14-03-2025
‘Don't put yourself in a box': Webster grad competes on national singing competition show
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — When Aaron Rizzo graduated from Webster Thomas High School in 2016, he knew he would establish himself in the music scene somewhere and someway. But his latest venture on one of America's biggest singing competitions, he calls 'completely unexpected.'
'When I was at Thomas, I was just kind of getting into singing at that point,' Rizzo said. 'It wasn't even something that I ever considered. I was honestly just like 'I'm just going to speak through my guitar, and that's it.''
Rizzo soon went to Ithaca College for recording, still concentrating on guitar, and telling those stories through music.
'That was really where I started to hone my original music, I would say, and kind of come into myself as a singer, working one night a week with whatever time I could get in the studio,' Rizzo said.
Moving to Atlanta, opportunity slowly struck.
'I quickly got into the music scene here and ended up joining a corporate band. I was at an open mic one day,' Rizzo said. 'It was this Tuesday night open mic that we went to every week, and someone from the show happened to be there. They were just in town, visiting a friend, grabbing a drink at a bar, and I happened to be playing this open mic that they were at. And she came up to me after we played, and she was like, 'Hey, I work for 'The Voice' you should apply.'
The idea, Rizzo said, was swept under the rug for about six months — until he brought it up to a friend he was playing with.
'He was like, 'I'll quit the band if you don't apply.' And so, I was like, 'Whatever, man.' And so, the next day, I emailed him 'Is that offer still valid?' She goes, 'Yeah, you have three days to get every all the submission materials in.'' Rizzo said.
Then — the call came in that Rizzo was set to compete in the show's 'Blind Auditions.'
'I never even considered myself a singer, and here I am on 'The Voice,' and I feel like, if anything, that's a testament to, don't let this arbitrary idea of what you think success is, box in the person that you currently are,' Rizzo said. 'There was just a life of musical fulfillment and experiences of musical fulfillment for me were on the other side of one difficult decision. And so here we are. When I stop watching it at night, I go to my life and I'm like, 'Oh, wait, yeah, that's happening, right?''
That feeling — the strongest when it came time for the audition.
'There aren't a ton of words that are sufficient in describing that feeling. I've performed my whole life, so I definitely don't have stage fright at this point. But I remember being about to walk out on that stage, and my heart is pounding out of my eyes, and I remember just having this thought of 'this is really happening.' I'm really about to walk out and do this. John, Kelsea, Michael and Adam, they're all out there. That's not holograms. It's not AI, like they're real. I remember those doors opening. I walk out, I'm standing on my mark, and it was, it was quiet in the room, so that we can count in and start playing. But I remember feeling this like spiritual silence in that moment, and thinking in my head, 'I've prepared for this as much as I can, and now I'm just going to do what I do best and do the best I can. And whatever happens, happens.'
And what happened — was a chair turn from Michael Bublé. As the competition continues, Rizzo said he only has gratitude for his hometown.
'It took a village to get me to where I am today. And so, all of that praise and all the love, it holds a different kind of gravity at this point, because I'm standing on their shoulders, right? All of my family and my friends from Rochester and my music teachers and all the schools I went to, like all of that had to come together for me to get here,' Rizzo said.
Rizzo also gave credit to the crew of the show and expressed gratitude for the other singers in the competition.
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