Homer’s 2024 spring Jubilee! Youth Performing Arts Show returned to the Mariner stage last Friday for a single show.

Homer students of all ages presented 25 performance pieces in two acts during the two-hour show.

The annual show is produced in conjunction with the Homer Council on the Arts gallery show and is an opportunity to showcase youth passionate in drama, music and performance. However, the performance part of the show has had a few years off due to COVID.

Directors Jim Anderson and Britny Bradshaw were grateful to bring it back to the Mariner Theatre this year, they said in the introduction to the program. They also noted, “that when our youth are exposed to art-based curriculum and learning, they strengthen critical interactive skills that make them more productive and inspired human beings.”

The show featured several solo piano pieces and piano duets. Madelynn Moore and Madelyn Jones opened the show with a self-composed vocal and instrumental duet, “She Who’s Gone Mad.”

There were several vocal soloists, including Lucy Triem, McKenzie Hansen, Dayus Geysbeek, Mark Milstead, Jasmine Baker and William Bradshaw. Some were accompanied by Anderson and while others performed with pre-recorded music.

Freya Bartlet performed Regina Spektor’s “Apres Moi” with both vocals and piano. Joel Moss performed a solo marimba piece, “Odessa,” that he will also perform the ASAA Solo and Ensemble state competition in Anchorage in May. A young marimba group performed Sithi Amen.

Ahnali Cook, Talli Dalke, Madison Jones, Aria Palma, Johannah Wickstrom, Christina Platter and Natalia Sherwood, a dance ensemble, presented a piece choreographed by Laura Ground. Palma also performed “Firebird,” composed by Breezy Berryman. Hadassah Kincaid performed a piece choreographed by Rhoslyn Anderson.

A young band, Sticks and Stones with Ames Kincaid, Honor Kincaid and Noah Shepherd, opened Act II.

The evening concluded with Silas Jones, “Mash Up,” a guitar piece with accompaning recordings created on the stage.

The annual event was originally started by Diane Borgman. Anderson welcomed her to the theater as an audience member on Friday evening.

The gallery display remains up through the month of April. The program for Jubilee! reminds students in grades six through 11 that they have until Saturday, no later than 5 p.m. to submit applications and all supporting materials to the Homer Council on the Arts for the Ron Senungetuk Youth Fine Art Scholarship. More information is available on the HCOA website, www.homerart.org.

Photo by Emilie Springer/Homer News Local dancers perform “Infinite,” choreographed by Laura Ground, at the Jubilee! performance at the Mariner Theatre in Homer, Alaska last Friday, April 19, 2024.