He was back and this time he had a partner.  Harry Yao, in an unusual repeat, was awarded the top prize along with his partner Nam Joo Kim for their self composed piano duet.

The annual Cotter talent show that is run in conjunction with International Week was held at an assembly on March 23.   There were eight acts and the event was organized by Student Council and emceed by David French.

“It was exciting, I was not expecting to win, because the piece was not as showy or classical as the one I performed last year,” Yao said.

Yao organized the Cotter Composition Club, which meets on Friday nights in the dorm,  for people who want to learn about, and experiment with, composing music.  It’s a small group but they have fun with it and, as the talent show displayed, are coming up with some good stuff.

Here are the results:

1st Place: “The Letter From A Seagull” composed by Cotter Composition club and performed by Nam Joo Kim and Harry Yao.  An interesting take on communication between international student and parent which artfully worked a phone conversation into a piano duet.

2nd Place: “Falling Flower” dance performed by junior Cindy Li.

3rd Place: “Counting Stars” dance choreographed and performed by junior Jennifer Lai and senior Zoey Aune

Other acts included

“Shrek Medley” a pop medley performed as a jazz quintet arranged and played by “She said Yes,” composed of Noah French, Quintus Wang, Gabe Tullis, Sam Wantock and Claire Nichols.

“Flight of the Bumblebees” flute duet played by Tiffany Wang and Connor Hagarty.

“Faded and Alone” performed by Pau Valderamma and Cade Hansen, who made a nice comeback after a tech glitch solved by guru Greg Treharne.

“Say Something” performed by Mikalea Mohr, who sang and played piano for the piece.

“Flashlight” sung by Angela Gu and Emily Liang, sung to recorded music and accompanied by a spontaneous (?)  cell phone light show from the balcony.

David French  who introduced the acts and has played host to a number of these shows was impressed.

“I thought there were a lot of interesting acts.  The originality of the acts was good, especially the composition club,” French said.

“Atmosphere was good but maybe could have been a little better, like they could have laughed at my jokes a little more.  Those were good jokes.”

“This may be last assembly as emcee,  I don’t have anyone in mind to takeover next year. so it is up for grabs.”