FRANCESCO PINQUE
STAFF WRITER
A neo-folk songwriter performed along with her sister for a crowd of enthusiastic student fans in the Gentile Gallery on Monday night.
All of the songs Sarah Sparks and her sister Kate Lab played were original compositions that had been previously released on three albums: “Into the Lantern Waste,” “The Ways and Means” and “All I Have.”
Songs from “Into the Lantern Waste” were inspired by C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia.” “The Ways and Means” reflects Sparks’ personal encounters with God playing different roles in her own life, expressed by song titles such as “The Gardener” and “The Artist,” Sparks said.
Her latest album, “All I Have,” was the final product of several songs she was at first unable to release for three years due to a broken computer.
When asked about the motivation behind her songwriting, Sparks said that “it’s not success, money or even numbers.”
“It’s a different kind of motivation … I see it (as) God has given me a talent and a gift, and the faithful way is using that, and he’s in charge of the results and the success,” said Sparks.
The results of her performance were multiple rounds of applause, cheering and a long line of fans waiting to speak to her after the concert, all of which confirmed the success of her venture at Franciscan University.
“I was looking at the crowd and just thinking, ‘What a sweet gift it is that I not only get to use this gift (faithfully) but that it gets to be received and I get to see (its) impact,” said Sparks.
Junior Brittney Buchannan, who first contacted Sparks through instagram in October about the possibility of having a concert at Franciscan, attested to the positive impact of Sparks’ music.
“(Sparks’ performance) was definitely a gift from God. He definitely knows how much I love her music and how her music has changed my spiritual life a lot,” said Buchannan.
Sarah Sparks’ concert was sponsored by the Student Development Office.