York Amateur Musicians Perform First Gig of 2021 at Brewpoint Craft

Student musicians at York had their first opportunity to play live music through Amateur Musician’s club on Friday, September 10 at Brewpoint Craft in Elmhurst. This was the Amateur Musician club’s first opportunity to play live music since the winter of 2019-2020.

When the COVID -19 pandemic shut down almost everything in March 2020, one of the major losses was not being able to go to live shows. 

York Amateur Musicians were heavily affected by the inability  to perform in the short time that they are actually able to perform. The students were very happy to experience the feeling that the musicians felt when they were back on the stage.

“We started out so nervous, but we haven’t performed live in such a long time that we were just smiling the whole time,” junior Quinn Olson said. “So many people came out to see us and it just made us so happy.”

Quinn and Alyssa weren’t the only ones who enjoyed playing at the gig.

“[It’s] a completely different feeling performing live,” sophomore Luke Wallace said. “It felt like we were on top of the world.”

The musicians weren’t the only ones who had a great time. Chris Gemkow, the sponsor and founder of Amateur Musicians Club, enjoys providing the students with an outlet to express themselves and share their music.

“It’s not for me,” Gemkow said. “I just love creating an event that gives students the chance to share their music, and get people to come out and see what’s going on.”

York students, friends and family all came out to support the students and listen to the live music. The venue was packed with people sitting on the floor and even standing outside to experience the performance.

“It was amazing to see and hear them perform,” Gemkow said. “But it’s also really awesome that the community supported it and that people came out to the show, because people need something like that.”

York students also attended the gig to support the musicians and to just enjoy live music.

“It’s great to see all of our classmates performing, and it’s just a fun time,” sophomore Fernando Valdes Nicholson said.

Last Friday’s show was the Amateur Musician Club’s way to start out the school year right.

“I wanted to get a live show early on so that we could get the year going in the right direction,” said Gemkow. “I wanted to showcase everyone in the club, the producers, the songwriters, everyone and to let the school know that we’re back.”

Performances by: 

The Kitchen, Including Ben Mehta, Luke Wallace, Julian Dominguez, Nick Lopez, Danny Sanders, WIll Stezowski, Olive Pena, and Andy Prather, performed Watermelon Man and Cantaloupe Island by Herbie Hancock, Blue Bossa by Dexter Gordon, and Take 5 by Dave Brubek. 

Elle Jacobsthal, performed Pandemonium, Symptomatic, Life’s a Beach

Owen Widuch performed his song Dysphoria.

Leo Macriola, performed his song Time Heals.

Nikita Sidoryk, performed unnamed songs.

Quinn Olson and Alyssa Poli, performed Headlights (written by Alyssa), Nothing (song is actually called nothing), Feel Something (written by Alyssa), September (was on York Album Project), 5th song is unnamed

Mikey Spurr and The Players At Large, with members Michael Spurr, Coleman Goulding, Nathan Lee, Danny Sanders, and Aidan Costanzo, performed Get Ready, El Pepino, Floating, Paul Revere, and Flow Down the RIver.