The sounds of instruments and singing voices were heard throughout the courtyard for the first Song Share of the school year Friday, Nov. 8. Song Share is a musical event that offers a space for students across all grade levels to perform original and cover songs. Senior Gemma Wyles founded Song Share in October 2023, and she reflected on her motivations behind its inception.
“I felt that we lacked a consistent performance space and that we needed something more consistent,” Wyles said. “There are a lot of people who are songwriters and musicians who aren’t a part of choir or orchestra, so it’s really cool to know that there are people out there doing their own thing and deciding to bring that in Song Share.”
Sophomores Olivia Broock and Snow Zhou performed the song “Wildflower” by Billie Eilish. Broock said she loves the purpose of Song Share because it allows for the music community to come together.
“Song Share is a way for everybody to express themselves, which is really nice,” Broock said.”Whether it be through an original song, a song that you took time out of class to work on with a friend or by yourself.”
To prepare for Song Share, Broock said she practiced in the choir room during lunch and her free periods. She said this was beneficial in ensuring she felt confident in her performance before the show.
“We usually go to the choir room, take a guitar and start brainstorming ideas of what to sing. During a free period, [Snow and I] went there. We both really like Billie Eilish, so we decided to start working on one of her songs. Then, we automatically started harmonizing with each other,” Broock said. “It’s pretty easy to go from there, and then we just communicate about how to split up the verses and choruses for the performance.”
Zhou said Song Share helped her grow as an artist by allowing her to perform on stage and develop her identity as a singer.
“I write my own music and have been singing since I was 8,” Zhou said. “Song Share has given me a lot of experience on stage, which I don’t get regularly.”
Junior Emerson Cohen said Song Share is a safe and uplifting space to perform her original songs. According to Wyles, many students use this event as a space to showcase their original pieces.
“I’m singing an original song that I wrote a while ago. It [was] really cool to play it at Archer,” Cohen said. “Song Share is a really cool space to try out new songs because it’s a comfortable environment with a lot of grades performing. I also love being able to test out new songs I’ve written at Song Share, too. It’s a really awesome space to get more people out and performing.”
Wyles said she hopes Song Share will continue and keep engaging new members in the future.
“It’s great to see familiar faces performing,” Wyles said. “I definitely want the rest of the community to take the risk and get more involved. I feel like those are the voices that really should be heard.”
