Karmin

Graduate of Old Town

Photo of Amy and Nick from http://bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view/2011_0430berklee_grads_have_plenty_of_good_karmin

Nick Noonand and Amy Heidemann are in the mid-20s and are the musical duo known as Karmin. Nick is a graduate of Old Town High School and Amy is from Nebraska. They graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2010. They became overnight successes in January 2011 when they released Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj covers on YouTube. In the first two weeks it was viewed by 7 million people (and now over 12 million).

They started getting calls from producers, managers, record labels and then by Ellen DeGeneres. Since that time they’ve been guests on many shows including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Boston’s View, and last week on Saturday Night Live. If you google them you can learn more about Karmin (even how they decided on their name). They were inspired hip hop and learned a great deal about being on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

The most interesting part to me is of course that Nick is from Old Town and got his foundation in the public school music education program. The Bangor Daily News Living section article about Karmin on February 7th includes information about his background. In high school Nick excelled at trombone, taught himself piano and was a leader in and outside of the music room. He was supportive and kind to other students. His music teachers at Old Town High School included Jeffrey Priest, Shianne Wheeler-Priest and David Saucier.