Written by: Génesis Ventura
This semester, Ignite Live will feature singer/songwriter and Grammy-award winner Cory Asbury, according to Southern Adventist University’s website. Asbury is a successful artist and the composer of “Reckless Love” and “Sparrows,” a song he wrote during the pandemic using imagery from Matthew 6. The event will take place Saturday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m. in Iles P.E. Center.
As of Monday evening, tickets were sold out online. They were free for Southern students and alumni. For those who do not attend Southern, tickets cost $10 for adults, $5 for high school and college students and $25 for family packages of four.
Aaron Patterson, senior media production major and the producer, marketing assistant and co-host of Ignite, shared details about the event in an interview with the Accent. Patterson said the Ignite Live team has been planning this event for a long time and originally had another guest in mind. They initially built the show around that guest, but it did not work out.
“Right before Christmas break, they gave us a call and said that they were unavailable because the person had become pregnant, which is super cool,” Patterson said. “But it was kind of a frustrating thing to try, then, to pull something together.”
Patterson emphasized that he and Ignite sponsor Pablo Fernandez had to act quickly to find a guest for the event, which was two months away. When Patterson was trying to get in contact with Asbury, he sent several emails, and someone named Rebecca Cox got back to him. While conversing with her, they discovered that they knew each other because she took pictures for his wedding. Patterson said that was a blessing because Cox knowing him was all the credibility he needed to secure Asbury as a guest.
“I’m super proud of my team,” Patterson said. “I absolutely could not have done it without them, like, actually, could not have done it without them, because it was just such an incredible amount to do.”
Patterson said Ignite Live is like a Christian late night talk show. This year, it will be centered around the anxiety and stress that Asbury talks about in his song “Sparrows.”
Health science major Gianna Bacchiocchi, who serves as co-host and internal marketing director for Ignite, shared some more details about the event.
“We put in a lot of work to make a night for the students so that they can come and sit back and relax and experience playing games and good conversation and even better music,” Bacchiocchi said. “Cory is super talented. Not only is he going to be presenting just amazingly, brilliantly written songs … he’s also going to be shedding light on Christ.”
Senior advertising major Sarah Manuel, marketing director for Ignite, emphasized the work the team has put into this production.
“Ignite Live is a student-led production,” Manuel said. “I think it would be super cool for people to come out and support the hard work that has been put into this because the clubs are involved, [as well as] the School of Journalism and Communication and other departments. We are trying to show students that not just people from the School of Journalism and Communication can be involved with Ignite Live — that everyone is welcomed!”
