On February 14 from 7-9 PM, Irvington’s Resonance club hosted their annual benefit concert, this time on Valentine’s Day. Irvington Resonance is a club that unites all aspects of performing arts at Irvington, including singing, dancing, playing instruments, and more with the common goal of giving back to the communityWith their annual benefit concerts, they donate all proceeds to a predetermined charity. All of this year’s proceeds from the Valentine’s Day Benefit Concert, from ticket sales to  profits made from selling concessions will be donated to the American Heart Association.

Preparations for the concert started back in November. Resonance Co-president Julia Fung (11) comments “We’ve been planning [the concert] since November, because we had to go through the audition process, ticket sales, and publicity. We also had to coordinate with Mr. Ballin and Mr. Rodda and found a stage crew to make sure that our stage was properly set up for performers.” 

The concert started with Emcees’ Vaibhav Jayakumar (11) and Yangyang Xia (12) singing and dancing on stage to “Careless Whisper” by George Michael. They both then went on to introduce the acts of the concert.

The show kicked off with a performance of various classical symphonies by William Bai (12), Annabelle Lin (10), Matthew Chan (10), and Laura Zhu (12), then transitioned into various other acts such as Avril Brown’s (12) stunning rendition of the song “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan. In between acts, the two Emcees’ would crack jokes and interact with the audience, while dressed up as Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps from “Zootopia.”

After intermission followed a catchy saxophone performance of “Sweet Dreams” and even more singing acts. This included Anika Mohan (12) singing “Somewhere Only We Know” and Brenna Cai (11) and Sammi Chou  (11) performing “La Vie En Rose.” With many more acts and performances, the concert ended with a large ensemble of instrumentalists  coming together to play a series of both playful and iconic cartoon tunes. 

Overall, audience members  found the concert both entertaining and enjoyable. “I loved the Emcee’s Vaibhav and Yangyang,” said Rishabh Sen (11). “I thought they were super funny and they really captured my attention. I also enjoyed the performances by all my fellow band friends. I thought the performances were really amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

The hard work of the Emcee definitely paid off. 

“There were lots of sleepless nights,” shares Jayakumar. “We’d often stay up until 12, and had lots of calls, rehearsals, and meetings at lunch together.”

“One thing that I really love is how much freedom we got to express ourselves. We took a lot of inspiration from previous MC’s that were also really funny, and we just wanted everyone to have a good time,” says Xia. 

Preparations were not without difficulties, as Xia also shares “Because I’m not an officer of Resonance, I didn’t have access to a lot of the things that they plan to do, including the songs that performers were going to perform. Performers would also switch up a song or a few people, and we would have to adjust to that as well.”

Despite this, it was evident that the performers’ and officers’ efforts came to fruition, as audiences left the Valhalla Theater thoroughly entertained, satisfied, and looking forward to Resonance’s next concert.