HARLINGEN — Cassandra Andrade was star struck.
“Seeing someone I saw on TV is the greatest thing,” Cassandra, 17, said during a concert Thursday morning by the Sons of Serendip.
Cassandra, a senior at Harlingen High School, was one of almost 900 students attending the concert at the Harlingen Performing Arts Center.
They’d come from not only Harlingen, but also from Raymondville, San Benito and Brownsville to see the performance by the four Boston residents who’ve appeared twice on America’s Got Talent.
The Harlingen Concert Association organized the event, which entertained and inspired the kids.
The performance began when harpist Mason Morton, a former Atlanta school teacher, walked onto stage and played the timeless piece “Claire de Lune.”
The students listened intently and watched with amazement as Kendall Ramseur played some dreamy notes on his cello; Cordaro Rodriguez, a former attorney from Charlotte, North Carolina, gave his input on the keyboards; and Micah Christian completed the quartet with his eloquent vocals.
They soon departed from “Claire de Lune” and melted into a rendition of a more modern piece. Each part wove an entrancing spell that filled the auditorium and the ears of avid listeners. The performers played with a feverish passion, a hot frenzy of artistic expression.
Christian now smiled to the audience and delivered a familiar piece from the 1970s made timeless now by its endless possibilities.
“Carry on my wayward son/there’ll be piece when you are done/lay your weary head to rest,” he sang with an unfettered intensity that kept the kids breathless with fascination.
They erupted now into applause and Christian addressed them in a familiar manner they could relate to.
“Thank you so much,” said Christian, 36.
“We are the Sons of Serendip,” he continued. “How many of you saw us on America’s Got Talent?”
Hands went up.
“How many of you voted for us?”
Hands stayed up. He then introduced the instruments with a question to the kids.
“How many of you know all the instruments on this stage?” he asked, and then pointed at Ramseur’s instrument.
“Cello!” one girl said.
Christian and the others then went into the audience and shook hands with the kids, who appreciated the gesture and everything that went with it.
“I like how they sing the songs and how they play the harp and the keyboards,” said Rihanna Lee Garza, 11, a fifth grader at Stuart Place Elementary.
“It was very good how they used their instruments and made them more perfect,” she said.
This was the largest group of kids for whom the group had performed, Christian said.
“Anytime we have a chance to do an outreach with students with our passion about music, we are grateful for that,” he said.
The group was scheduled to perform Thursday night to a very different audience at the Harlingen Municipal Auditorium.
