsen states, “I just keep the beat.” Nielsen also writes in his own drum part when the songs are being created or rehearsed. Dovre contributes lyricism, as they say, “I would consider myself a bit of a poet.” The group also gets together well because they know each other very well. “Charlie and Autumn are quite literally day ones for me,” Cooper says. Last Minute Dream weren’t nervous at all for their talent show performance, as Nielsen says, “there are so many people we know that are there to support us so it’s pretty easy to not be too anxious about performing.” From performing at Cobbcella to collaborative songwriting, Last Minute Dream has so much to share and they work hard to produce amazing music. They are hoping to release an EP in February so be on the lookout for that!
Addie O’Konek Continues to Develop Her Dance Career
If there is one word to describe what Addie O’Konek is passionate about, it would be dance. “I’ve been dancing since I was three years old and I’ve been doing competitive dance at a studio since first grade,” she says as she describes her dance experience. O’Konek’s passion has continued in college through her involvement in Dance Club and she has even gotten to explore new aspects she didn’t have the chance to as much before, as she says, “I hadn’t had any experience in choreographing dances until I got to Concordia and started choreographing covers for Dance Club.” At the talent show, Addie performed a self choreographed dance solo to the song “Maria” by Justin Bieber and she also choreographed one of the songs Dance Club performed. Her solo also explored dance genres she hadn’t experienced as much before. “It’s a hip hop slash jazz but contemporary was always my specialty before,” O’Konek says as she explains her preferred genres. Cobber’s Got Talent was a great opportunity for performers like O’Konek to reconnect with something they used to do more, as she says, “I haven’t performed a dance solo since high school,” she had only ever performed with Dance Club.
