When T’Byus Briggs, a 17-year-old originally from Brooklyn, first auditioned for Freedom High School’s F.A.M.E competition last year, he was voted as the runner-up. He thought to himself, “it’s just not my time to shine yet.”
This year, it’s time for the R&B-inspired teen.
Briggs won the fifth annual competition, hosted by Freedom High School and the Bethlehem Area School District’s Marketing Musikfest program, and now holds a spot on the Plaza Tropical stage at Musikfest at 4 p.m. Saturday. Ahead of his performance, he’s ready to take the lead and introduce his new music on one of the Lehigh Valley’s beloved platzes. (In this case, Plaza Tropical.)
“I’m learning a lot about myself, in a creative aspect and I’ve always just been creative,” Briggs said in an interview ahead of his performance. “I’m able to come up with some of my own dances, and look at choreography on YouTube and see about incorporating it into the songs I’m gonna perform. I’m also wanting to share the spotlight too, because I’m just so grateful.”
The competition and Marketing Musikfest course aim to prepare students for all aspects of the music industry. Students at Freedom and Liberty high schools receive the opportunity to book their own artists and bands, work with a budget to market and produce a curated set for the Bethlehem festival, which officially opened Friday.
Taught at Freedom by vocal director Jennifer Volpato and business teacher Robert Petrosky, the course explores marketing skills and financial obligations that talent bookers and music industry workers have in preparing for festivals like Musikfest. In the last several years, ArtsQuest opened the opportunity to book the F.A.M.E. winner for a Plaza Tropical stage appearance.
“These partnerships continue to grow and inspire new things, and the integration of the music department in the Marking Musikfest class has been a really nice birth coming out of that,” Volpato said.
Briggs, who grew up in Brooklyn and moved to the Lehigh Valley when he was 12, is no stranger to performing. He described his style as R&B, taking inspiration from Chris Brown and producers like Quincy Jones and Pharrell Williams. He used to perform Michael Jackson tributes at schools as a kid, and now might get the chance to bring that inspiration to Musikfest.
“I’ve been dancing, singing all my life so I try not to be nervous, but the nervous I feel is a good kind of nervous,” Briggs said. “It’s my first time, my debut. I’m gonna try to do my best. I really feel like the people are gonna like it.”
Volpato, who teaches vocal and guitar at Freedom, said that she watched Briggs experiment more with new things under her direction and also on his own. He performed at a coffee house show and learned piano, while he also took a music technology course at Freedom to learn composition and mixing.
Briggs will take the stage with his friend EC — real name Evan Correa — and then introduce new songs from his mixtape, “Mirror Sided.” Briggs named the mixtape after his evolution from a “naive self” to becoming “the young man” he is today. The two-sided mixtape will feature one R&B-inspired tracklist, with the other side being rap production. Following Briggs’ Musikfest performance, two bands that Marketing Musikfest booked will take the stage as well — Ballistic Berry, a pop rock duo from New Jersey, and classic rock and indie band Alter Ego from the Lehigh Valley.
Some students who entered the program or were under Volpato’s direction have then later worked in the arts industry or for ArtsQuest and Musikfest, including Alli Poczak, who is a music programming manager at the Bethlehem organization.
“[The students] kind of create this next generation of cultural music promoters here in the Lehigh Valley, which is a unique and exceptional program,” said Patrick Brogan, the chief programming officer at ArtsQuest. “It’s pretty fun to see the class be a microcosm for the whole festival.”
