Toledo’s Top Talent winners
Top 3 winners of talent competition awarded at ceremony
The top three winners of a local talent competition, Toledo’s Top Talent, took home prizes totaling more than $3,500 for their hard work and dedication this season.
The final round of the competition was held on Sept. 22 at the Peristyle Theater at The Toledo Museum of Art and featured five remaining finalists who battled it out for the top three winning spots.
A ceremony was held at Taylor Hyundai of Perrysburg on Oct. 10 to award the first, second and third place winners: Oscar Tovar, Luis Gamez and Mariah McCarter. They won $2,000 and a recording contract, $1,000 and $500, respectively. The ceremony featured food from Antojitos Laredo Tacos, sweet treats from Telera’s Bakery/Panaderia, giveaways and individualized awards presented to each winner.
“Toledo’s Top Talent is just one way we can showcase some of these kids and the talent that really is in Northwest Ohio,” said Steve Taylor Jr., dealer at Taylor Automotive Family.
Toledo’s Top Talent is an annual 12-week talent competition open to performers ages 8-24 in the greater Toledo area. Now in its second year, the competition partners with the City of Toledo, Taylor Automotive Family, The House of Chaos and Mas Y Mas Guidance and Supportive Services to fund the competition and its prizes.
Tovar, 18, is the first-place winner. He is an electrical engineering student at The University of Toledo and a second-year competitor in Toledo’s Top Talent. In the first season of the competition, Tovar placed 2nd place overall and he said his experiences last year helped him improve his confidence as a performer. It also prepared him for the rigor of this year’s competition.
“Last year I imagined myself as a singer,” he said. “But this year, I was like no, I am a singer, and I need to perform like one.”
Tovar won $2,000 and a recording contract with San Antonio-based music producer Gilbert Velasquez. Tovar and Velasquez have begun collaborating on the details of the contract and they will be recording, mixing, mastering and producing an original single or cover that is set to be released early next year.
“To me [the first place prize] means hard work and effort. I think I can finally see that when you put in the work you get what you deserve and that means a lot to me,” Tovar said after the ceremony.
He added that he is looking forward to using his experiences to become a mentor for the younger competitors in future seasons of Toledo’s Top Talent.
Gamez, 20, took home the second place prize of $1,000 after placing fifth overall last year. Gamez said he accessed his performances last season, and worked to improve himself as a person and as a musician this year. He worked on things such as his versatility and his stage presence, but his biggest challenge of all was his battle with sciatic nerve pain in his back, which hindered his ability to perform at his best.
“I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t run; I couldn’t perform the way I wanted to perform,” he said. “It wasn’t until I started to practice music that it gave me the energy to go work out. And once I got my back pain in order, my creativity exploded.”
Gamez challenged himself by performing different styles of music for each round of the competition this year, including cumbia, rock, opera and abuelito, a variation of mariachi. He said he plans on maintaining a diverse style in his upcoming multi-genre album that is set to drop in April 2025.
Gamez said winning the second place prize means a lot to him because he will be using his prize money to fly to Mexico and visit the ashes of his late mother.
“When my mom passed away, her ashes were taken to Mexico with my grandma to have her next to my grandpa,” he said. “It would be amazing to fly there and get to see her.”
Gamez plans on taking this special trip at the end of this year or early next year to honor her.
His upcoming album, as well as his other songs, Siete Dias and Carne Asada Cypher, can be streamed on all platforms, including YouTube and Spotify.
Toledo’s Top Talent will be making a change next season, as it is being introduced into Toledo Public Schools in 2025. The competition will remain open to the public, but event organizer Sabina Rodriguez said it is likely that Toledo’s Top Talent team will have to cap the number of contestants moving forward.
“We’ve been trying to get into TPS since the first year we started,” she said. “We’re going to be all throughout the city because we’re going to be in all TPS schools and pulling from all different areas.”
Interested competitors are encouraged to apply for Season 3 on the Mas Y Mas Guidance and Supportive Services website at the beginning of the upcoming year.
Auditions will be held in-person and virtually throughout the month of April, and the 2025 season will run from the beginning of May until the first week of September.
Music & chills by candlelight
String quartet to perform Halloween-themed tunes
TOLEDO – The Toledo Summit in Downtown Toledo is going to get pretty creepy.
As the season of ghosts and spooks hits full stride, the venue will host Halloween-themed Candlelight Concerts on Oct. 19 and 27.
The Listeso String Quartet, comprised of two local violinists, a violist and a cellist, is scheduled to perform seasonal favorites that conjure up sinister images, such as Beetlejuice, Michael Myers, the Exorcist, Ghostbusters, Norman Bates and the “altogether ooky” Addams Family.
