Revel 500 Boardwalk Revel Beach Atlantic City, NJ 08401
Breaking AC News @breakingacnews Jackie Evancho Atlantic City – Discount Tickets – February 16, 2013: Revel Presents Jackie Evancho in Atlantic City... dlvr.it/2pCP77 5:27 AM - 16 Jan 13
Some actors spend a lifetime searching without success for that one break that will catapult them onto a Broadway stage.
In just the last couple of years, Jackie Evancho has made a habit out of turning down such golden career opportunities.
Nothing personal, said the pre-teen singing prodigy whose angelic, classical-crossover voice stunned both the audience and the judges on the 2010 season of the NBC talent showcase America’s Got Talent. She just doesn’t feel like changing the way she sings.
During an October chat with public television station WQED in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Evancho said she’s not interested in the legitimate stage if it means having to sing “differently,” or in the time-honored tradition of “belting” out Broadway show tunes.
That’s not the sound that brought her to the dance and propelled her to a second-place finish on AGT and also lifted her from complete anonymity to concert hall headliner in less than a year. Best of all, Evancho’s heavenly voice — AGT judge Piers Morgan wondered aloud on the show if she was 30, not 10 — “has matured a lot” in the 30 months since she first appeared on the TV series, she told the Star-Ledger of Newark last June.
Home-schooled by her mother and taking classes online when she isn’t performing, Evancho, who turns 13 in April, is back on the road now touring major venues in support of her fourth album, Songs From the Silver Screen. Her road trip stops at Revel’s Ovation Hall on Saturday, Feb. 16, for a one-night stand, where she’ll become the youngest headliner ever to fly solo on the Boardwalk during the casino era.
Evancho understands she must make sacrifices in order to indulge her passion for singing, and one of them is the ability to attend public junior high school while simultaneously trying to juggle an adult career.
“I miss my friends in public school but it’s kind of a part of something that you have to give up,” Evancho said. “I’d rather perform than go to public school.”
Ever since she began performing publicly, her parents — Mike and Lisa Evancho— have been abundantly careful to make sure their preciously talented daughter is doing what she wants to do and to make sure everyone understands Jackie is making the decisions, not her parents, managers or agents.
“What I want for Jackie is what Jackie wants for Jackie,” said Mike Evancho, adding that he and his wife are constantly asking Jackie if she’s sure she really wants a career before she’s a teenager.
Mike Evancho said he gets very nervous watching his daughter perform live because he realizes “the moment she walks on the stage, as a parent you lose control.”
He felt far less nervous last year when his daughter made her motion picture acting debut. Typical of her career so far, she started out at the top; in her first film role, she plays Robert Redford’s daughter in the movie The Company You Keep.
When Evancho isn’t on the road or in a recording studio or a Hollywood sound stage, she becomes a normal 12-year-old or about as a normal as a 12-year-old can be when they have hit albums, top-grossing concert tours and debut movie roles opposite a screen legend.
Nearly three years removed from America’s Got Talent, Evancho said she and her dad still tune into the series. She considers Sharon Osbourne “really nice” and called new AGT judge Howard Stern “a great judge,” even though he didn’t pass judgment on her performances. She was too busy blowing away judge Howie Mandel, who was smitten with her talent.
Evancho has enjoyed a rather busy last couple of years. Not long after winning AGT in 2010, she was singing for President Barack Obama at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. She also performed with Broadway chanteuse and British stage goddess Sarah Brightman and Susan Boyle, the anonymous amateur singer who rocketed to international stardom after being introduced on Britain’s Got Talent.
The sky is quite literally the limit for Evancho, whose career options are spreading out before her. She considers her voice a “God-given” talent and accepts her preternatural talent as a gift. She seems comfortable in her 12-year-old skin and is already looking at the future. “I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me,” she said.
