The music scene here at Rowan University goes underappreciated by those who don’t even know of its significance. Maddie Reddy, vocal music education student and Vocalist of local music group Luna understands its impact.
Reddy is a freshman who graduated from Cherry Hill East last year. She participated in choir and theater throughout middle school and high school, and she also participated in a cappella group that competed in the International High School a cappella competition before graduating and coming to Rowan this school year. Her main inspiration is Hayley Williams from Paramore.
“I was always interested in music, always singing from a young age, I have videos,” Reddy said. “It’s funny, one of the songs we did at a recent gig, I have a video of me singing it when I was little so I’ve always been singing and performing in my living room for whoever would watch.”
“In elementary school, I guess, is where it started. In the music industry program, they were like, ‘Who wants to audition for All-Cherry Hill choir in fifth grade.’ And I was like, ‘oh, I’ll do it’ on a whim and I got in.”
The music programs here at Rowan primarily offer jazz and classical courses, which was a driving factor in starting Luna.
“A Lot of why I wanted to do the band is because it’s an opportunity for me to sing outside of the classical stuff that I’m working on because my forte has never been classical. I’ve never been an opera singer, I have a musical theater background, contemporary musical theater singing, pop singing with my a cappella group so this is a great outlet for me to do stuff outside of that.”
When Reddy first came to Rowan, she wasn’t as familiar with the music scene as her girlfriend Liz Rohr, who is the guitarist of Luna, as she had been to a show before and was more familiar with the alternative music scene specifically.
“It started with solo stuff for me which I’m still interested in but the idea of having a band because that meshes a lot more with the alternative music scene, it’s a lot of bands, a lot of people coming together doing covers or making original music,”.
Something Reddy mentioned was the fact that a lot of people don’t enjoy listening to original music as much as they do covers of their favorite artists. However, she realized that a lot of the people at Luna’s shows and the music scene here at Rowan in general were enjoying their originals.
“It’s great that people want to go to a basement show and watch these small bands and listen to their original music that they’ve never heard before, and get excited and want to add to their playlists,” she said. “We haven’t released anything on Spotify or Apple Music yet, but we’re in the works of putting it together,”.
“I love the program, to be honest, because I get to work with someone on-one for voice lessons and I have a fantastic professor I’ve learned more from her than in years of trying to teach myself how to sing and she’s so supportive.”
She also spoke of how grateful she is for the sense of unity in her program, and the music scene here altogether.
“It’s not a stressful environment, the main thing is that it’s not a competitive environment either. Everybody wants to support everybody, and everybody gets an opportunity.”
The environment of music, inside and outside the classroom, caters to anyone interested in a caring and friendly way, that helps anybody’s voice get heard. It’s one of the many advantages of being a part of the great programs here at Rowan University, where Reddy and her friends are able to prepare for bright futures.
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