Senior Trudy Perkins auditioned for “The Voice” at SIR Studios in Los Angeles Tuesday, Feb. 5.
According to her father, Barry Perkins, she began displaying musical talent at a young age.
“My mother and her whole side of the family are all singers, so I always knew she had something,” Perkins said. “Trudy and her cousins used to do skits and put on little shows with singing and dancing.”
To develop her abilities, Trudy Perkins joined School of Rock, an afterschool program that gives private lessons and offers students the opportunity to perform at many different events, four years ago.
Although she initially signed up for guitar, she soon switched to singing after filling in for an absent vocalist.
“One day they didn’t have a vocalist, so I told them that Trudy knew the words to the song and they asked her to sing,” Barry Perkins said. “The music director came downstairs afterwards and was just like ‘wow.’ Trudy decided that she wanted to do voice and it just kept growing and sprouting from there.”
Trudy Perkins’s dedication to her music has been noted by other members of School of Rock.
“She definitely works very hard,” Aidan Brody said. “She always comes into rehearsal and knows all of her songs and the lyrics. She’s always working and she’s constantly getting better.”
According to Zoe Sarris, Perkins not only pushes herself to improve, but she also encourages others.
“I remember being really self-conscious about hitting a high note in a song that I was singing at my second concert with School of Rock,” Sarris said. “Trudy encouraged me to be less afraid about my singing. She’s always been that friend who has pushed me to get better.”
It appears that Perkins’s hard work is paying off. She is now a member of School of Rock’s House Band, its regular performance group, and she has sung at a variety of venues.
“We’ve performed at the 9:30 Club, opened for Switchfoot, and travelled to Connecticut to perform at a festival,” Perkins said.
Perkins believes that these experiences have helped her to grow as an artist.
“You get to see what this industry is like in the real world,” Perkins said. “You’re put out there and you perform so often that you get used to it. You also learn to deal with things like last minute set changes and people not showing up.”
Involvement in the program has also benefited Perkins because it has enabled her to create connections with people in the music industry. In fact, she received the opportunity to audition for ‘The Voice’ through her relationship with the former director of School of Rock.
“The old director of the School of Rock moved to LA to pursue a songwriting career and became friends with the talent scout for ‘The Voice,’” Perkins said. “He had the opportunity to offer a special industry insiders audition to a few musicians from School of Rock, and he selected me.”
Perkins’s fellow musicians believe that the selection is a reflection of her talent and potential.
“I think that she’s one of the examples of School of Rock students who are destined to do a lot great things,” Gillian Lee said. “The fact that she has this opportunity at such a young age is proof of that. I’m really proud of her.”
Lee, along with other members of the School of Rock, helped Perkins find a way to finance her trip to Los Angeles.
“I organized a fundraiser because I wanted to raise money and show people how much my music means to me,” Perkins said.
Perkins and her friends from School of Rock decided to hold a benefit concert at Kalypso’s restaurant in Lake Anne Plaza Jan. 26.
“The one thing that we are all really good at is making music, so we figured that we’d combine our talents to help Trudy go to Los Angeles,” Richard Smith said.
According to Sarris, they were more than willing to donate their time and talents to help Perkins.
“We all just care about Trudy so much and as musicians we know how important it is to support each other,” Sarris said. “I’m happy to do it because I know she deserves it.”
The concert raised over $1,000, enabling Perkins to travel to the audition. She was accompanied by her family and Smith, who volunteered to play guitar accompaniment during her audition.
According to Perkins, the audition was nerve-wracking.
“The audition was quite scary,” Perkins said. “After waiting about 40 minutes, I was called into a room with Richard Smith. We went in, got set up, and performed our first song, ‘Poker Face,’ on the big stage for our one judge. After getting cut off early, they told me to sing my next song, which was ‘Paris’ by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. I went all the way through the song with the people in the room jamming along the whole way.”
Perkins thinks that she did well but wishes that she had gone with a different song order and auditioned in a different location.
“I think my performance was very good, but with the nerves you lose control and doing a song like ‘Poker Face’ you have more of a chance of showing your lack of control,” Perkins said. “I think if I could change anything, I would change two things. One would be my song order. I should’ve started with a song I was most comfortable with so that I could blow them away off the bat, instead of starting with the weaker song to get it over with. The second would be the location. I tried out in LA, the area where everyone goes to try to force themselves into show business. I was trying out against the best in the country.”
In the end, the feedback from the judge was disappointing for Perkins.
“The judge told me I was only 17 and could use a year to learn more control in my voice, as well as learn to have more confidence in my instrument,” Perkins said.
At first Perkins succumbed to tears, but now she is maintaining a positive attitude.
“I cried because I felt like I was letting the people who supported me down by not making it,” Perkins said. “It was upsetting and scary, but I got through it and learned a lot. Overall I’m happy. I had a great experience and learned a ton from all of it. I now am more experienced, and that is great for what is up and coming in my music career.”