Twelve young musicians will take the stage for this year’s Syracuse University Songwriter Showcase. The budding artists will perform songs from diverse musical genres including American acoustic folk and Chinese piano-pop.

Professor and songwriter Jeffrey Rodgers has been using the showcase for his class HNR 340: “Inside the Words and Music” to expose the students to talent and the music industry.

The showcase will be taking place Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. in the Panasci Lounge of Schine Student Center. There is no admission fee.

“When I started teaching this course, creating an SU songwriter showcase just seemed like a great way to connect students with songwriting talent right on campus,” Rodgers said. “At the same time, this would give the songwriters a rare chance to play their music for a real listening audience.”

Students in the class analyze lyrics of all genres from current pop hits to decades worth of Bob Dylan tracks.

For the showcase, Rodgers assigned each of the 15 students a position varying from recruitment to graphic design. He will grade each honors undergraduate based on how well he or she completes the designated duty.

Sophomore magazine journalism major and campus/social media promotion representative Tiffany Moran said she is excited to be working on the committee to make this event happen.

“I wanted to help with the recruitment process because I had never really done anything like it before,” Moran said. “Clearly, I love music, otherwise I wouldn’t have and I think it was important to have a good variety of musicians and wanted to put out the best show possible.”

The Reneé Crown University Honors Program students enrolled in the class advertised the event by reaching out to VPA students, songwriting class sections and the rest of the student body via word-of-mouth.

The prospective performers were then asked to submit a recording of a song that he or she had performed.

The students and Rodgers listened to each submission and then ranked their top choices individually.

A combination of 19 SU and ESF undergraduate students sent in audition clips. Twelve performers were chosen. Many of the selected artists are Bandier, television, radio and film, and information technology students.

“We definitely listened for the quality of the composition,” Moran said. “We also tried to vary the genres of the music because we definitely didn’t want twelve musicians singing slow ballads on an acoustic guitar.”

Of the 12 singers, five of them will be returning. Those performers are Julia Newman, Kevin Crowell, Lewis and Clark, Basket(s) and Zach Schweikert.

This will be Schweikert’s, who is a student in Rodger’s class, second consecutive year performing at the showcase. The junior advertising major is a largely folk-influenced musician.

“I really enjoyed performing last year because it made me much more aware of the musical talent at SU,” said Schweikert, former Daily Orange humor columnist. “When I played last year, there were people I knew and had seen perform before, but I was most surprised by the people I hadn’t known were performers — I think that’s what was most exciting to me, honestly.”

The seven remaining first-time performers include PJ Walshe, Alexandra Moniqué, Logan Piercey, Jason Mcgill, Eva Cassandra, Ariel and the band Exits.

“The purpose of the event is to try to bring to light these students who are putting themselves out there,” Moran said. “We are trying to get people to appreciate their talent and the courage it takes them to perform in front of people.”

For students who want to take “Inside the Words and Music” and get involved in this event, it doesn’t matter what their major is, they just have to be part of the Reneé Crown University Honors Program.

If students want to have a preview of the performers showcasing on Friday, they can access the SU Songwriters Showcase playlist at https://soundcloud.com/susongwritershowcase.

Published on December 1, 2015 at 9:00 pm

Contact: rcplaut@syr.edu