Performer returns to Eastern after 13 years

The+Eastern+Symphony+and+Chamber+Orchestra%E2%80%99s+rehearse+with+special+guest+singer+Regina+Rossi+for+the+upcoming+Stagestruck+concert+in+the+Dvorak+Concert+Hall+of+the+Doudna+Fine+Arts+Center+on+Wednesday.

Mackenzie Freund

The Eastern Symphony and Chamber Orchestra’s rehearse with special guest singer Regina Rossi for the upcoming Stagestruck concert in the Dvorak Concert Hall of the Doudna Fine Arts Center on Wednesday.

Stephanie White, Entertainment Editor

Returning after 13 years to sing with the Eastern Symphony Orchestra, professional singer and voiceover actress Regina Rossi will be joining her brother in the Stagestruck performance.

Her first time performing was in 2002 when she performed with her father, Anthony F. Rossi, who studied opera at Juilliard School of Music and sang professionally in many Broadway musicals.

Richard Rossi, who is Regina Rossi’s brother and director of orchestral and choral activities, conducting and organ, said his father and his mother, Barbara Winfield, met when they were touring together in the Broadway touring production of “South Pacific.”

Regina Rossi will return to Eastern to perform in the Stagestruck event 4 p.m. Sunday in the Recital Hall at the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Richard Rossi said she is the one who created Stagestruck in 2002 with their father.

Their father had just passed away in December 2014, so the Rossi siblings will be performing a piece he performed with Regina Rossi in 2002.

“It is a piece that both of my parents sang in the show on Broadway. The piece is titled ‘And This is My Beloved,’” Richard Rossi said.

He said the 2002 performance was a type of family affair.

“It wasn’t just my family who were performing, but a colleague of mine; Susan Teicher, who is now retired, had her mother come to the school as well,” he said.

“Her mother came from New York and played the violin and Teicher played the piano with another colleague.”

Teicher’s son also joined the family and performed with a graduate from Eastern, Richard Rossi said.

He said this 2002 performance was the first Stagestruck and there have been several ones since then.

“My dad and my sister, they did mostly the musical theater stuff, and then Teicher was a type of pops concert in a way,” Richard Rossi said.

He said his sister is a crossover singer, who is a person who can sing a variety of styles, and it is not something most people can do well.

Her talent in being that kind of singer is why he asked her to sing different forms of music.

“She’s a crossover singer, so I asked her to do everything from the opera from ‘La Boehm’ all the way to Broadway and jazz,” he said. “So she is doing the whole spectrum, that is what a cross over singer is.”

Richard Rossi said he asked his sister to perform a specific piece at the event.

“The piece that I asked her to do was ‘Glitter and be Gay,’ which is really a bucket list piece,” he said. “It is a piece I know that will be perfect for her and that she needed to learn. You have to be great to do it because it is a really hard piece which is why it is a bucket list piece.”

 

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].