High school choir teacher sings for a crowd of 70,000
Walking out on the field at the height of excitement for the Fourth of July and the Savannah Bananas in Iowa City, Aurora choir teacher Jason Frew was just as eager to perform the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the next level.
“I got to sing at the Final Four game for volleyball against Texas A&M, which is probably one of the loudest experiences of my life,” Frew shared. “Super cool, but 70,000 is five times bigger than any other venue I’ve been at and it was surreal. It was so fun and everything, but also absolutely terrifying.”
In addition to serving as the choir teacher for Aurora Public Schools for 15 years, Frew has established a strong career in vocal music, having performed with The Young Americans for four years after graduating from high school.
“In the six three-month tours I did, I taught probably 10,000 kids in nine countries, five languages and three continents,” he recalled. “It is where I realized my love for teaching in addition to a joy of performing.”
Frew was also able to perform with Tony, Grammy and Academy award winners when he was in Southern California.
“It was a wonderful experience that prepared me very well for teaching here in Aurora,” he said.
Having performed the National Anthem throughout his career, Frew became involved in performing it in 2019 when he auditioned to perform at games at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“UNL had opened auditions at the start of the school year so I went and auditioned and I was selected to get into their pool of singers,” he said. “I have been contacted for volleyball, soccer, wrestling, men’s and women’s basketball, gymnastics, softball and baseball. It is my performing outlet anymore these days and with my passion for sports, it is a great way to perform and see many games and meets every year.”
In addition to performing at Husker games, Frew had performed at Supernova volleyball and Kansas City Royals games, estimating that he has sung the National Anthem approximately 75 times.
Frew’s latest opportunity to perform the “Star-Spangled Banner” started through a familiar connection with the Savannah Bananas.
“I believe it was Dan Sodomka’s daughter, Kylee, who worked with me with the Hastings Sodbusters baseball team in Hastings and then the intern with the Bananas,” Frew said. “She’s been freelancing for them this summer again and she suggested my name out of the list they were given.”
While it didn’t work out initially for Frew to perform at Memorial Stadium when the Savannah Bananas were in Lincoln on June 13, he was willing to travel to Iowa to perform at Kinnick Stadium.
“I said, ‘I’m not above doing a little bit of a road trip,’” he said. “So they said, ‘What about Iowa City on July 4?’ I was like, ‘Yes, please.’”
Not only was Frew excited to sing in front of the largest crowd he had ever performed for, but he was also eager to see everything the Savannah Bananas game had to offer.
“I love baseball,” he said. “I love all sports, but I also love the performance aspect that they do and I wanted to see it in person. If I were able to perform at it, it would be even better. I get to do performing and get to see an incredible show all at the same time, which is really special.”
What made the experience extra special was enjoying the game alongside his family.
“They allowed my whole family to come onto the field with me, which was super cool,” Frew said. “They got all six of us tickets, which was another huge blessing. The whole family got to go.”
What scared Frew was not the number of people listening to his performance, but the space itself.
“There was a full second delay from when I sang something to when it got back to me through the speakers,” he explained. “I sang ‘Oh say can you see?’ When I sang ‘You,’ I was hearing me sing ‘Oh.’ They had in-ear monitors for me, which was great. But even still, super nerve-wracking because it’s the National Anthem. Two, it’s the Fourth of July and it’s the Fourth of July on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and it’s in front of 70,000 people.”
Compared to previous games Frew had performed at, the production of the Savannah Bananas wasn’t anything he had experienced before.
“I’ve been on the field for other games and everything, but the amount of production value that they’re doing, there’s not a dull moment,” he said. “When you walk into the gates, even outside of the stadium, to when the last play is done, there’s not a single moment that is open,” he said. “There’s always something that is going on.”
With the countless skits that played out during the Fourth of July and the America 250 celebration, there was never a dull moment inside Kinnick Stadium.
“I wouldn’t quite call it stimulation overload, but sometimes there’s one thing going on at one side of the field and a different thing going on at the other side of the field or in the stands and it was fascinating,” Frew said. “I would say being in close proximity to the players, the managers, the performers and stuff is really cool. It was a really cool thing and see behind the scenes a little bit because you’re next to somebody with a headset that is helping run the show, which is kind of cool.”
Frew also shared some of his family’s favorite skits from the game.
“Some of the funniest things for our family to see were the race they had,” he said. “For the 250th birthday, they had a race of 200 50-year old men where they raced from end zone to end zone. It was a huge hit for the whole crowd. The kids really loved some of the walk-up dances and home-run celebrations. The flyover during the anthem was another big favorite of our family.”
Frew was grateful for the opportunity he and his family were able to have with the Savannah Bananas.
“They put on a great production,” he observed. “There’s something for everyone and I was really happy. We put our names in for the lottery when they were in Nebraska and we didn’t get the opportunity to buy tickets, so getting a chance to do it, even if it’s in Iowa, was pretty cool.”
Frew hopes to continue singing the National Anthem, with his eye on major league and college games.
“I keep wanting to put myself out there,” he said. “I would love to do more Major League Baseball games, because that’s my first love. I would love to do college football games, but the marching bands have a pretty good stranglehold on the anthems for those games and rightfully so. I would love to do more, whether it be Royals or my team, the Rangers.”
While facing the unfortunate timing of Ranger auditions clashing with the show choir season, he looks forward to any opportunity to perform again.
“I would like to do more baseball games and who knows, maybe an NFL game,” Frew concluded. “But my bucket list would be to sing the National Anthem at another professional baseball game.”