Doyle Dazzles With Her Salute

Victoria Doyle (Class of 2011), originally from Philadelphia, is a Rollins student studying music and voice performance. Doyle specializes in the jazz/lounge style, which she considers her life and passion. In addition to giving performances and singing songs by early 20th century songwriter Cole Porter, she has recorded her own album, "A Salute to Cole Porter," which compiles and pays tribute to what she considers the best works of her favorite composer. She sings each song on the album with a nostalgic and heartwarming passion, as the album, according to her, showcases the set list used for her best live performances. Doyle started taking voice lessons at eight years old, and has had one-woman shows at nursing homes since. She has also sung in musicals and plays, including "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Anything Goes" (a Cole Porter musical), "Footloose," and "Little Women." Her main influences are Ella Fitzgerald (her favorite singer) and Michael Bublé. Doyle "loves her [Ella Fitzgerald's] voice, and her renditions of songs are amazing." She also loves Michael Bublé's arrangements, and listens to a diverse array of music besides her jazz/Broadway standards.

Doyle's "A Salute to Cole Porter" is a "best of" compilation of Cole Porter standards, plus several songs inspired by him in his style. The former are: "You Do Something To Me," "Night and Day," "Let's Do It," "Just One of Those Things," "Begin the Beguine," "So In Love," "What Is This Thing called Love?," and "True Love." The latter include "Smile," composed by Charlie Chaplin for his movie "Modern Times," with lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons, and "Sway," a mambo-style song composed by Pablo Beltran Ruiz, which has been covered by artists such as Bjork, Cliff Richard, and Michael Bublé.

"Smile" and "Sway" "fit the same mood of the whole album. Like, 'So In Love' would have a Latin beat, and it would carry over in 'Sway,'" Doyle commented.

When asked what inspired her to record a Cole Porter tribute album, Doyle replied that she got good reactions from the songs, and that the first one-woman show she performed was a Cole Porter show.

"And this [the album] is basically that show, just recorded. If you were to see one of my Cole Porter shows, it'd be all these songs. I knew the songs so well, I've done them so many times, and thought it'd be really good to record them," Doyle said.

Doyle sings in choirs here at Rollins, and often performs shows in her home town of Philadelphia at several different venues, including local restaurants. Rollins was "a great fit" for her as a music and voice performance student, she shared.

"I rode on the Winter Park road tour, and we were passing Rollins College and I was all, 'Oh, what's that?' and they were saying that it was the first day of classes, and they were all by the pool, and I said 'I'm definitely going to that school!' and then, whoa, here I am! I also wanted a school that would allow for me to be a music major, and study lots of other things as well," Doyle said.

Doyle has expressed her desire to record more in the future, as she hopes to record new tracks she has been working on when she returns to the studio. Doyle's artist information is available on iTunes, CDBaby, and MySpace.

"These songs are the best of the best! They don't write them like this anymore, so if you don't know them, give the album a listen!" Doyle offered.

She also recommends Rollins students to visit the New Texture Web site, her brother's publishing company on which she is a featured artist.

For Rollins students and fans of nostalgic music, Doyle is a definite must to check out. My personal favorites from "A Salute to Cole Porter" include Doyle's covers of "You Do Something to Me," "Night and Day," "Let's Do It," "So In Love," and "Sway," though all are very enjoyable to listen to. You will be pleased with Victoria's melodic, talented, and harmonious voice.