Ali Washington © Andrea Canter

Katie Gearty and Connie Olson © Andrea Canter

Connie Olson is a well-known area vocalist who started performing professionally at 17. A lead singer for a wide range of music ensembles, including rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz, she’s worked in Los Angeles, sung with the Peter Duchin Big Band, Peter Graves Orchestra, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and with the bands of Prince and Madonna. Locally she has often graced the stages of Rossi’s, the Dakota and the Times; her Doris Day tribute recording (Daydreaming) led to shows in Los Angeles as well as in the Twin Cities. But in addition to her work as a performer, Connie is a dedicated educator who once worked as a clinician at the Manhattan School of Music. She has been teaching voice students (from elementary school age to young adults) privately for the past ten years, and held her first Rising Stars show at Rossi last summer.

Sally Austin Jaffray © Andrea Canter

But Connie does not call this “teaching” – she prefers the term “coaching.” “I call it coaching because I don't teach notes!” explains Connie. “We just sing. I believe we all pick songs for a certain reason and you learn this way—about breathing, intonation, tone, rhythm, articulation— through the desire of wanting to learn the song. Any of the great artists that have gone before us or are still with us have these attributes, and by picking a singer and learning the song the way they do it, we learn something that we need, and it gives us confidence to create our own expression… Through this mode of coaching, these students do so well in the other areas of their lives—they develop self confidence and their grades are better in school.”

The “Rising Stars” who will perform on June 3^rd represent all of Connie’s current students. “The students that I have right now are all very talented; some have worked with me for two years, some 6 months, but they all have something valuable to bring to the plate…I learn as much from them as they do from me.”

The Rising Stars of 2007

Several of the performers this year were also part of the 2006 show; for the others, this will be their Rossi’s debut. The line-up for June 3^rd:

Maxwell Harrison Fink © Andrea Canter

• Haley Backdahl, age 11, is a fifth grader at Groveland Elementary in Minnetonka. Favorite activities include singing, songwriting, playing guitar, dance line, ice skating, swimming and Girl Scouts. In the future she hopes to work as a vet while performing evenings as a singer. Her favorite artists are Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, and Avril Lavigne.

• Bradley Charles Daniels is the “old timer” among Connie’s students, a graduate of Chisholm High School and the Brown Institute (with a degree in broadcasting). With a day job as a service advisor in the auto industry, Brad finds time to perform in theater with area community colleges and practices ice dancing.

   

  

  Gabriel Lindsey Fink © Andrea Canter

• Gabriel Lindsey Fink will be a fourth grader at Harriet Bishop School this fall. He started piano at age five and enjoys soccer, drawing, and video games. Gabe’s artwork has been accepted for the school district art fair for the past two years and performed in his school’s talent show, as well as the 2006 Rising Stars show at Rossi’s.

   

• Maxwell Harrison Fink (Gabe’s brother) will enter junior high at Eagle Ridge School this fall. He performed a solo as part of the All District Honors Choir this year and has played piano since age five. A talented artist, Max composes his own music and plays with Burnsville’s traveling soccer team. He also performed in the 2006 Rising Stars show.

   

• Rebecca Fogel performed in her high school choir and started studying voice with Connie after graduation. She likes a wide variety of music, especially tunes from the fifties, sixties and seventies, and jazz—perhaps influenced by her father, popular Twin Cities’ crooner Arne Fogel. She’ll perform songs of her favorite singer, Bonnie Raitt, who she was thrilled to meet a few years ago.

   

  

  Freyja Hafner © Andrea Canter

• Freyja Hafner graduates this spring from 8^th grade at Lake Harriet Community School and will be a freshman at the Main Street School of Performing Arts in Hopkins this fall. Freyja has taken weekly lessons from Connie for nearly two years, and is particularly interested in singer Keri Noble. This spring she performed in her school’s production of Bye Bye Birdie and was one of the Rising Stars of 2006.

   

• Sally Austin Jaffray is completing her junior year at Orono High School. One of the “rising stars” last year, Sally has a lot of musical experience, including two recordings with pianist Benny Weinbeck, one track on Kris Kringle’s Sing-Along Jingles for Target, and on the compilation, The Future of Minneapolis Music, sponsored by the Children's Music and Arts Foundation. She also had a role in her school’s production of The Sound of Music.

   

• Alexandria (Ali) Washington is another returning Rising Star who has been composing music since age 8. At 13, she was runner up in the teen division of the Center Stage talent competition at the Mall of America. Over the past few years she has won events at Jackpot Junction, the Dakota County Fair, State Solo Ensemble, and traveled to audition for the hit series American Idol, in which she placed in the top 25 out of 8,000 contestants. Ali is completing a demo CD of her original music.

   

In Sunday’s showcase, each of Connie’s students will perform three songs, with the professional backing of pianist Mary Louise Knutson, bassist Andy LaCasse, drummer Greg Schutte, guitarists Mike Cramer and Gary Paulak, and “backup” vocalists Katie Gearty and Connie Olson. With such high class support, Connie's "rising stars" will provide an inspiring afternoon showcasing some of the finest emerging vocal talents of the Twin Cities. Come down to Rossi’s Sunday to hear the future of vocal music!

“This showcase is really about the reality of all that they have worked for. They are in a ‘real’ stage situation with a real band, sound system, audience and lights... they are the stars" — Connie Olson

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