Juniors Michael Schwartz and Jason Seavey led off last Friday night’s Giants game with an act to remember. The two friends and longtime musical partners were invited to perform the coveted national anthem before the event and, representing a trumpet/saxophone duo, did so with an ardent fervor that made our patriotic ditty sound a suave jazz tune.
Schwartz and Seavey, as many Redwood students know, had done the act before, opening the winter rally with the same tune. That, in fact, is where the two were discovered, said Schwartz.
A contact for the Giants heard their recording of the rally in the following weeks and, through music teacher John Mattern, invited the boys to come play AT&T Park.
“When I first read the email, I was dumbstruck. I thought, ‘No way, us?’ I guess that’s kind of cliché to say, but still, any time you’re given a big opportunity completely out of the blue, you’re always going to be taken aback and unbelieving for at least a moment,” said Seavey.
Making the jump from a Redwood rally to a professional sporting event was no small feat. Both Schwartz and Seavey decided it would be in their best interest to listen to as many arrangements of the national anthem as possible in order to find one that worked best for them.
“Before, our arrangement was just pulled together with different harmonies over the melody, but this time we based our version off of a bunch of different versions, like the Whitney Houston version,” said Schwartz. “That was our major influence.”
Seavey added that the new arrangement was a lot more representative of his and Schwartz’s musical ideas and level of harmonic knowledge. That being said, Seavey said he attempted a more toned-down approach to his part of the song.
“My range on this one was a little bit more conservative in order to make sure that I was going to hit everything perfectly, which ended up being the right choice because I didn’t mess up on the field, which was kind of key. I’m not really interested in messing up in front of more than 40,000 people,” Seavey said.
Paradoxically, both boys found that playing in front of a very large crowd was not as nerve-wracking as they had originally thought. Schwartz stated that this phenomenon was likely due to the fact that it was a much less personal performance.
“We weren’t performing for several hundred of those who we are familiar with, those who are our friends, as opposed to perhaps 40,000 strangers who we may never see again. That’s not to say that this show isn’t for them, but it shows that we feel more like we can focus on our playing as opposed to focusing on the opinions of all of those who are listening to us,” Schwartz said.
The ultimate performance, according to both boys, was a complete and total success.
“I think it’s one of the best performances Jason and I have ever done,” Schwartz said, “And I believe it’ll probably be one of the greatest that we will ever do.”
