Finding her voice

Incoming JMU student competes on ‘The Voice’ this season

By MORGAN BLAIR The Breeze

Many high school seniors are finishing up their last year right now, but incoming JMU student Mary Kate Connor of Ashburn, Virginia, has also wrapped her time on NBC’s “The Voice,” completing her time on the show in the most recent episode on May 1.

The 17-year-old, who plans to pursue a music industry degree at JMU, said she started her music journey at 9 years old when her parents put her in vocal lessons.

“I had this vocal teacher who was like, ‘She’s actually pretty good, would she like to try to be in a musical at a local high school?’” Connor said. “I ended up getting the part, it was Young Cozette in ‘Les Mis,’ and from then on, I was super into music and musical theater.”

Connor’s love and talent for music continued through middle and high school. She focused her talents toward musical theater before going the route of a singer/songwriter.

Katie Hudson, a theater educator at Broad Run High School in Ashburn who worked with Connor as an after-school theater director at Trailside Middle School also in Ashburn, said she remembers feeling shocked when she found out her former student was going to be on “The Voice.”

Despite Hudson having had multiple students she worked with as a private vocal coach for appear on shows like “The Voice” or “American Idol,” she said having someone she worked as closely with as Connor on the show was a different experience.

“I’ve gotten to work with her for many years, I’ve seen her perform many times, but to see her perform and be accepted on a larger scale was just absolutely incredible,” Hudson said.

Auditioning for “The Voice” wasn’t originally Connor’s plan. She described the decision to audition as coming “out of the blue,” despite watching and loving the show growing up.

“It’s always been a dream to do something like this,” Connor said, “but I never really thought it was possible.”

Connor said the decision came when her father sent some videos of her singing to a producer friend of his. Neither her parents nor Connor herself intended for the videos to land her on a show like “The Voice,” Connor said, but she hoped the producer could find her some small projects to work on.

“They called us a couple weeks later and were like, ‘Do you want to audition for The Voice?’” Connor said about the circumstances behind her decision to audition. “It was totally out of nowhere. I didn’t, like, go out for it, it just kind of got brought to me, which just like the most incredible thing. I’m super blessed.”

When describing the audition process itself, Connor said the song she ended up singing, “Stars” by Grace Potter, wasn’t on the original list of songs she got to choose from. The song was instead a piece she sung in a video for her callback audition. She originally heard the song, which Connor said was one of her favorites, while watching “The Voice.”

“Being able to sing it on the show, knowing it from the show, was definitely a full-circle moment,” Connor said.

Connor ended up getting to pick one of two of the celebrity judges to be her coach for the show, with one of her choices being singer and TV show host Kelly Clarkson and the other singer Blake Shelton. Connor, who said she valued Shelton’s experience as a country singer in Nashville, Tennessee, chose to be on Shelton’s — or “Uncle Blake’s,” as she jokingly called him — team.

“Mary Kate’s probably not completely aware of what she’s even capable of,” Shelton said. “She has a cool appalachian sound and I love that, I think America’s going to love it.”

Connor said Shelton talked about musical career opportunities in Nashville, Connor’s dream spot to live.

“He talked about the opportunities I could get there. I think something in my brain was like, ‘I need to be strategic— what’s going to help me in the long run,’ and that was Blake, I guess. It ended up being the best decision, and I would not have made a different decision if I could go back.”

Shelton and Clarkson weren’t the only celebrities Connor had interactions with. She interacted with host Carson Daly and the other judges, Chance the Rapper and Niall Horan. Before her audition, Connor said she nervously waited longer than she expected because Horan had to take a bathroom break.

While Connor said she felt blessed to have such an opportunity, she also said, at times, the experience could be overwhelming — especially when it came to trying to balance her academic life with her time on the show.

Mary Kate Connor

Class of 2027 student, “The Voice” contestant

Connor said she missed a lot of her senior year and had trouble keeping up with her grades while on “The Voice.” She went through the college application process while in Los Angeles and committed to JMU while there. She said the experience was “a bit of a burden,” but overall, it played out well.

Connor said when she started high school she wanted to go to Virginia Tech, but when she got into JMU earlier this year, she committed before even getting her Tech decision back.

“I could not be more excited,” Connor said. “I came and I toured campus, and I was just immediately, like, ‘There’s no place I’d rather be.’ I fell in love with it. I was just like, ‘Duh, I’m going to JMU.’”

JMU gave Connor a “feeling of home,” she said, and learning that the university offered the music industry degree, as well as about the JMU community in general, helped influence her decision.

Connor said she plans to continue her music career at JMU and she hopes her major will help her understand the music business and set her up for her time in Nashville — or wherever she decides to settle.

Overall, when next year comes, Connor said she’s excited for the community JMU offers her. She said she plans to look into joining one of the school’s a cappella groups as well as the Christian group, YoungLife, when she arrives on campus in the fall. When it comes to her time on “The Voice” and the community of supporters it’s brought her, Connor is just as pleased with her experience, if not more, as she is about JMU.

“I’m just so thankful and so blessed,” Connor said. “I wouldn’t take any of this for granted. I’m just super proud.”

CONTACT Morgan Blair at thebreezeculture@gmail.com For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.