Under-the-sea themed decorations traipsed the support rails of Rediger Chapel, while fish balloons bounced through the air in for MyGen as Taylor students waved flashlights in sync and exchanged dropped jaws.
During the evening of Oct. 26, 1,100 students were packed together to listen to 12 student performances of top hit pieces written after Taylor’s class of ‘24 was born. The event featured pop and country hits like “That’s What Makes You Beautiful” and “Something in the Orange.”
“Considering the amount of people who went to the front of Rediger to start mosh pits during the songs...between the iconic songs and passionate performances, it made for a very exciting concert,” Kaylin Hiehle, a sophomore social studies major, said.
Annie Troyer, president of the Student Activities Council (SAC) majoring in film and media arts, agreed. She appreciated MyGen’s diverse song selection that featured solos, piano, rock, country and pop hits.
Troyer said MyGen is an important Taylor tradition supporting the university’s community.
“Depending on where you live on campus, you're normally used to being around the same set of people,” Troyer said. “People will go up that you have never heard speak before, and they just have some of the best voices.”
Troyer said MyGen has glorified God by celebrating talents He has given the student body. She sees it as an opportunity for performers to steward their God-given gifts.
She also hopes the SAC’s work to put on MyGen inspires students to explore their unique identity in Christ.
“The Lord gives us each gift so specifically,” Troyer said. “And obviously he wants us to realize that and use those to further his kingdom. So, if this performance can make them feel more confident and more secure in who they are in Christ, that is all we're here to do.”
Planning MyGen was hard work, she said. She expressed gratitude for SAC as they spent long hours collaborating to create under-the-sea themed decorations.
Troyer added that she and her teammates worked until 1:30 a.m. after the auditions, selecting 12 teams from almost 40 auditions. She said she hopes her team knows their work didn’t go unnoticed.
Troyer and her team weren’t the only ones putting in hours of preparation.
Ashton Boyer, a sophomore majoring in marketing, performed Forget You by CeeLo Green with his band, Sammy Tunez. Boyer said his band practiced for about two months leading up to MyGen. Although the extensive preparation was sometimes tiresome, he said the work was absolutely worthwhile.
Boyer developed an interest in music after observing its unifying effects on a mission trip to Japan. He added that MyGen accomplished these same communal effects.
“It would be unfortunate to miss,” Boyer said. “It's a great event that brings a lot of people together.”
Sammy Tunez wasn’t the only band fine-tuning their performance. Dayne Pefley, a senior singing Hysteria with his band, Last Second, recalled a similar experience.
Pefley said that Last Second didn’t decide to perform for MyGen until the week before auditions and spontaneously decided on their name. Their bassist discovered he was unable to perform with them shortly before the show, forcing them to improvise their song.
“We ended up only having one rehearsal,” Pefley said. “It was a long rehearsal."
Pefley said he was grateful his team meshed well together and previously knew the song they performed. It made last-minute preparations easier. He performed better after he’d realized the audience cared about energy, not vocal perfection.
“The first time I was in my MyGen, I sang a song. It was really fun, and I listened back at the video, and I hate listening to it because I can't stand my own voice," Pefley said. “Yet everyone was super hyped up for it.”
According to many students, the excitement Pefley described certainly filled the air at MyGen. Many expressed enthusiasm and awe at Taylor’s annual musical tradition.
