Knights of the Mohawk front from left: Kevin Swayze, Ted Lenio; standing center: Bob Lalli; standing rear, left to right: Bill Coyne, Fred Wiginton, Art Zelesnikar, Skip Beardsell, Kerry Grant, Bob Porter, Loren Rinehard. (Not pictured: Bernie Hurlbut).
(Oneida, NY – March 2015) Broadway music fans are in for a treat on Friday April 10 when the Holy Cross Academy choirs will team up with local celebrities to present a special concert at 7 p.m. in the Kallet Civic Center, 159 Main St., Oneida.
Special guest performers include mezzo soprano Juliane Price, Classified’s vocalist and trumpet player Scott Rutledge, The Knights of the Mohawk barbershop quartet, The Mad Jugglers of Azkaban,a juggling team made up of HCA alumni, and piano virtuoso Fr. James Tormey.
The program will include selections and medleys from such popular shows as West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Lion King, Les Miserables, Annie and more.
In addition audience members will be welcomed to complimentary hors d’oeuvres and desserts at table seating.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at Eventbrite.com, by visiting HolyCrossAcademy.com, or by calling the school at 363-1669. If the show is not sold out, tickets will also be available at the door on April 10.
Mezzo soprano Juliane Price, a native of Germany, graduated from FolkwangHochschule in Essen with a Masters Degree in Opera/Performing. She is the winner of the German National Voice Competition and first prize winner in the LotteLenya Voice Competition held in Berlin in 2000. In the US, she has worked for Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros., among others. With her husband, Stephen, she founded A VI VO (Acting, VIolin, VOice) to educate kids and teens in the fields of Drama, Music, Voice and Violin and Clever Canaries Music Together to work with children 0-6 years old and their caregivers to bring music and movement to their lives and help them bond with each other and the arts for life.
Scott Rutledge, director of the Holy Cross Academy music program, graduated from the Crane School of Music at Potsdam and was a member of the Olympic Symphony Orchestra for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid NY. As lead vocalist and trumpeter for central New York’s powerhouse horn band “Classified”, (1992-present) Scott has shared the stage with many legendary performers, including: Earth, Wind and Fire, Benny Mardones, and The Temptatations. He regularly sings the national anthem for college and professional sporting events including performances for MLB’s Baltimore Orioles, and continues a very full schedule as a performer, teacher, conductor, and clinician in a wide variety of popular, jazz, classical and sacred musical settings.
The Knights of the Mohawk, Rome’s chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society in the Senecaland District, keeps barbershop music thriving in Central New York as it hasbeen for more than half a century. The group’s approximately two dozen members (some having sung for four decades) love to sing together for audiences at many venues from nursing homes to special events.
Fr. Tormey, who was pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Lee Center until his retirement last year, is a renowned concert pianist.
The 70-member Holy Cross Academy choir has won trophies at each of the six Darien Lake Music Fests they have attended, including the top prize for all vocal categories at last year’s competition.
Holy Cross Academy is an independent Catholic junior/senior high school located in Oneida.