Carnaby Club was performed on April 29 and 30. Carnaby Club included performances from the PHS music department. Originally, Carnaby Club was started in the 1980’s as a benefit to raise money for a student who was suffering from a medical issue. The tradition has continued on under multiple names and different formats. This year, students put together solos, small group acts, and large ensemble musical numbers. 

“Gaston,” a vocal ensemble, was performed Friday night, by Tatum Carlstone, Aleigha Ausman, Eli Ebeling, Eli Burrows and Grant Anderson. The song they performed had a creative origin. 

“I would say it [the song] wasn’t really a group decision,” said Ebeling. “The song was already arranged by Eli Burrows and we all just kind of played along with him.” 

Burrows also wrote two pieces the jazz ensembles performed at Carnaby. 

A string orchestra ensemble performed music from Broadway’s musical, Hamilton. The group consisted of 13 string players. Planning a performance for this large of a group wasn’t easy. 

Laidlaw explained the process, “Getting practice time together was quite a challenge, mainly because most of the group had iLearns and before or after school conflicts that prevented them from being able to practice outside of school. We had to put in a lot of hard practice at home, so that when we finally were able to rehearse together, we were well prepared and could make lots of progress as a group.” 

Jacob Rietveld performed his vocal solo during the Saturday show. His solo was titled, “Broken Vow.” Rietveld chose his song in a unique way. 

“Well it was a funny story. I looked it up on Youtube and searched up ‘Carnaby Club.’ Someone sang this song eight years ago, and it kind of hit me hard. This song was very emotional, and if I performed this at my max, it would be strong. This song can impact so many people in different ways.”

The Jazz 1 Trumpets performed the song, Bohemian Rhapsody. The trumpets include Dora Roorda, Tyler Mifflin, Emily Blom, Eliza Van Zee and Skye Rhoten.