Three outstanding performers, all Foothills Music Club Young Musicians Scholarship Program winners, are slated to perform on the celebratory 25th Anniversary Gala Concert on Oct. 13.

Each of these young people received a scholarship award during the last two years of the music club’s auditions.

Tyler Graeper, a magnificent baritone voice, is a sophomore at William Peace University in Raleigh, where he is majoring in music theater.

He is a voice student of Crystal McDaniel in Shelby and Jason Dula, a professor at William Peace University. Graper has great interest in reading and acting, in addition to his time spent perfecting his singing ability. Friends, family and church are three important factors in his life. For the gala concert, Graeper will sing the Italian aria Caro mio ben, and selections from Les Miserables and Shenandoah.

Pianist, Paulina Ray-Zorick has won two Scholarship Awards from the Foothills Music Club, during her high school years. She is now a first-year student at North Greenville University, where she is a piano performance major. Ray-Zorick has been a student of Judy Loveland in Hendersonville, and now studies piano with Fabio Parrini, a professor at NGU.

She is devoted to performing in dance and theater, as well as at the piano. In the gala concert, Ray-Zorick will play the Intermezzo, no. 3 from Klavierstücke, op. 119, by Brahms, and the dazzling Etude in c# minor, by Chopin.

Soprano Kate Riedy will be performing the well-known Voi che sapete from Mozart’s opera Le nozze di Figaro, as well as the beautiful O mio babbino caro by Puccini. Television advertisers have latched onto this lovely aria, so that it has now become a melody used in a variety of ads.

Riedy loves to act on stage, and is a familiar face in theater productions in Tryon, Greenville, S.C. and the general area. She especially likes to sing, act and dance with her brother and sister. A homeschooled 12th grader, Riedy studies voice with Mary Meyers, former Metropolitan Opera singer and a current FMC member now residing in Tryon.

The FMC Gala Concert will be on Sunday, Oct. 13, at 3 p.m. at the Tryon Fine Arts Center. Tickets are are available from FMC members, as well as at TFAC (828-859-8322).

In addition, raffle tickets for a condominium stay near Charleston, S.C., are available with a maximum of 200 tickets to be sold. All

proceeds from the gala concert and the raffle go to FMC’s Young Musicians Scholarship Program.

– article submitted by Ellen Harvey Zipf