Photos by Ralph Freso Slideshow
The chill that hovered over Grand Canyon University's Quad Monday night could not ice the harmonic mood set by Hayden Conway and Kate McIntyre.
Any nerves stemming from their first time as Songwriters Showcase performance were not visible. That’s because Conway successfully proposed to McIntyre on Sunday.
“I would say I wasn’t nervous when he asked me, but I will say he asking me helped my nerves immensely (for Monday’s performance),” McIntyre said. “I haven’t had a chance to be nervous because I’m giddy and excited.”
The Songwriters Showcase, conducted near the end of the fall and spring semesters, features many students performing original songs. Those selected to perform are chosen from a large pool of candidates by faculty members and selected community experts.
The Showcase marks the first time their songs are performed in front of a live audience. This event can serve as a springboard to the Canyon Worship album. Ten student artists performed 12 songs Monday.
For McIntyre, the fact that she overcame the sudden dip in temperatures was a victory as a solo artist performing “Thank You Jesus,” based on God’s continual provision and faithfulness in his life. She wrote the song on the final day the submissions were due last month, and she also performed “Abba” with Conway playing base guitar.
“It was pretty scary,” said McIntyre, performing for the first time with a ring on her finger. “This was my first time playing guitar solo at an event like this. Nobody really knew I could play the guitar. It was hard. I couldn’t really feel my fingers because it was so cold. I think it went well. It was a good challenge for myself.”
McIntyre and Conway are junior Worship Arts majors, and Conway also was performing for the first time in front of a live audience.
Conway said he decided last Wednesday he was going to propose. But writing the lyrics to “The Throne” took only one day.
“I was listening to a bunch of music and told myself to write a worship song,” Conway said. “It was pretty fast writing, but it was great. Everything came together quickly.”
This was the first Songwriters Showcase for Moises Felipe as director of GCU’s Center for Worship Arts. Felipe, who performed in a Canyon Worship Live concert in 2019 as a worship arts instructor, described the event as a “beautiful night of community.”
“Songwriters are needed in 2024,” Felipe told performers, their family members and friends. “We need to sing songs about hope, about love, about joy, about the fruit of the spirit.
“And it’s significant. The fruit of the spirit talks about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, which all of them are an extension of the first one I presented to you, which is love.
“God is Love.”
The cool elements did not faze Jonathan Raingruber, a native of Modesto, California, who performed “Come and See” while on the keyboards and played bass guitar for Noah Bjorkman’s “Good is Good” and Zach Johnson’s “Awake.”
“One of the best parts of being in the Worship Arts program is getting to collaborate with so many of my friends,” said Raingruber, who has performed in previous Songwriters Showcase events. “And to see the projects that they care so much about come to life and to be a small part of it is so gratifying, so much fun.”
Raingruber appreciates the camaraderie among performers.
“You realize everyone is your friend,” Raingruber said. “Everyone wants you to succeed. And it’s more important to have fun than anything else.
"I always love to be surprised, and I am. Angelina (Olson) killed it. There are some awesome freshmen coming up in the program.”
Raingruber is scheduled to graduate this spring, which “is another reason why I want to be involved. I got only one (Showcase) left.”
The future, meanwhile, looks promising for Bjorkman after he opened the concert with “God is Good” and played the keyboards on Shailen Stewart’s “Just on the Sunrise.”
Bjorkman, a sophomore majoring in worship arts and music education, admitted to feeling nerves while opening the show but had fun. Like McIntyre, he wrote his song near the end of the deadline.
“I love setting up big band stuff and getting as many as my friends to sing together,” Bjorkman said.
Olson also performed solo. She sang “What a Love” while playing the keyboards and coping with the cold despite wearing a sweater.
“It went way better than I was hoping,” said Olson, who enrolled this fall as a junior Worship Arts major. “I was visibly shaking from the cold, but it felt like nerves.”
Olson said she has been writing songs for the last five years but didn’t start writing worship music until this year.
“There’s such a great community here – I love it,” Olson said.
Vanessa Torres and Noa Paape served as co-hosts, and Torres chipped in on vocals toward the end of the show.
“To be able to introduce my friends and people that I have personal connections with and introduce songs that I’ve seen being written, and the process of that is such a beautiful thing and such a full circle moment,” said Torres, a sophomore Worship Arts major.
Other performers and their songs were Melody Henry (“Sing to the Lord” and “Doing Something New”), Neveah Watkins (“Your Presence”) and Jaylin Draper (“Words Fall Short”).
GCU News Senior Writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
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