First Place, worth $1,000: The brother-sister team of Stasz (violin) and Junia (piano)Klinge-Loy, who played “Czardas” by Vittorio Monti. They were so good, the audience kept interrupting the finale with applause.
Second Place, worth $500: Robert Matarazzo, an employee from Morristown’s AT&T store, who gave a sublime performance of Roy Orbison’s “Crying.”
Third Place, worth $250: Morristown High School senior Jenny Shih, for her powerful interpretation of Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35.
They edged out 13 other very strong acts in the smoothest, most entertaining edition yet of Morristown’s Got Talent! Next year will be the fifth anniversary. The Morris Educational Foundation will have to dig deep to top this year’s show.
The judges–pop singer Blaire Reinhardt, opera singer Karen Notare, CNBC’s Guy Adami and Jonathan Peirce, production director of the Community Theatre–said their selections were unanimous.
“Having a really solid performance and being able to sell it to the crowd” were key criteria, Blaire said, “and all of (the winners) really sold it.”
The dual emcees–longtime sports announcer Bill Bromberg and impressionist John DiDomenico (Donald Trump, Austin Powers, Dr. Phil) also did a nice job of moving things along.
Of course, the biggest winners were students of the Morris School District; the sold-out event at the Community Theatre should net about $35,000 for school programs, said Vince Morreale of the foundation.
We will be back with more–much more, including video of the winning performances. Stay tuned!
READ MORE ABOUT MORRISTOWN’S GOT TALENT!
