The auditorium echoed with applause as a small group of students walked onstage to where a semicircle of chairs awaited them.  Grins adorned the faces of the audience as they shouted encouragement, setting the friendly atmosphere for the evening.  After a brief introduction, the young artists filled the air with a variety of music for the enthusiastic listeners.

On March 31, the Songwriters Club held their spring showcase.  The group formed this school year, and this was their second performance ever as a club.  Sponsor Anne Mullins hopes this event gains the club more publicity to gain new members, but that wasn’t the only reason for the showcase.

“I wanted to do it to show off these kids’ talent,” Mullins said.  “They’ve evolved creatively and musically throughout the year so now would be a good time for them to show off what they’ve been working towards.”

Many of the members who performed at the showcase have performed previously without the club.  Over the years of singing at gigs, senior Audrey Edris adopted a new last name to go by onstage.

“My real last name is Lausterer, and it’s just very very long,” Edris said.  “It’s hard to spell and most people can’t say it.  Edris is my grandmother’s name, and my dad wanted my middle name to be Edris, so it makes a perfect stage name.”

At their weekly meetings, the club members can collaborate and give each other peer feedback.  Their music tastes vary from contemporary pop-folk to emo punk rock to rap to jazzy alternative, but that gives the club some of its appeal.

“I like that it brings a lot of different styles of music together instead of keeping us all in specific scenes,” senior Brandon Busse said.

Edris shared the same sentiment and enjoys how the club has offered her the opportunity to work with other students interested in music.

“We’ve never had a songwriters outlet in Bellevue West before, so it’s nice now that we can work together,” Edris said.

Upon completing the showcase, the five performers agreed that they were happy with how the show went.

“I thought the show went very well,” junior Jordan Powell said, with the sounds of the audience eagerly talking to other performers in background.  “We made it an overall great show and made it enjoyable for the people out in the audience to watch.”

The same feeling applied to themselves as individuals in many cases, including Busse’s.

“As an individual I think this was one of the better sets I’ve ever played,” Busse said.  “It was really really nice feeling everybody getting into what I was saying.”

Mullins also felt encouraged by the success of the showcase and is looking forward to future events.

“I’m very proud of the students,” Mullins said.  “This was unique because we did the writer’s round where they took turns, and we could do that because we had a smaller number of musicians.  As the club grows and we have more people who are able to perform, I think it’d be very cool to do it more of a traditional concert style where each group performs individually.”