LPPACS senior Carley Cassandro guest vocalist for Una Bella Festa

Guest vocalist Carley Cassandro of Pittsburgh’s North Hills, a senior at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, will be guest vocalist for Una Bella Festa, the 8th annual Italan festival at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center on Sunday, July 26.

Lincoln Park resident artist and Grammy-winning jazz saxophonist Eric DeFade will direct an eight-piece orchestra backing up Cassandro and the headliner,  Italian tenor Elio Scaccio. Tickets are $40 for the show and a buffet dinner catered by Bella Futteto Italian Restaurant of Wexford. The caterer is new this year.

Tickets must be reserved by Wednesday, July 22. After that date, show-only tickets will go on sale for $20. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Lincoln Park box office, online at www.lppacenter.org, or by calling 724.576.4644.

Cassandro is to open the show and return later to sing a duet with Scaccio during his performance. Cassandro is familiar to Lincoln Park patrons from several shows last season including the lead role of Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” A Pittsburgh CLO performer, she sang and played the part of Amaryllis in Marvin Hamlisch’s production of “The Music Man” at The Benedum.

Doors for the dinner will open at 4 p.m. and dinner is to be served at 5 in Alumni Hall; the concert begins at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Park mainstage theater.

Elio Scaccio began singing acapella at age 8 with a group that included his two brothers. Classically trained but with an interest in pop, jazz, rock and Italian traditional songs, Scaccio has been performing for audiences his entire life. He studied jazz vocal technique in college and trained in classical music at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University.

His pop-classical debut CD, Lettere D’Amore, was released in the spring of 2010. He has toured widely especially through the East Coast as a featured performer and with The Sicilian Tenors and the show Two Gents and a Lady.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]