Superstars singing contest returns Saturday to Sondheim

The Superstars Singing Competition returns to the Sondheim Theater at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.  A near capacity audience saw Superstars 2010 and voted Priscilla Marlar the winner.

This year, Superstars has gone national with contestants from California, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Minnesota and Iowa competing. The competition is expected to be fierce, with the audience facing a difficult choice in determining the Superstar for 2011 and who gets the $1,000 prize.

The way the competition will work is that the 12 finalists will sing. During intermission, the audience will vote by ballot. The four super-finalists will sing again, and the judges will narrow it down to the final two. The audience will then vote on the winner.

National finalists include Aaron Alan from Minnesota, who has starred in numerous musicals in the Midwest, including ?Miss Saigon,? ?South Pacific,? ?Chicago,? ?The Producers? and ?Hairspray.?

Also competing will be Laura Thoreson, a student in the masters of vocal performance program at Indiana, who studies with a top vocal teacher in the United States.   Coming in from Los Angeles, is Michelle Craft, who studies at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

Danece Van Soelen from Des Moines, who won the Cambridge Idol competition, also will compete, along with two University of Iowa music students: Amy Toruno. who was a finalist in a televised singing competition in Miami, Fla., and 18- year-old Rachel Mione from Cedar Rapids, a senior at Iowa State University.

Joey Russell from Bloomfield, a vocal performance major at Simpson College in Des Moines, and Wesley Brown, who studied music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, also are finalists.  Finally, two Ottumwa singers, Astred Doud and Roy Belzer, as well as two Fairfield singers, Andy Toepel and Sarah Sica, will seek the $1,000 first prize.

Tickets can be purchased at  www.fairfieldacc.com or at the  FACC ticket office.