Emerson Alumni Star in YouTube Video of “Greatest Showman” Songs
Ari Conte ’15 had been working on Broadway on and off since graduating from Emerson College, where she’d been learning about musical production behind the scenes.
But the former Acting major and Acappellics Anonymous member was eager to take the stage again herself. So she rounded up a bunch of her fellow Emerson a cappella alumni to make a video for a medley of songs from The Greatest Showman, a new film musical about P.T. Barnum starring Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams being released December 20.
“I feel like in these post-graduate few years, it’s a lot of observing and not a lot of doing,” Conte said, “so I wanted to put my skills to work and actually create with other people.”
The video, released on YouTube Tuesday, December 19, features Conte, who produced and directed the piece, performing with alumni Britt Oswald ‘14, Danny Irwin ‘14, Andy Pham ‘17, and Xavier Garcia ‘15. Zach Anderson ’15 was production coordinator on the shoot. The medley was recorded at WERS with support from Liquid Fifth, an a cappella arranging production company. Oswald arranged the pieces for a cappella.
The singers are filmed on location in Boston and on the North Shore, shot singing amid dramatic vistas and vibrant urban scenes, “because The Greatest Showman is all about grandeur and the spectacle of life,” Conte said.
Pham, a graphic designer who recently graduated from Emerson, where he sang with Acappellics Anonymous, said the shoot took an entire weekend and included a lot of standing around in the cold, but was well worth it in the end.
“It’s like a great little mini-reunion, but more importantly, it was a great way to celebrate the music of the movie,” Pham said.
— Erin Clossey
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