America’s got talent and so does SLUH! Senior and cello extraordinar Alexander Unseth will soon be presented live on television performing a piece of his own creation: Beethoven on Broadway.

On April 3, Unseth performed on the stage of the Fabulous Fox theater as a finalist for the St. Louis Teen Talent competition, an area-wide event talent competition for high school students. Unseth had to beat out over 100 other student acts and pass by the preliminary and semifinalist stages to make it to the final round. SLUH sophomore Jude Reed also participated in the event, making it to the semifinal round with his band, The Lemons.

Now, after over a month since it was filmed, Unseth’s act—in addition to the acts of the 14 other contestants—will be aired in a special on PBS Channel Nine on May 24.

Unseth is classically trained in both the piano and the cello, a member of the SLUH orchestra and the renowned St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, and experienced in composition, which he started doing back when he wrote his first musical piece at the age of 14. However, when the preliminaries came around in January, Unseth wanted to design a piece that moved away from his classical roots, one that incorporated all of his musical talents but added a twist to a style that he is so accustomed to.

“I feel that classical music is taken very seriously and it's cloistered itself off in the world because it's a very serious form of music. I wanted to compose something that would appeal to everyone, like something classical but something that is also fun,” said Unseth.  “I came up with the idea of a piece called Beethoven on Broadway, where it takes a classical piece by Beethoven but then goes completely Broadway with it.”

For the preliminary round, Unseth would have to be on a call with a panel of judges while they listened to his piece. The judges provided helpful advice to Unseth that he took to heart as he fine-tuned his performance. This process of judging and providing feedback would also happen in the semifinals round too.

“It was certainly quite daunting to have to listen to myself in front of people who were critiquing everything that I was doing, but they gave me some very good advice,” said Unseth. “The first thing they told me was to have more personality in my playing, which I can attest to that. My playing is very flat because as a classical musician you aren't really trained to put a lot of emotion into how you act.”

Although Unseth does not want to reveal his final performance until after it is streamed, he is confident that any viewer will enjoy the performance and that it was an enriching experience to be a part of.

“It was super fun to go outside my comfort zone because I'm a classically trained cellist. So for me to play something Broadway style was really strange and very new,” said Unseth.  “And the fact that I played it on a huge stage was really going outside of my comfort zone for me.  I think that really made for a fun experience for me there.”

While Unseth is happy to make it to the big stage and to be a finalist for the competition, he is even more grateful for the opportunity to share something that he is so passionate about with the St. Louis area.

“I think that music in general is really important to me for the fact that it's really the way that I best express myself. There have been many personal challenges that I've had to face and I'm still facing many personal challenges. And there's just such a nice escape in music because I'm able to just sit down at the piano and play, sit at the cello and just play,” said Unseth.

Tune in next Monday to Channel Nine at 7:00 pm to hear Unseth wow St. Louis in his final act of the St. Louis Teen Talent competition.