On Tuesday, Trinity’s music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon and the Student Programming Board hosted the annual Trinity Idol singing competition.
Junior Sarah Mueller won the competition with an original ukelele song titled “Write the Right Thing.”
“It was fun and everyone was so good,” Mueller said.
The other contestants consisted of first year Katie Farrell, first year Mariana Lopez, senior Daniel Greenfeld, junior Ethan Valdes, junior Mason Walker, junior Sarah Mueller, sophomore Stephen Sedia, first year Maria Duno, first year Cam Piper and senior Rex Simmons who performed musical arrangements ranging from Broadway classics like “Music of the Night” to original songs.
These ten singers were chosen by members of Mu Phi Epsilon through a round of auditions.
“I can’t stress enough that every contestant was amazing and fabulous, even the freshman without much vocal exploration. Everyone had really great talent,” said senior Jordan Sheffield, the Trinity Idol chair.
The actual competition itself was judged by Andrew Kania, associate professor of philosophy, Sarah Martin from the theater department and James Worman, associate professor of music. The judges were voted on by Mu Phi Epsilon members.
After every song, the judges were asked to make comments on the performance and provide constructive criticism for the contestant. Once the contestants had all performed, the judges worked together to select the top three singers who were asked to come back on stage. The top three contestants were Mueller, Mariana Lopez who belted out “Love on Top” by Beyonce and Rex Simmons who put together a production of “Dark End of the Street,” originally recorded by James Carr.
“I really did enjoy the opportunity to be a judge and support both the performers and the music fraternity,” Worman said. “It was also a bit nerve-wracking, as we judges want to be supportive and encouraging to the performers, while also fulfilling our obligations to critique and rank the performances.”
The audience then had their own chance to vote, and Mueller was chosen as the winner.
“It was fantastic. Everyone has worked together to accomplish the entire event and I could not be any happier with it. The contestants were wonderful, the judges were very knowledgeable, and the MCs had it together,” Sheffield said.
Trinity Idol is not only a singing competition but a service event for Mu Phi Epsilon. T-shirts were handed out at the door of the auditorium for anyone who donated five dollars in cash or Tigerbucks or five canned goods. These donations were collected for charity.
“We are extremely appreciative of our fellow students and very proud to have raised a good amount of money and to have collected a substantial number of canned goods to be donated to the local San Antonio-area food bank,” said sophomore Freddie Earl, a Mu Phi Epsilon member. “They will be glad to receive this.”
