Songs from musical theater featured

“An Evening of Musical Theater” is set for Saturday, July 14, at the Waupaca High School Performing Arts Center.

The doors to the high school will open at 6 p.m., and the concert begins at 7 p.m.

In its 14th year, Rotary’s summer concert features vocalists and musicians in the community.

The concert also has a tradition of highlighting local rising stars and this year is no exception.

Nevaeh Johnson, who starred in the 2017 community theater production of “Annie,” will reprise her role this summer in the sequal, “Annie Warbucks.” She will be a special guest vocalist at Rotary’s concert.

Another newcomer to the concert, although not to the local stage, will be Bob Telfer.

A 1974 Waupaca High School graduate, Telfer is among the many WHS students whose talents were nurtured by the late Gerald Knoepfel.

Telfer performed in solo and ensemble festivals, as well as in productions of “Hello Dolly,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Brigadoon.”

As a member of the Waupaca Community theatre, he appeared as Drake in “Annie” and will be seen in “Annie Warbucks” as one of President Roosevelt’s cabinet members.

Tefler also sings in the Waupaca Fine Arts Community Chorus under the direction of Dan Wolfgram.

This year’s featured vocalists include Kathy Alan, John Hammond, Isaac Baumgart, Kelly Hacket, Tim Koll, Brayden Kendziora, Kira Morrissey and Carmen Riebel.

The accompanists are Wanda Eikenbary on piano, John Kelley on percussion, Erik Hendrickson on guitar and Dale Smith on bass.

Alan was the choral director at Waupaca High School for four years, with a total of 29 years in music education.

She is currently the executive director of the Green Bay Boy Choir and Girl Choir Organization and artistic director of Girl Choir.

She has been a singer with Jazz Central Voices, an ensemble from the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, in Wausau.

She also plays keyboards and sings with the band STEEM and is choir director at St. Mary’s Catholic Community, in Winneconne.

Hammond has performed in many Waupaca Community Theatre productions throughout the years, including “Oliver,” “Into the Woods,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Little Women” and “Sweeney Todd.”

He performs with the Shepherd’s Quarter gospel group and in an acoustic rock trio band called Hijinx.

He has participated in the Waupaca Community Chorus and the Stevens Point Northern Gateway Chorus.

Baumgart is a 2014 Waupaca High School graduate who has continued to study vocal music, sound arts and music history. He is currently living in Stevens Point, where he plans to continue his studies at UW-Stevens Point.

Hackett is a graduate of WHS and Lawrence University who has appeared in numerous musicals across the country, including “The Sound of Music,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Little Shop of Horrors” and “South Pacific.”

In Waupaca, she performed in “Oliver,” “The King and I” and “Into the Woods.”

Koll retired in 2016 as a high school English teacher and has returned to the performance background of his college days at the University of Minnesota in Morris, where he performed as a soloist in concerts, madrigals, opera workshops and recitals. He was part of the UMM choir in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”

In 2016, Koll performed in Waupaca Community Theater’s production of “Love Letters.”

He played Daddy Warbucks in the community theater’s production of “Annie.”

Kendziora received her bachelor’s degree in musical theater performance from Columbia College Chicago in 2016.

As an undergraduate, Kendziora worked on shows such as “Into the Woods,” “Godspell” and “Seize the Day: A Cabaret.”

She may be familiar to Waupaca audiences as Agnes Gooch in “Mame” and Olive in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” with the community theater and as the title in WHS’s “Hello Dolly.”

She is currently studying clinical mental health counseling and expressive art therapy at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Morrissey currently teaches general and vocal music in the Iola-Scandinavia School Distict.

Over the course of her 18-year career, she has taught sixth-grade general music, middle school choir, high school choir, high school band, music theory, music appreciation, and private voice and piano.

Trained in Kindermusick and VoiceCare, Morrissey has directed the pit orchestra for several musicals. She made her stage debut in “Into the Woods” in Waupaca.

Riebel is a Waupaca native who enjoyed performing in WHS musicals under the direction of Knoepfel.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in music therapy, Riebel returned to Waupaca and has performed in 11 local musicals.

She works as an activity therapist at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King and sings with the Shepherd’s Quartet.

The piano accompanist, Eikenbary holds a bachelor’s degree in performance pedagogy from Loyala University in New Orleans and a master’s degree in piano performance from the University of North Texas.

Since 2004, she has been the director of music ministries at Trinity Luther Church, in Waupaca.

A piano teacher for more than 35 years, Eikenbary serves as an accompanist for the Waupaca Community Choir and Waupaca Community Theater. She also plays with Shepherd’s Quarter.

A tax-deductible, freewill offering will be collected. The Waupaca dance Team will sell concessions during intermission.

Sponsored by Neuville Motors and Waupaca Rotary Club, proceeds from the concert help fund scholarships, educational grants, Rotary scholarships and the WHS Music Department.