WORCESTER — Jayden Bordes sits in the back of his chorus class, blending into the mix of students who are in the honors chorus at Burncoat High School.
Jayden, a senior at Burncoat, has been recognized as one of the top singing performers in his grade year and is a finalist in the Next on Stage, a competition sponsored by BroadwayWorld, a news website that covers the theater industry. The winner of the competition receives a four-year scholarship to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
With that kind of recognition, it is obvious that Jayden has incredible vocal talent, something that he is still navigating in a school setting.
“He sometimes will show that he knows he is really good, and other times he will be very modest,” Ilanna Tariff, choral instructor at Burncoat High, said. “He is dedicated to bettering himself and his craft.”
When Jayden rises to perform a solo song, “This Is the Moment” from the musical “Jekyll & Hyde,” the same song he sang to enter the Next on Stage competition, his classmates cheered him on in support.
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“I chose that song because I was going through a lot of different songs to sing this year, and I originally noticed a different song from the same musical, ‘I Need to Know,’ and so I started to look at other songs from that musical,” Jayden said. “I asked my friends which song, ‘I Need to Know’ or ‘This Is the Moment,’ would be better for me, and they said ‘This is the Moment’ was the song for me. It can showcase my voice better, it’s slower and more emotional and the lyrics mean more.”
Jayden said he first started singing in a formal setting when he was 9 at his church, and he serves as the director of the youth choir at the Evangelical First Haitian Baptist Church of Worcester.
“Gospel is still my favorite type of music to sing to. I think that is where my voice shines the best, with church music,” Jayden said.
The Next on Stage competition has voting open until Nov. 20, and people can vote for Jayden online at broadwayworld.com/nextonstagehighschool/jaydenbrodes. If Jayden makes it to the next cut, the field will be narrowed down to three finalists and will eventually be chosen by a panel of Broadway professionals.
“I haven’t thought that much about being named a finalist yet. I’m still nervous about the voting results to see if I get to the next round,” Jayden said. “I want to be able to make the top three, but I know there are a lot of really good singers as finalists.”
Jayden has attended both Burncoat Middle School and Burncoat High School. In addition to singing in the chorus, he also plays trumpet in the school band and said he will try out for the first time for the school’s musical later this year. Jayden said that the support he has gotten as a student with an interest in the performing arts has motivated him to pursue a career where he will be in a similar position to help students achieve in those fields.
“The best part of Burncoat for me is the performing arts. I also used to say I wanted to go to law school and be a lawyer, but coming to Burncoat and seeing everything that we do here, I’ve changed my mind. I really want to go into music education,” Jayden said.
Tariff described Jayden as a leader and a “rock star” as a student in the performing arts.
“Since I’ve met him he has been an absolute leader and a rock star. He has shown great dedication and passion about what he is doing,” Tariff said. “He’s always volunteered to do performances outside of school. Next Tuesday he is coming to the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s Future Music Educators conference because he wants to continue pursuing his craft.”
