[Editor’s note: see The Chart’s home page for a slideshow of the talent show competitors.]

Singing, drumming, dancing, piano playing and guitar jamming. Those talents were all represented at the 2011 MSSU Talent Show on March 15 in Taylor Auditorium.

There were 19 student contestants performing solos, duets, one-man-bands and a cappella acts.

There were two hosts for the event: KSYN 92.5 disc jockey “Snacks” and sophomore mass communications major Dvonta Richard.

The competition was serious, but the mood was light. The hosts were told not to be “cussing up on stage,” but Richard made it clear he struggled with that rule.

Sophomore music major Barry Arwood won first place for Michael Bublé’s “Cry me a River,” a song originally recorded by Ella Fitzgerald in the mid-1900s. Second place went to freshman music major John Schwerdt for his “Quest for Glory” drum solo. Last year’s winner, sophomore kinesiology major David Davison, took third place this year with a guitar act called “Indestructible.” The prizes were for $300, $200 and $100.

Schwerdt  said he felt good after the competition, and added that he didn’t go up on stage with his snare drum thinking of a particular piece to play.

“I just made it all up [when I was] up there,” he said.

Desireé Stuart, senior biology major, sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” She called the experience both “exhilarating” and “nauseating.”

“[It was] scary in a good way,” Stuart said. “Once you get going in the song, the music just starts flowing from your soul.”