Senior Ahmadi wins talent show with Spanish guitar medley

Filled with a variety of performances, from heartfelt ballads to dramatic readings, Bearden’s talent show was an overwhelming success.

After being postponed due to days off school, the show took place on Friday evening, judged by Bearden’s Mrs. Victoria May and student-teacher and University of Tennessee music student Mr. Steven Brown. Hosted by the Choral Department, it also featured performances by Off the Chain, Bearden’s mixed contemporary A Cappella chorus.

Senior Shahin Ahmadi took home first place, performing Spanish variations on his guitar. Senior Isabella Ansary won second place with her rendition of “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver, and junior Jerrard Young sang an original piece titled “Forgive You, My Dear,” winning third place.

This was Ahmadi’s debut, having never performed in front of a crowd like this before. However, playing the guitar and arranging pieces are nothing new to him.

“I played a Spanish guitar, and it was a composition of three different songs that I put together. … Some parts of it were original and some weren’t, but the entire piece as a whole was arranged by me,” Ahmadi said.

“I’ve been playing guitar for like three years. About two years ago, I started doing something creative, putting the stuff together, and it was back then that I put some pieces that I already knew together to make a new piece.”

The win came as a surprise to him, considering he decided to take part in the talent show only a week before the original showtime.

“It was kind of sudden, so I wasn’t really thinking about it,” Ahmadi said. “It got postponed for a month or two, but before that, about a week before it got postponed, I was like ‘Okay, I’ll just see what happens.’

“It’s really nice of Bearden to provide an opportunity like that for those who like to perform in front of a crowd. I didn’t expect it because all the other performances were really, really enjoyable.”