The sound of music filled the air at the amphitheater in front of the Ronnie Williams Student Center March 7, when indie singer-songwriter and former “The Voice” contestant Lauren Frihauf performed a mix of covers and original songs.

Switching between playing keyboard and an electric hollow-body guitar, Frihauf serenaded passersby and the small crowd that gathered at the amphitheater with her soulful originals and solo renditions of songs like Radiohead’s “High and Dry” and The Killers’ “When You Were Young.”

Frihauf said the concert was her first time visiting Arkansas, flying from Colorado just for the show.

“It’s beautiful,” Frihauf said. “Thank you for having me, I love Arkansas.”

Based in Denver, Colorado, Frihauf released her debut EP last year with friend and fellow Coloradan musician Ben Suyat, titled “The Latona EP,” and recently finished recording for her debut album, titled “Shadows in the Soul Machine.”

“My friend Ben Suyat and I wrote several songs together in high school and recently recorded them and released them,” Frihauf said.

CD copies of “The Latona EP” were available for free at the concert, and several attendees grabbed one after the show.

Besides Radiohead and The Killers, Frihauf said Joni Mitchell, Emily King and Allan Stone were influences on her work.

“I’m also a really big fan of Hiatus Kaiyote,” Frihauf said.

Frihauf was a “Top Shelf” finalist in National Public Radio’s 2022 Tiny Desk Concert — an open contest where NPR picks an artist to film a Tiny Desk Concert, a popular YouTube series on the “NPR Music” YouTube channel — for her song “Fragments of a Stranger.”

She played “Fragments of a Stranger” — which Ashley Pointer of NPR called an “honest confrontation about being lost and not knowing who you are” — before closing her set with a soft cover of Harry Styles’ 2022 hit “As It Was.”

A contestant on season 19 of “The Voice,” which premiered October 2020, Frihauf said she got to meet all the celebrity judges and coaches, such as Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson, and work closely with John Legend and Gwen Stefani.

“It was pretty crazy,” Frihauf said. “Considering it was ‘The Voice’ and it was also during COVID, it was a really weird experience … but a lot of fun.” 

Back in Colorado, Frihauf has been building a reputation around Denver with her shows from a young age.

“She’s had ticketed shows in Denver,” Shelley, Frihauf’s mother, said. “Before she was professional, she’d done Red Rocks [Amphitheatre] with the School of Rock.”

Shelley said School of Rock — a company that teaches children how to play instruments and showcase their skills in concerts, with two Arkansas locations — gave Frihauf many opportunities to perform from a young age.

Frihauf is signed to Houla Entertainment, an entertainment booking company with a focus on college markets, which sends her all over the country to perform at different university campuses. 

She has several upcoming shows in Colorado, as well as a couple of one-off shows in Pennsylvania and Montana.