The ANNOTICO Report

I've known the Musumeci Kids dad, Joe for several years now (via the
Internet), and followed their careers.

I do not understand why I have Not seen them on Leno, Letterman, O'Brien,
or Oprah  !!!!

These Kids are REALLY Talented.

Joseph, only 12, a tenor, won the Mario Lanza singing competition in NYC in
July, coming in ahead of adult men.
Lauren, 17, a soprano, will make her Carnegie Hall debut May 21.
Lauren and Joseph have won the annual award presented by the Sergio Franchi
Foundation to opera singers.
 

A spotlight's on two young Penn Valley singers, but they don't mind.

Philadelphia Inquirer
By Susan Weidener
Inquirer Suburban Staff
Sun, May. 01, 2005

The Musumeci brother-and-sister singing sensation are posing with "The
Donald" at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Lauren is in a lavender
strapless evening gown, Joseph in white tie and tails, both looking relaxed
and at home as though sitting for a family portrait, not attending a
"billionaire birthday bash" for Donald Trump last June.

The operatic wunderkinds from the Main Line can also be found on their own
personal Web sites, photographed with celebrities such as Lou Rawls, Tony
Orlando and Michael Bolton.

Joseph and Lauren Musumeci of Penn Valley are unfazed by all the attention
and forecasts for a stellar future, just as they were unfazed when they
discovered six years ago that they had voices that could span the scales in
full vibrato.

Joseph, 12, a tenor, won the Mario Lanza singing competition in New York
City in July, coming in ahead of adult men.

Was he nervous? Not Joseph, a seventh grader at Welsh Valley Middle School.
"It was really fun and no one thought I was going to win," he said.

He has been chosen to appear in a proposed Broadway musical about Mario
Lanza called Be My Love. Although no opening date has been set, Joseph will
play the young Lanza.

 Opera tenor Gaston Rivero asked her to sing duets with him at a tribute to
Tosti, the noted Italian composer. Rivera selected Lauren after he heard
her effortlessly trill arias last year at the Sergio Franchi Memorial
Concert in Connecticut. Lauren and Joseph have won the annual award
presented by the Franchi foundation to opera singers.

Last month, Lauren and Joseph's mother, Ida, who is also their vocal coach,
began letting Lauren wear cocktail dresses when she performs.

Before that it had been "long evening gowns," Lauren said with a slight
grimace. Now she prefers aqua taffeta with a tiny rhinestone pattern, which
flares out in layers above the knees.

Neither Lauren nor Joseph has stage fright.

"None at all," Lauren said with a smile, flipping back her long, wavy dark
hair, which curls halfway down her back.

For his part, Joseph once called a radio station and sounded so much like
Elvis when he sang that no one could believe he was a child, his mother
recalled.

He's as comfortable in a tux as in baggy jeans. At parties and bar
mitzvahs, he keeps the jacket buttoned, and never loosens his tie, he says.
Oh, and someday he wants to be a concert artist, like Pavarotti.

"They like to get dressed up and enjoy socializing with older people. We
always took them to shows and to restaurants. We never left them," said
their father, Joe, who describes himself as a successful businessman and
who manages his children's careers.

"I can't explain it. They are like these little old souls," Ida said with a
laugh on a recent day in their French contemporary home with circular
driveway and Roman-style statuary.

She teaches them because "opera teachers won't touch anyone at this young
age." She has tried, but no one even wants to listen to them sing, she
said. The voice needs time to mature, yet in many ways, she said, her
children's voices are mature, evidenced by Joseph's winning the Mario Lanza
competition and Lauren's scheduled debut at Carnegie Hall.

Ida's father and grandfather were from Naples and both liked to sing, but
in those days, "show biz was frowned on," she said. So neither pursued a
professional singing career.

Her son, Joseph, she notes, looks like her father, Salvatore. In fact,
Joseph started singing the day after her father died.

Lauren discovered she had a voice shortly after she tried out for a school
musical featuring pop tunes. She was 11 at the time.

"When she went to sing, the voice that came out was incredible," Ida said.

"She got more and more confident. No stage fright. She stole the show... .
People came up to us and said, 'You never told us she could sing.' We said
we didn't know."

Of her pop singing debut at Penn Valley Elementary, Lauren remembers that
"the notes weren't long enough for me. I like singing opera because my
voice is best suited for that," she said.

At a recent children's variety telethon in New York City, she sang an aria
from La Boheme in Italian. The song was about a girl trying to make her
boyfriend jealous, to win him back by telling him that other men were
paying attention to her.

The brother-and-sister duo will tour this summer, giving concerts in New
England and California. Their future looks bright, reminiscent of Mario
Lanza, the South Philadelphia tenor who brought opera to the masses.

Damon Lanza, Mario Lanza's son, met the Musumeci children two years ago.

"We were totally wowed by them. They have these fantastic voices," Lanza
said. "For them to be so young and to possess the voices to sing such
difficult arias at such a young age is very unusual.

"Lauren and Joseph are very, very unique. I can see these two wonderful
kids as the next Mario Lanza and Kathryn Grayson."

Contact suburban staff writer Susan Weidener at 610-701-7623 or
sweidener@phillynews.com.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/p
hiladelphia_county/main_line/11524223.htm

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