Most high schoolers listen to music, and most who listens to music knows who Ed Sheeran is. The lovable ginger goofball is one of the most talented vocalists and musicians that our era has seen. With his release of his new hit, “Shape of You,” his popularity will only begin to grow.
 
Ed Sheeran’s life was not all that easy. Born in England, Sheeran showed interest in music at an early age. He stated that his early memories of music included Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. Recently in an interview with Time Magazine, he talked about something that was a major roadblock as a child: his stutter. He states that the stutter was the result of not receiving anesthetic during a surgery to remove a birthmark. The stutter became a huge issue to his self-confidence at his young age. He states that the stutter made it so he was never able to express properly what he had to say.
 
But now as an adult, Sheeran embraces his stutter and speaks out about it freely. He stated that “Stuttering is not a thing that kids should be worried about. You shouldn't necessarily shed light on it and make it a trend, but stress to each other to just be yourself.”  This is great advice to all of us who should embrace and accept ourselves, flaws and all.  With all this said, Ed Sheeran still has his confidence and can-do attitude with him everywhere he goes.  Join him this summer as he does his 2017 tour in the US.

Henry Davis

In honor of our veterans, East High’s Music Department hosted the 2nd Annual Veteran’s Day Concert in the auditorium on Thursday, November 10th, 2016. During second period many staff members and students, as well as veterans, joined to not only enjoy but to honor those who are serving and who have served for our country.

Students from The Lighthouse Committee recited poems that were written for our troops as they were overseas. Our upper and lower school choirs combined singing “Bless Our Troops,” earning a standing ovation from the crowd. East’s band also performed, playing the songs for each service branch and asked the veterans that served in the branch to stand when they heard the song of where they served.
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East would like to thank everyone who served in our country and sacrificed their lives for us to be here today.

Alicia Willie

Many of us know already that beloved music teacher Mr. Wilson is no longer working here at East. Although it is a devastating thing for many scholars at East, we were lucky enough to get an amazing new choir director, Mrs. Zajkowski.
Mrs. Zajkowski has some big plans and goals for our new choir this year.  “I would like kids to participate in the citywide choral festival in May, also have 4 or 5 scholars in choir perform with the RPO in the Holiday Pops concerts,” she stated.  She also gave some smaller goals for choir such as getting comfortable with using sheet music and building a cohesive blend within the choir.
Zajkowski is settling into her new surroundings here at East. “For the first month I’ve been trying to build relationships with students and other staff, and though it has been tiring it has still been very good,” she said.
Some students want to be involved in choir this year, but have no room in their schedule, so Mrs. Zajkowski mentioned a holiday caroling opportunity for students who wanted to sing with the choir. Also, she stated that another way to be involved in the choir is helping advertise concerts and making flyers for events that students could come and show support for their fellow peers in the choir. She mentioned that students could also help with lights and sound for concerts as another opportunity. Another thing that students could get involved in choir is by joining the RCSD Show Choir, which rehearses every Saturday from 1pm-3pm with Mr. Wilson. 

​Alicia Willie