On February 18th and 19th, the Irvington Resonance! Club hosted their annual Winter Benefit Concert in Valhalla Theatre, from 7:30-9:30 pm. Students performed different acts ranging from vocal performances to different group ensembles, including performances from on-campus clubs like IHS Dynamics. The annual Winter Benefit Concert, called Harmonies for Hunger this year, is a tradition where Resonance! donates all profits to a nonprofit. Tickets were $10 each, and the club goal was to raise $2,500, the equivalent of 25,000 meals for Feeding America, this year’s selected charity. The club was, however, able to surpass their goal, raising $3000 instead. 

The Resonance Benefit concert was postponed from mid-January to February this year after some club officers contracted COVID. There were also challenges faced by the club, who had to teach the lighting and sound tech teams the day before the concert. 

While COVID didn’t stop the club from having a hugely successful concert, it did have to be accounted for, and the club was able to prevent it from being a problem by enforcing a mask mandate for performers and audience members, and having a health check form for concert goers. In addition, Resonance! did not sell food during intermissions as they had in the past.

Despite such challenges, the benefit concert was still a huge success.

“This year we broke a personal record for our club. We raised $3000 for Feeding America compared to $2000 in 2019 [for California wildfire relief]”, said Nicole Huynh (12), one of the Resonance! Club vice presidents. 

Besides reaching a record for money raised from the Winter Benefit Concert, there were also some differences in publicizing the concert in comparison to previous years. 

“We found that [fewer] students knew about our…concert because of the one and a half years of online school, so we tried to get…upperclassmen to tell their underclassmen friends about it,” said Huynh. With such publicity, the concert ultimately had 90 performers and 200 audience members

The concert was well-received by the audience and performance members as well. 

“We got through all the dress rehearsals, and the concert went very smoothly thanks to all the officers and MCs.” said Kenny Luu (11), who performed “Come Sunday” in a saxophone octet and “Studio Summer” in a saxophone sextet on both days of the concert. 

Many of the performers stayed throughout the concert in order to watch the other acts, whether they were in the audience or backstage. 

“It was really interesting learning about all the other people in my school, and what they can do and how they perform. It was…like interesting a different part of myself to the school…I enjoyed learning about what everybody in this school can do because you usually don’t get a chance to see all that when you just walk across them in the hallway” said club officer and performer Avril Brown (10). (Brown’s performance was a vocal medley alongside performers Ananya Bamidipati (10) and Ashley Block (10).)

Besides the huge contribution the concert made to the community, the event was a fun experience for both those who attended and performed.