PAC’s “Starz of Tomorrow” Show to Become Annual Event

COURT HOUSE – A new concert attraction for Cape May County was born at the Performing Arts Center of Middle Township on Friday night and it was so enthusiastically received by the audience that the producer announced he plans to make it an annual summer event at the PAC.
In a program called “Starz of Tomorrow,” producer John L. Curto of Stone Harbor assembled a cast of seven young talented singers and musicians, three of them from Cape May County, to showcase their talents before a local audience. Six of the performers represented prestigious music colleges while the seventh, still in high school, already has made it on Broadway.
Curto, a long-time enthusiast of the arts , said he has been wanting to present for a long time a concert of this kind which he said has seldom been offered locally with budding young stars.
“The performers received standing ovations and such outstanding comments when they met the audience after the concert that I decided this is something the arts scene needs in Cape May County and I announced it would become an annual attraction in the summer,” said Curto.
Kay Aspell, managing director of The PAC, said the free concert, which featured music from Broadway shows, was one of the best of the summer season and complemented the arts center’s busy schedule of outstanding attractions.
“We would more than welcome back the cast for future concerts , especially when they become the stars of tomorrow,” she said.
For three of the performers the concert was a homecoming of sorts. Baritone Jarrett Porter, now a student at the Eastman School of Music, is a graduate of Middle Township High School. Soprano Alyssa Sullivan , who finished fourth in the nation as a Broadway rising star and left for Orlando, Fla. on Monday to compete for the national title of Miss Outstanding Teenager, will soon enter her senior year at Middle Township High School. And soprano Lexis Petrella, a graduate of Ocean City High School, is a student at the Manhattan School of Music.
Others in the concert included pianist and artistic director Joseph Mohan of Buffalo, a student at Juilliard; baritone Jay Dref, also of Buffalo, and a recent graduate of Juilliard; bassist Corey Schutzer of Ridgewood, N.J. and drummer Jeremy Smith of Tennessee, both students at Juilliard.
Among those attending the concert was William Scheible, artistic director and conductor of the Ocean City Pops which will present a concert at The PAC on the night of Columbus Day, Oct. 12.