Mariah Keefer
Monaca girl advances in Rocket to the Stars contest
Posted: Monday, March 26, 2012 9:26 am | Updated: 12:10 am, Tue Mar 27, 2012.
Monaca girl advances in singing contest By Scott Tady stady@timesonline.com Timesonline.com
Mariah Keefer, 17, of Monaca has advanced to the semi-finals of the $10,000 Rocket to the Stars singing contest in New Castle.
Keefer was one of two contestants chosen by judges to advance Saturday after her second-round audition at Kent State University at Trumbull in Warren, Ohio.
Keefer attends the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland, where she studies voice and plays on the girls’ basketball and volleyball teams.
She joins last week’s first round winner, Dawn Savage, a Robert Morris University graduate from New Brighton, and fellow second-round contestant Hunter Cook, 16, of Franklin, Pa., in the May 25 semi-finals at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, for the biggest singing contest in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.
Two Rocket to the Stars auditions remain, March 31 at East High School in Erie and April 7 at Westminster College in New Wilmington. Registration at both sites is from noon until 2 p.m.
Judges are giving automatic semi-final bids to one or two contestants per round, with other at-large bids to be awarded after further video review of contestants at the four auditions.
The finals take place July 14 at the Fireworks Festival in New Castle, which will be broadcast on multiple radio stations.
