SUN CITY- Since 2010, Sun City has welcomed the Huntley High School singing group Project 2 into the community with high enthusiasm and positive feedback. Now, three years later, Del Webb residents will wish them farewell by hosting Project 2’s College Send-Off show.
Currently led and started by Dylan Ladd, who will attend Valparaiso University in the fall for music education, Project 2 has immensely grown, gaining a large local following with every performance they give. Project 2 has been main stage performers at the Huntley Fall Fest for the last three years, headlined their own show at the Cosman Center in May, and has even performed in front of 1,100 Martin elementary students, but they have not forgotten where they first got their start.
“They [Sun City] have been our biggest fans,” said Ladd. “They are what gave us the opportunity to do our first show. If they hadn’t taken the chance with us, we would have never gotten the opportunity to do this.”
While Project 2 has had an array of members since their debut, currently the group is made up by a group of ten students: Dylan Ladd, Tyler Darnell, Ashley Knipp, Chris Aceron, Abby Gleason, Diana Pacyga, Adriana Martinez, Josh Riveria, Kyle Schneider, and Brendon Sugerue.
“We’ve had different members come and go. We can always tell who fits in right away and who doesn’t,” said Ladd. “The ones we are unsure about are the ones who usually end up quitting because Project 2 is something that is not for everybody.”
Project 2, a signing group composedof Huntley High School students, will give a final performance in Sun City on August 13. Founder Dylan Ladd called Sun City residents Project 2’s “biggest fans.” (Photo Provided)
Project 2 became a second creation for Ladd after his original group, Jersey Kids, dismantled in 2009. Ladd viewed the group’s dissolution as an opportunity to begin his own singing group that would be interested in performing various musical theatre acts.
“I didn’t want to do it at first, because I thought it would be strictly Jersey Kids,” said Gleason, who will attend Columbia College, Chicago, in the fall for musical theatre. “When I found we would perform a broad range of musicals, I was all for it.”
From Project 2’s initiation, Ladd has observed huge growth within the group members’ talent and on-stage performance.
“It was just three kids singing together along to karaoke tracks to us singing crazy hard harmonies,” said Ladd. “They are really talented; everyone is really good at what they do, and they have grown so comfortably on stage.”
Each member either sings, plays an instrument, or even both. Project 2 performances are usually led by Ladd, Knipp, and Darnell on main vocals while the band is made up of Riveria on drums, Aceron on guitar, Pacyga on piano, Martinez on trumpet, and Schneider on trombone.
“In our first performance, we used a band, but we never worked together,” said Gleason. “Over time, we went through many band members, but now, musically, we have all grown together.”
Besides consistently performing together, the group considers themselves best friends.
“I just really want to stick with this [Project 2],” said Ladd. “Everyone are best friends. When we’re not practicing, we’re hanging out.”
While most of the members are already apart or leaving to go to college, one member, Adrianna Martinez, is only entering her third year of high school. Having joined seven months ago, Martinez looked up to Project 2 as inspiration.
“Before I joined, I knew about them, and I went to one of their shows. It was phenomenal, and I always thought it was so cool,” said Martinez. “Being a big fan of Broadway, I envied them a little bit, and now that I am a part of them, it’s like I’m living a part of my dream.”
Although Project 2’s members are heading to college in the fall, they plan to return to Huntley and continue performing together as Project 2 during school breaks.
“I will miss performing and the people the most,” said Gleason. “If it [Project 2] didn’t continue, I would miss it a lot.”
Project 2 has already booked two upcoming performances into the coming school year. One being the Huntley Fall Fest on September 29, and the second, a concert in December for the Sun City community.
“It’s easy for us to come together after a while of not practicing; we’ve been doing it for a while now,” said Ladd. “We still plan to perform together during college. We just plan to come together during breaks and some weekends.”
At the moment, Project 2 is preparing for their upcoming performance at Sun City by having four hour-long rehearsals three times a week.
“We’ve been looking to add new songs and musicals,” said Martinez. “We’ve been looking for songs the older generation can enjoy and have rehearsed every week for it.”
Project 2 Send-off
Project 2’s College Send-Off performance has been scheduled to take place 7 p.m. August 13 in the Drendel Ballroom.
