Students and faculty packed the lounge Monday after school to watch 22 singers, actors, pianists and guitar players for the first of three Coffee Houses this year.
To kick off the performances, coffee and snacks were served in the lounge, which was also decorated to look like a coffee house.
“It was wonderful,” Adam Hirschhorn ’16 said. “This is the first time I’ve ever been to a Coffee House and it was great. I wish I’d gone to this at the Middle School.”
Prefect Greg Lehrhoff ’14 hosted the show while prefects Rachel Persky ’15 and Shelby Weiss ’16 helped ensure the show ran smoothly.
“I felt like the quality of acts was spectacular,” Lehrhoff said. “I was actually amazed at our sound system and the performances.”
Performances ranged from classic singing and playing the piano, like Jona Yadidi ’16 who sang and played “Say Aah” by Trey Songz and Daniel Davila ’14 who sang and played the guitar. Jensen McRae ’15 and Oliver Goodman-Waters ’14 sung a duet.
“I don’t know how I ever get the courage to sing,” Sanah Ebrahim ’14, who performed “After Ever After,” a Disney Princess parody with Hannah Dains ’16, said. “I’m terrified of performing in public because my confidence is very dependent on people’s reactions. If I don’t see people showing their enjoyment, I feel like my performance is some kind of a burden and it’s really hard for me to perform well. But when I see the smiles on faces of the people in my audience, that’s what makes singing worth it for me.”
Other, less traditional performances included Donhem Brown ’14 performing a skit where he played all five actors, and Teddy Leinbach ’15 reading “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg.
“I think it went excellent,” Leinbach said. “I was hoping to finish Part 1, which I didn’t before I got cut off. But you know what? I had fun.”
In addition to students, faculty also watched the Coffee House. The crowd was overflowing into the hallway.
“I think this is a wonderful opportunity for all students to display each and all of their unique creativity,” history teacher Dror Yaron, whose son, Adam Yaron ’16, also performed, said. “If you want community building, this is genuine community building. I am in awe of how respectful everyone is to the performers and how talented the performers are. They should perform more often.”
