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Winners were chosen in five categories including an opera division in a nod to P.T. Barnum’s Swedish Nightingale Jenny Lind. Jacqueline Mate, 14, of Trumbull won that division with her rendition of “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from the long-running Broadway musical 'Phantom of the Opera.'
The other winners were Briana Knight, 13, of East Haven, in the 10-13 Division; Dante DiFederico, 15, of Stratford in the 14-16 Division; Adrian Cordova, 17, of Stratford in the 17-20 Division; and Jackie Guerrera, 26, of New Haven in the Adult Division, who won her Barnum’s Got Talent competition for the second consecutive year. Each went home with a trophy and a $500 cash prize.
Cordova also won this competition but as a freshman. “I had to come back and defend my title,” said Cordova, who sang an emotional song called “Letters from War, about the correspondence between a mother and son during wartime. Cordova aspires to be a recording artist. The other winners hope to perform on Broadway someday. “It means a lot to me. I can share that passion for music with the audience,” said DiFederico.
This year’s competition featured 24 performers singing a range of music from Broadway favorites to current pop ballads to iconic songs from movie classics. Samantha Lucier, 20, of Danbury, runner-up in the 17-20 Division, entertained the nearly 300 audience members with one of her own compositions.
Pint-sized powerhouse Charlotte Masi, 10, of Milford, pleased the crowd with her performance of “Cabaret” from the Broadway musical and film of the same name; and Nora Mullins, 11, of West Haven held the audience in thrall with her version of “Over the Rainbow” from the Wizard of Oz, for which she was named runner up in the 10-13 Division.
The other runners-up were: Will Morton, 16, of Fairfield in the 14-16 Division; Francesco D’Angelo, 40, in the Adult Division; and Tyler Cervini, 18, of Monroe in the Opera Division.
D’Angelo won the heart of every woman in the audience singing Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” to his wife, and Vonetta Booker of Stamford was a crowd favorite, singing Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing,” as was Julianna Nicole, 14, of Stratford, who sang “And I Am Telling You” from the Broadway musical and film 'Dreamgirls.'
“All I could say is wow. Awesome, all of you,” said Ringmaster Fred Hall, VP and General Manager of the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company. “I thought of the Barnum pin that many of us are wearing. On the bottom of the pin it has the words ‘imagine, inspire, enjoy.’ The contestants imagined and inspired and the audience thoroughly enjoyed every performance,” Hall said.
“We had the best of the best in our top 24 from the nearly 100 singers who auditioned from around Connecticut and Massachusetts. I have no doubt we will see some of these performers on Broadway and at the Grammy’s someday,” said Barnum’s Got Talent Program Chairman Eileen Ferrigno.
The event was sponsored by Elizabeth Pfriem, John F. Stafstrom Jr. and Dennis Murphy.
