The Northeast Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association will host Luzerne County and Beyond … Got Talent on April 7 at the F.M. Kirby Center. Shown outside the theater are organizers: Chris Bohinski of Eyewitness News WBRE/WYOU, who will perform during the event; Anita Sirak of NEPMTA; Times Leader Media Group Publisher Kerry Miscavage; Andrea Bogusko of NEPMTA; and state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, who will return as emcee.
Times Leader File Photo
Competition set for April 7 at F.M. Kirby Center
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Jimmy Stranger sang Wicked Game and earned enough audience votes to receive a second-place award earlier this year during the Luzerne County an d Beyond Got Talent show.
Times Leader File Photo
Robert Zaloga and Tess Parchinski were named the over all winners with a first-place judges’ award for their ‘Nutcracker’ ballet performance during the Luzerne Counnty and Beyond Got Talent show earlier this year.
Times Leader File Photo
Joan Harris Centre Boys brought home a third place peoples choice award earlier this yuear during the Luzerne County and Beyond Got Talent show. The deadline to audition for the 2024 competition in Jan. 30.
Times Leader File Photo
Maybe you sing, or play the guitar or piano.
Maybe you dance — solo, or with a partner, or with a group.
Maybe you’re a juggler or a ventriloquist or a comedian.
Whatever your talent might be, Andrea Bogusko of the Northeast Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association invites you to share it with the community.
You can start by visiting the nepmta.org web site, downloading an application and sending an audition video, not to exceed 90 seconds. Judges will narrow the field of applicants to 25 finalists, who will be invited to perform in the third annual Luzerne County and Beyond Got Talent event, set for 2 p.m. April 7 at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre.
Six cash prizes will be awarded, including a first place judges’ choice, $1,000; second place judges choice, $750 and third place judges choice, $500.
“It’s very exciting for the audience to have a choice, too,” Bogusko said, noting audience members are welcome to vote for their favorites, with the prizes for first audience’s choice being $750; second audience’s choice, $500 and third audiences’s choice, $250.
The competition began in 2022, and was known simply as Luzerne County Got Talent. It proved so popular that in 2023 the event expanded to include talented people who live outside the county. The named changed to Luzerne County and Beyond Got Talent.
The 2023 winners, announced after the competition in March, included Robert Zaloga and Tess Parchinski who won the first judge’s prize of $1,000 for their ballet sequence from “The Nutcracker,” while Mason Rinehimer won $750 and first place in the audience vote for his dance number, set to “Feeling Good” by Michael Bublé.
Additional audience prizes in the amount of $500 and $250 were awarded to second-place finisher Jimmy Stranger, who sang Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” and the third-place act from an all-boys class from the Joan Harris Centre, who performed a dance number to hit songs from the 1980s.
Proceeds of the Luzerne County and Beyond Got Talent event will benefit music scholarships.
For more information on the audition process or sponsorship opportunities, see nepmta.org, or contact info@nepamta.org or Andrea at 570-881-2118.