Arts

Abbot Cabaret Presents A Capella, Beatboxing, and Pop Medleys

“Hi, I’m Niya,” Gavin Boyle ’21 jokingly introduced himself, garnering laughs from the audience. After Niya Harris ’21 pretended to admonish Boyle, he quickly apologized and corrected himself.

Boyle and Harris were this year’s co-hosts of Abbot Cabaret, Andover’s talent show, held Saturday evening in Kemper Auditorium. Organized by Abbot Cluster’s co-presidents, Abdu Donka ’18 and Bailey Colón ’18, the annual event featured 12 acts ranging from classical piano performances to a cappella and tap dancing.

Eliot Min ’19, a beatboxer who performed solo as well as with the a cappella groups Keynotes and Yorkies, said, “I think the great thing about being at Andover is that there are a lot of people here with many different talents and being able to showcase that and show everyone what all of us can do is something really cool.”

Audience member Jon Krikorian ’21 said,“I liked Eliot’s performance because you never hear anything like that, and not a lot of people get the chance to ever hear anything like that. It was just cool how he could make things sound like it was not a human [making those sounds].”

Jonathan Lin ’19 sang and performed a medley of pop songs on the keyboard including “Hello” by Adele, “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, and the Mii Channel theme song.

Lin said, “I enjoy playing the piano and singing. It was mostly just a hobby until I was like ‘Oh, why not just perform in Abbot Cabaret?’… This was special because I like playing pop song covers and I decided to put them together into a medley.”
The show also featured Azure, Andover’s all-female a capella group, who performed a mashup of songs by Khalid, a popular singer. According to Martina Gil ’21, a member of Azure, preparation for Abbot Cabaret had a different atmosphere from other shows due to the smaller venue and stronger relationships within the group.

Gil said, “The practice process for this show was different from what we had done for Grasshopper because first, the artist that we did, [Khalid], was very different…[and also] because it was deeper into the school year so I knew the people that I was working with better. I thought we were more of a group now than [we were] towards the beginning of the year, which helps a lot in a performance.”

Andover’s coed a capella group, Keynotes, also performed at the show, singing “Attention” by Charlie Puth. Lucy Grossbard ’19 performed her first solo at the event.

“I was a little nervous, but I ended up having a lot of fun. I really liked [our] second performance because it was more of a student audience, rather than parents, so people were a little more excited in general,” wrote Grossbard in a message to The Phillipian.

According to Hanna Wu ’20, who played Frédéric Chopin’s Étude Op. 25, No. 2 on the piano, the show also gave performers a low-pressure opportunity to display different aspects of their identity.

Wu said, “This performance was special for me because music has been a part of my life for so long, and this was really the first time that I could showcase my passion to other students.”