Welcome to the POPS, Sydney! We are looking forward to seeing you perform at  Memorial Salute.  

Thank you so much!   

 
It took me a while. I was definitely a nervous, very shy kid. When I was younger, I would always sing in choir, and I really enjoyed that. In choir, I could still sing with being nervous about singing all by myself. I started taking private singing lessons in middle school and continued to do so through high school. When it came to college, singing was the only thing I could see myself pursuing, so I auditioned at many Universities and got into Otterbein University where I studied classical music. After graduating, I continued to sing some classical music, but I began to teach myself jazz and have been performing jazz, as well as other genres of music, ever since. 

 

My favorite thing about singing is the way it makes me feel. Singing challenges me personally while allowing me to express and emote on stage with other amazing musicians. It is such an incredible experience every time I perform.  

 

 

Indeed, I have! I met Byron in Columbus, my hometown. We first worked together about four years ago when we both worked with a local children’s dance studio on their recital, which included songs from the Harlem Renaissance era. During the pandemic, we worked a lot together remotely, creating music videos that gained a lot of traction. In the post-pandemic lockdown era, Byron and I have gotten the chance to travel and perform together quite often. We were just in Buffalo, New York performing at a beautiful concert hall and then we will be in Philadelphia doing this very concert together. 

 

 

In this show, we will be celebrating some great American composers, including Irving Berlin. We will be performing one of his songs called “Always,” and I am super excited to sing that song in particular. It has gorgeous lyrics and just sounds amazing when performed with an orchestra. a