As the Revere A Cappella choir begins to make beats and musical sounds with their voices for a Billie Eilish song, one voice is louder than the rest. Lily Dunn sings the solo vocal portion of the song as the rest of the choir backs her up in the performance.

Lily Dunn is a junior at Revere High School (RHS) and has been singing almost her entire life. She has taken part in Revere’s choir program throughout her middle school and high school career and has also done work outside of Revere’s program.

There are three different choirs at RHS: Symphonic, A Cappella and Chorale, with A Cappella and Chorale requiring students to audition for a part in them. Dunn explained her involvement in all three of them.

“I’m doing all three next year. I’ve been in Chorale for two years, this is my first year in A Cappella, and I was in Symphonic my freshman year,” Dunn said.

Although she is not sure, Dunn explained where she thinks she gets her talent from.

“I think it’s because my bio [biological] dad was in choir and my bio [biological] mom sang and they all like[d] music a lot so maybe it’s genetic? But I didn’t grow up with them really and the family I did grow up with are not musical so I think it’s just because I like it,” Dunn said.

With music and singing being such a big aspect of Dunn’s life, she says that she enjoys singing all types of music, but she still listed a few of her favorites.

“I actually really enjoy singing choral music, and musical theater music is really good,” Dunn said.

When Dunn is not singing in choir, she is leading her peers. She is the soprano section leader in Chorale, which means she is there to be a model student to others in the choir. Choir teacher Sierra Pabon explained that Dunn is very good at her job and was the right pick for section leader.

“She serves as a model for other students in terms of technique, in terms of professionalism and expectations. She really models what it is to be a fully active singer,” Pabon said.

Holly Gayner, a sophomore in choir, described Dunn as a leader.

“She’s always willing to help everyone around her and making sure that we’re sounding the best that we can,” Gayner said.

Dunn is also the promotional content manager for Revere’s choirs. Here, she is able to let out her creative outlet a little bit by making designs for upcoming choir events. By helping advertise she is able to get more people to come to choir concerts, which is important to her. Pabon explained her responsibilities.

“She develops our concert flyers, [she] designs those. She works with our media crew head to post those flyers, she posts them around the school. She also works on our branding in terms of when we design choir attire. So when we sell t-shirts, she is the one that creates those. She creates the logos that we use on our social media. Really anything that is promoting our brand or promoting the events we have, she is in charge of that,” Pabon said.

Dunn also keeps herself busy by singing outside of school. Last year, she was chosen for a singing position through the Cleveland Composers Guild. The Cleveland Composers Guild is a music organization that believes in promoting new music.

“They pair[ed] student performers with professional composers and a composer wrote a song specifically for my voice and then I had to perform it,” Dunn said.

Pabon explained that this was not an isolated event for Dunn; she is always going out of her way to accept new singing gigs and positions. Pabon relies on Dunn as a student and says she is one of the first she will ask for help.

“She is definitely one of my go-to students in terms of reliability. If something needs to be done, she’s one of the first that comes to mind to get the job done. She is not one to say, ‘no I can’t do that,’ she will say ‘how can I do that? How can we make this happen?’,” Pabon said.

Dunn currently has a job singing at a church on the weekends. Although she is not sure about her future career in music, she plans to always be singing in some shape or form.

“I always want it to be a part of my life so I always am going to do it even if I don’t get paid,” she said.

For another musical outlet, Dunn participates in Revere Players. Dunn has been in Revere Players since her freshman year and most recently had a role in the fall play, The Crucible. Although she gets to sing in the group’s spring musicals, Dunn explained that both the play and the musical have their bonuses.

“I like the play because it is a little bit calmer, but it’s still very fun. And I think the musical is a really good way to interact with everybody, because, especially for the first month or two, you’re doing singing rehearsals every day. . . . But I also think it’s cool to just do the plays to learn how, even without all of that extra fun stuff, to still make the show good,” Dunn said.

Gayner was also in The Crucible with Dunn, and she explained that just like in choir, Dunn serves as a role model to her. This was Gayner’s first production with Revere Players so she looked to Dunn for help and guidance throughout the play.

“Even though she and I [didn’t] necessarily have big parts, acting with her has shown me a lot of things and new techniques that I can try out to be more confident with my acting,” Gayner said.

Whether it is on stage for Revere Players, in choir or for a job she is working, Dunn always seems to be singing. She added a detail on how involved she is with the choir program.

“Last year I spent more time with Miss Pabon outside of school than with my friends just because of all the stuff we did,” Dunn said.

Dunn reiterates that music has always been and will always be a constant in her life.

“Literally just everything in my life is because of music, at this point everything I do is just music,” Dunn said.

Dunn continues to be a leader in the choir program and Revere Players and will start her singing job on the weekends soon. She will also perform in the Revere Choir Winter Concert on December 13.

This story was originally published on Lantern on November 28, 2023.