Local Teen Siobhan Magnus Shines On ‘American Idol’ This Week

By: Laura M. Reckford
Published: 02/19/10

She made it to the top 24. For those who do not follow “American Idol,” that may not mean much. But for 19-year-old Siobhan Magnus of Marstons Mills, to make the cut out of thousands of contestants from throughout the country hoping to become the next American Idol, it is huge.

The decision was announced Wednesday night on the show and word spread quickly through town.

Siobhan graduated from Barnstable High School in 2008 and her talent was well-known at the school.

Barnstable High School drama teacher John Sullivan has been directing students in plays for 32 years and he has seen a lot of talent. But when it comes to what set his former student Siobhan Magnus apart, he does not hesitate.

“She had the best voice I had ever heard,” he said. “For me, it’s once in a lifetime that I run into a voice like that and I’m very happy I did.”

“I’ve had very talented students,” Mr. Sullivan continued, “ones where you say, wow, they’re going to be a pro some day. She’s at the top of that list.”

Mr. Sullivan said Siobhan was in his shows since she was in sixth grade.

Of her voice, he said, “That’s an amazing instrument she had. I just used to shake my head all the time.”

He remembers when he first heard her sing among a group of students in middle school. “I kept stopping in my tracks, thinking, this is a very loud voice from a very small girl,” he said.

Siobhan’s talent even influenced Mr. Sullivan’s decisions on what shows he would do.

“I wanted to do ‘Pirates of Penzance’ just because of her. No one could sing that Mabel high note like her,” he said of the lead female part.

When Siobhan was a senior, Mr. Sullivan said he asked her what show she wanted to do and what part she would play. She suggested Golda in “Fiddler on the Roof.”

While his favorite role for Siobhan was Mabel, Mr. Sullivan said, Siobhan preferred her role as the Cheshire Cat in “Alice in Wonderland.”

She also played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” which was filmed as a show on the WB Network.

But those are only a few of Siobhan’s many performances over the years.

Mr. Sullivan said, he has lost count of how many shows she was in. “She was in something like 30 to 40 shows,” he said. That amounts to about 40 nights on stage per year, Mr. Sullivan estimates, maybe 200 performances in total during her school years.

The buzz about Siobhan is all over the high school, he said. He said students at the high school have been doing a lot of communicating—on Facebook, by e-mail and by text—about her success.

Mr. Sullivan pointed out that Siobhan has numerous talented siblings. The school’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof” had five of them. Besides Siobhan, there were her older brothers Rory and Joe and her sister, Emily, and even an appearance from one of her baby sisters, playing a newborn in the play.

Even Town Manager John C. Klimm was watching Siobhan this week, though he said he is usually not a big television viewer. “I am jumping on the ‘American Idol’ bandwagon this year,” he said. Mr. Klimm said he has heard that Siobhan sings lead vocals for the band Lunar Valve, loves horror movies and is a glass blowing apprentice at Morrison Glass Works on Main Street in Hyannis. “We’re rooting for you Siobhan!” he wrote in his weekly e-newsletter posted on the town’s website.

1 Responses to "Local Teen Siobhan Magnus Shines On ‘American Idol’ This Week"

1. krummy09 says: 02/20/10
   

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