Even under new names, stars can shine just as brightly. One of the Vineyard’s brightest stars returned to the stage at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs on Wednesday evening. West Tisbury vocalist Siren Mayhew, formerly Katie Mayhew, performed alongside the Cape Symphony at the Symphony on the Vineyard series.
Returning to the spotlight after a long break, Siren received standing ovations for her renditions of A-Tisket, A-Tasket, One for my Baby and Feeling Good. She ended her performance by debuting a song she wrote, Ode to Lunasaugh.
“I started to miss performing for people,” Siren said, later after the show. “I’d written a lot of music before but never had a chance to perform what I’d written in front of people.”
Ode to Lunasaugh refers to the pagan word for August, drawing inspiration from the “buzz” she feels during the hectic Vineyard summer month and a sense of “forbidden” love.
The Tabernacle audience showed their love for the song by rising to their feet for yet another raucous standing ovation.
The evening opened with summertime classics composed by Jung Ho Park and his Cape Symphony. Playing classics such as Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Mr. Park engaged the audience with his own brand of storytelling. The composer introduced Siren before the intermission.
“Jung Ho was nice enough to hire an arranger to arrange my original piece so the orchestra could play with me,” Siren said.
A graduate of the MVRHS class of 2010, Siren earned fame after winning the 2008 Boston Pops high school sing-off. Her success spread overseas when she sang at London’s Cadogan Hall for the 2010 and 2011 Breakthrough Breast Cancer fundraisers.
In 2013, the 24-year-old vocalist left Martha’s Vineyard to study agriculture at Sterling College in 2013, but she quit school just three months before her graduation in the winter of 2015, and returned to the Island.
“Quitting was the right move for me because I started my own EP on the Vineyard and met Jerry Bennett who hired me as a vocalist for the Sultans of Swing,” she said.
The Sultans of Swing perform on Martha’s Vineyard and around the country. Siren plans to release her EP, or extended play album, some time in the future. Her work with the Sultans of Swing has delayed the EP’s release date.
Broadway performer Fred Inkley headlined part two of the symphony. Mr. Inkley sang She Loves Me and If I Can’t Have Her, two songs he performed in the Broadway productions She Loves Me and Beauty and the Beast.
Siren joined Mr. Inkley on stage for a rendition of God Bless America before Mr. Park honored the military with an armed forces salute. The Cape Symphony closed the show with a rendition of Stars and Stripes Forever, a perfect way to usher in the Fourth of July weekend.
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