Westminster College students excelled in a local talent show, New Wilmington’s Got Talent, held on Sunday, Aug. 25, at the New Wilmington Borough Park Amphitheater.

The competition, modeled after the hit TV show “America’s Got Talent,” featured a variety of musical performance types and age groups.

Local celebrity judges who evaluated the performances determined the awards and audience members also had the opportunity to cast their vote for the Fan Favorite award.

Winners included:

First place: Gabriel Spinello, a first-year chemistry and music double major from Pittsburgh. Spinello sang “Hellfire” from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” musical.

Third place: Mitchell Tokar from New Wilmington. Tokar sang “I Believe in You” from the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” with backup vocals provided by his brother, Michael Tokar, a senior business administration major at Westminster.

Fan Favorite: Calvin McCree and Jace Hamilton from Wilmington Area School District. The pair performed an original rap song.

The second-place winner was a teenager from New Wilmington who wished to remain anonymous.

A total of 12 youths participated in the show, which featured music performances ranging from country, rock, rap and musical theater songs. The event concluded with last year’s winner, Morgan Litz, a Westminster sophomore music education major from Wexford, Pa., who sang “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked.”

Celebrity judges included JaKobe Henry, teaching fellow for Westminster’s School of Music; Brendan Hathaway, junior/senior high school principal of the Wilmington Area School District; and Todd Cole ’83 of New Wilmington, an adjunct faculty member in Westminster’s School of Education.

Winners received cash prizes thanks to the generous donations from supporters of the New Wilmington Arts in the Park event.

New Wilmington’s Got Talent is sponsored by the New Wilmington Economic Development Corporation (EDCOM), the Live New Wilmington Amphitheater Committee and organized by the Youth Unplugged Committee of local teens. The group is planning another summer Youth Unplugged concert series and talent competition for next year.

Picture above is first-place winner Gabriel Spinello.

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