Music students at Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) have recitals, concerts, and showcases to exhibit their talent throughout the year. These performances, however, are most often pieces chosen by staff for their students to perform. Additionally, these concerts are not a space for the numerous non-music-student musicians to perform, and the urge for such a space to exist is strong.

And so born was “BSA Unplugged.”

Jenna Bates and Assata Ebron, both dancers in the class of ’26, are the club leaders of BSA’s Listening Party (the LP). The club meets every few weeks in physics teacher Mr. Hendrick’s room to listen to albums while chatting over snacks, doing homework, or anything else a clubgoer desires.

It’s low-commitment, low-pressure, and all around chill.

Bates and Ebron’s goal with the club has been to foster a third place while exposing the students of BSA to a variety of music genres and messages in the process. BSA Unplugged is evidently an extension of the club and this goal.

In November of 2023, Ebron’s older sister and founder of the LP, Aminah Ebron (’24), held the first BSA Unplugged, a concert inspired by MTV Unplugged. Soloists and bands performed covers and original pieces in the library for a crowd of students. This past April, the new club leaders held the concert again; it was a pleasing welcome back to school from spring break.

The lineup included Micah Grimaldi, Pink Cars, Scarlett O’Comartun, and Boat Strokers.

Micah Grimaldi is a sophomore stage designer who played guitar and sang during his set. The set was entirely covers, but the songs were chosen and ordered with a specific intentionality.

Each song began with the same chord that the previous one ended on. Grimaldi also wanted to lead the audience on a journey with the tones of each song. He began with the grunge of “Do I Wanna Know” by Arctic Monkeys and ended with the melancholy hope of “Aphasia” by Pinegrove.

Grimaldi does not have extensive music training. He sang in a middle school choir and has four years of guitar experience. Last year, he performed a cover of Wasia Project’s “ur so pretty” alongside sophomore dancer Esmae Stillman in the showcase for BSA’s Queer Student Union, the Purple Chair.

Having been inspired by the previous year’s Unplugged, Grimaldi talked to Bates and Ebron about performing months before they even released audition applications. He compiled a list of songs to potentially play if given the opportunity. After starting to take testosterone, however, he had to cut half of them off.

“I was a little stressed because my voice has changed from testosterone, so when I got stressed from the performance, I couldn’t reach the high notes,” Grimaldi said. “I had terrible stage fright into the beginning of my freshman year. But I felt like [BSA Unplugged] was such a supportive environment and BSA is a very supportive community.” Grimaldi has been making original music in his spare time and hopes to eventually form a band with friends in the future.

Pink Cars is a duo featuring filmmaker Sylvie Hickman and actor Kayla Downs, both sophomores. Hickman is the lead vocalist, and Downs is the guitarist and back-up vocalist. The two collaborate on songwriting.

The pair met in Spanish class their freshman year and quickly became close friends. Similar to Grimaldi, Pink Cars debuted at the Purple Chair showcase, where they performed their original song “Post Election,” an expression of their frustrations toward the government and its handling of LGBTQ+ affairs.

At Unplugged, they performed five original songs, including “Post Election.” When reflecting on which performance they preferred, Hickman said “Unplugged, since we played more songs, felt more like Pink Cars.” Downs recounted moments following the end of their performance: “I thought it was really cool how all those random seniors and juniors came up to us and were like, ‘Oh my god, you’re so good.’ I felt so happy.”

The duo hope to produce more music videos in the future (in addition to the videos for “An Angel, I Imagined You” and “Pepto Bismol”), as well as record music to upload on Spotify. Downs teased a new song titled “Pretty in Blue” and the pair half-jokes about releasing merch when their Instagram account @_pinkcars reaches 1000 followers.

Scarlett O’Comartun is a junior in the vocal music department at BSA. In addition to singing, she also plays guitar, keyboard, and writes music, all of which were skills showcased during Unplugged.

O’Comartun performed several original songs at Unplugged. The performance reflected her down-to-earth silliness and friendliness, perhaps different from what can be seen from O’Comartun at official Music Department performances, like Opera Scenes or as a soloist in Expressions.

O’Comartun has declared her desire to perform her original music live, even mentioning Unplugged by name.

This isn’t the first time O’Comartun’s original music has been heard, however. The Film Department’s docuseries Madison and Cathedral features a song composed and partially performed by O’Comartun, “What’s It All For?” in the finale of episode six.

The final performance was from Boat Strokers, a band of four seniors at BSA. Elliot Bullock was the lead vocalist, with Daniel Fairlie playing bass guitar, Sam Wylie on drums, and Fadzi Lai Tran Johnson on the keyboard. All of the former are music students, while Tran Johnson is in the Film Department.

Boat Strokers performed several original songs and one cover: “Jonny” by Faye Webster. It complemented the rest of their set well and was just as much of a tearjerker as Bullock’s songs about college anxiety were.

The instrumentalists in Boat Strokers also have biweekly performances at the Hotel Ulysses Ash Bar, and have been seen playing at BSA events throughout the school year, including the Film Department’s ‘family’ potluck.

This past May, the group performed two new original songs during the Asian Student Union’s AAPI Heritage Month showcase, with surprise guest appearances from saxophonist Quinn Rehkemper (’24) and vocalist Channing LauEngler (’24). After that, we can only hope to hear more from Boat Strokers.

In addition to fostering a place for musicians at BSA to express themselves freely, Bates and Ebron also find it deeply important to create a space for people to appreciate live music.

“We live in such an era where so much of the music we listen to and the music that’s created is digital … I think it’s super cool that we get to showcase and highlight people who are playing real, physical instruments and writing their own music,” Ebron reflects.

The pair plan to continue leading the club and BSA Unplugged in the next school year. They hope Unplugged may become a tradition in the years to come, honoring live music and preserving a much-appreciated space for musical artists to express themselves.

Editor’s Note: Scarlett O’Comartun, who was interviewed in this article, is an editor of The Muse.

To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Featured photos by Kayla Buckley for The Muse.