School of rock and 'not so rock' at NBTHS
BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK - Eleven students from Stanford University spent their spring break performing for music students at the township's high school March 30.

Stanford Harmonics, a group of vocal concert performers from California, visited North Brunswick Township High School as part of their week-long tour of the East Coast. The a cappella group of six males and six females performed a mixture of contemporary rock and "not so rock" selections suited to their audience.

"These kids need to see things like this. They need to see their music arranged ... and they need to see the music of their culture," Fine Arts Supervisor Peggy Sica said.

Tenors Daniel Holbert, Ryan Hopkins and Bryan "Brat" Tan, bassists Austin Brown and Brian "Mak" Salomaki, altos Carlyn Sylvester, Kay Takamura and Jen Aguilar, and sopranos Mattie Sloss, Teresa Ingram and Jessica Jacobs performed seven of the roughly 15 songs of which they compiled their own arrangements, including "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel and "Waiting" by Seal. Bassist Egill Juliusson was unable to attend the performance.

"I'm doing what I love to do; I love to sing," Sylvester, of Washington, D.C., said. "It's a big time commitment. This is our spring break and no one got to go home, but it's fun."

The commitment includes practicing two hours a day three times per week and performing once on the weekends, sometimes taking mini-trips to local venues.

"We rehearse a lot and we perform a lot, so we become really, really comfortable singing," Orange County, Calif., native Aguilar said.

In addition to performing for the students, the harmonics group taught the basics of vocal percussion and singing. They described "beatboxing" as a mixture of hard sounds, such as a hard "ppp" for the base drum, an easy "ts" sound for a high hat and a trick "pf" sound for a snare drum.

They then demonstrated the process of arranging a song while singing "Blurry" by Puddle of Mudd, listing the steps required to produce a song: they start with the bass and vocal percussion, add in the tenors, include the altos and then bring in the voices of the mezzos and sopranos, all leading up to the soloist's introduction.

"I think we just love doing this and we love singing. ... You just feel the song. If you feel the song and really feel it, it helps," San Francisco resident Jacobs said.

In a highly selective process in which almost 100 students apply but only about five are selected each year, the students must showcase their best personal talent as well as cooperation and communication skills. However, once the students become incorporated with the group, they find it to be one of the best experiences of their lives.

"It's a chance to sing. None of us have music majors but we have a love of music," Salomaki, of Philadelphia, said.

For more information on the vocal performers, visit www.stanfordharmonics.com.