The Marblehead Rotary Club hosted its final round of Marblehead’s Got Talent, a contest for Marblehead youth, on March 27. The Cabot Theater in Beverly was packed with the performers’ friends and families, as well as the panel of judges. MGT Executive Director David Deutsch emceed the evening, introducing each of the 10 finalists before their acts and announcing the judges’ decisions.
First place went to Jacob Piascik for his vocal and keyboard performance of Carol King’s “You’ve Got a Friend, for which he was awarded $6,000. MHS junior Lani Gilmore’s vocal rendition of Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This” and junior Brady Weed’s performance of “Finishing the Hat” earned them the second and third place prizes of $4,000 and $2,500 respectively.
“I felt ecstatic,” Piascik told the Current, describing his reaction to hearing his name announced as the winner. “I’d been prepping for this for a really long time, and it felt so nice to just get up there and put my all into a performance.”
Piascik is a home-schooled senior and a participant in the music and theater programs at Marblehead High. He cites playing songs with his father and brother and attending open mic nights as some of his inspirations.
More recently, Piascik has gotten into composing and developing his own personal sound. His cover of “You’ve Got a Friend” was influenced by one of his favorite artists, Donny Hathaway, whose style he has drawn from in all three of his performances for MGT.
When Piascik took the stage, he began his piece with an unexpected couple of notes that took the audience by surprise.
“I was playing ‘Clare de Lune’ one day,” he later explained. “I heard that intro, and I was like ‘Oh my god this is in the same key — how wild would it be if I used ‘Clare de Lune’ as the intro.’”
The combination of classical and classic rock won Piascik points for creativity, and clearly struck a chord with the judges. Piascik said that he always likes to leave himself room to play around, and many of the riffs and chord changes in his piece were improvised.
When Piascik had taken his bows, the show was over. He had been the last to play of the 10 performers, but the wait was worth it.
At the end of the night, the judges said it was difficult choosing between the 10 outstanding acts.
“I really want to applaud everyone,” said Piascik. “Probably my favorite part of the entire night was being amongst all of these incredible artists.”
Each performer brought a different talent to the show: Emmet Charney’s rocky electric guitar, August Belf and Brooklyn Lorenz’s ukulele, and incredible vocals from Sadie Newburg, Eldar Yahorau, Lucy Key and Anthony Vizy. All 10 have been invited to perform at The Beacon Restaurant.
After Piascik’s first and last time participating in MGT, he called the event “an incredible experience” and wished all future performers the best of luck.
Benji Boyd
