Encounter #10: A Powerful Ballad by Danielle
This week's Encounter is with 9 to 5'er artist, Danielle Verdecchia. Danielle works as a civil engineer in the construction industry in New York City. Outside of her job, Danielle enjoys pursuing her passion for both music and dance. For her Encounter, Danielle has chosen to share her cover of the Adele song, All I Ask. If you would like to learn more about Danielle and her passion for the arts, please check out her bio on The Characters page of this website.
I first Encountered Danielle and her singing talents in college. Danielle and I were in different majors and different years but we got to know each other when we joined our university’s first ever acapella group in 2011.
Being in an acapella group is an amazing experience because it is an art form that is rooted in the concept of unity. In acapella, there are no “stars”. Every single voice plays an essential role in achieving the full sound of the group and we, as sopranos, altos, and tenors, are constantly listening and responding to one another to achieve balance and harmony in our music. In a world that has become increasingly more self-centric and polarized, I am glad that acapella music still exists because it demonstrates the ethereal beauty that can be achieved when we recognize and really listen to one another.
Although Danielle and I sang together as part of a group, her voice always stood out to me. I was impressed with the ease with which she could sing riffs, making the notes fall like a beautiful cascading waterfall, and I envied the power of her voice. Danielle’s technical ability definitely made her stand out from the group but it was her love for singing that stuck in my mind so many years later as I was thinking of artists to feature on Encounters.
Despite our tough and demanding engineering curriculum during undergrad, Danielle made the time to be at every acapella practice and to be an active participant. She led the soprano section, eagerly auditioned for solos, and she took time to help others in the group, whether it was tackling an awkward chord change or perfecting timing. It was Danielle’s passion for singing that made her memorable in her performances and that same passion is evident in her moving cover of the Adele ballad, All I Ask.
As a singer, I always found covers to be challenging because it is the instinct of the audience to compare them to the original versions. I came to discover that those artists who can “handle” covers are the artists who have the truest sense of their unique identity- they take the song and make it their own, projecting the lyrics through the lens of their own experiences, and letting their unique voice navigate through the nooks and crannies of the melody, finding areas that resonate with them. With that said, if there is anyone who could take on an Adele cover, it would be Danielle. In this song about loss, Danielle’s honest and powerful voice not only captures the raw emotion of Adele’s lyrics but manages to uncover the resilience, strength, and hope hidden far beneath the melancholy melody.
I am so happy to have Encountered Danielle and her singing talents in college and I am excited that she will now share her passion for singing with the Encounters community.
Now, without further ado, I introduce to you our Encounter with the singer and performer, Danielle Verdecchia.
P.S. If you would like to download Danielle's cover of All I Ask, please click here