The promotion company Fever has been presenting Candlelight Concerts around the globe since 2019, starting in Madrid, and has sold millions of tickets in more than 150 cities and 20 nations. The company began hosting concerts in Toledo in 2023.
“Since our launch in Toledo, we’ve been warmly received by the local audience, and we look forward to continuing to enrich the city’s cultural scene with new programs, like Halloween-themed or our Holiday Special featuring The Nutcracker and more,” said Amanda Boucault, communications coordinator for Candlelight Concerts, in an email Q&A.
The Toledo shows thus far have featured classical musicians giving different spins on familiar songs by artists, such as the Beatles, Coldplay, Adele, Queen, and Imagine Dragons, all surrounded by the soft glow of thousands of electronic candles flickering on and near the stage.
Fever’s goal from the start has been to make classical music more accessible to audiences that don’t usually listen to the genre.
“We launched Candlelight Concerts in 2019 as we recognized the need to make classical music more accessible to a wider audience and reach beyond the core demographic of classical music enthusiasts,” Boucault said.
This innovative format represents a unique live musical experience through a varied offer of programs to meet all tastes, played by local musicians, in emblematic venues, with the space and performers illuminated by thousands of candles
Amanda Boucault
The musicians are hired by Fever’s in-house music curation team, which Boucault said is dedicated to selecting talented local musicians who align with their belief that classical music can reach a diverse audience and demonstrate this by performing compositions for all tastes.
The local musicians can vary from one show to the next, but all perform under the Listeso String Quartet moniker. (Musicians interested in performing Candlelight Concerts can apply online at candlelightexperience.com/artists/)
The Candlelight Concerts series initially featured works by top classical composers, such as Mozart, Vivaldi and Chopin, but over the years the repertoire has broadened to include virtually all musical genres.
“Now, we have expanded our list of programs including a wide variety of themes and genres, such as tributes to contemporary artists, as well as shows dedicated to movie soundtracks and many more,” Boucault explained.
“The introduction of these ‘tribute’ programs more aligned to jazz, rock, hip-hop and pop artists, but performed by a string quartet or other classical instruments also enables us to connect with a broader audience that might have never considered a classical music concert before,” he added.
Fever develops the themes for its shows based on recommendations from its in-house music curation team and research that takes into account global metrics and feedback from the audience and musicians, Boucault said.
The tentative program for the Toledo Halloween-themed concerts will feature the Listeso String Quartet performing the following selections:
- Thriller – Michael Jackson
- Funeral March of a Marionette – Charles Gounod
- String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor (Dresden Quartet), Op. 110: II. Allegro Molto – Dmitri Shostakovich
- Tubular Bells (Theme from The Exorcist) – Mike Oldfield
- Stranger Things (Theme) – S U R V I V E
- Beetlejuice (Theme) – Danny Elfman
- The Addams Family (Theme) – Vic Mizzy
- Halloween (Theme) – John Carpenter
- Psycho (Prelude) – Bernard Herrmann
- Ghostbusters (Theme) – Ray Parker Jr.
- Danse Macabre – Camille Saint-Saëns
- Night on Bald Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky
- Der Erlkönig – Franz Schubert
- Medley from The Nightmare Before Christmas – Danny Elfman
- In the Hall of the Mountain King – Edvard Grieg
The candlelight shows are condensed from the typical 90-minute concert to a 65-minute format, part of Fever’s plan to make the concerts more appealing to diverse audiences.
One question fans often ask is: Who flips the switches on all those battery-powered candles?
“We use thousands of candles to create the intimate atmosphere of each Candlelight Concert,” Boucault said. “Our team typically arrives early on the day of the concert to set up the stage, and later that night, they break everything down. At some locations, we have remote controls to turn off the lights, but most of the time, this is done manually a few hours before each performance.”
Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics will be performed at The Summit Toledo, 23 N. Summit St., at 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. Oct. 19 and Oct. 27. Doors open 45 minutes prior to the start time and late entry is not permitted. Seating is assigned on a first-come, first-served basis in each zone. Tickets are $42.50, $53, and $59.50 available at feverup.com/en/toledo-oh.
Owens coach wins 801st
Volleyball coach Sonny Lewis looks for OCCAC title
Story by Jeremy Schneider | Photos by Lori King
PERRYSBURG – Sonny Lewis has spent nearly 50 years coaching volleyball in Northwest Ohio, first at Springfield High School and then at Owens Community College. During that time, Lewis has sat through exactly one job interview.
When Lewis left the high school ranks, the Owens volleyball head coach had just retired. He applied for the job and had the first job interview of his life. Needless to say, he must have done pretty well during the interview.
“They hired me the next day,” Lewis said.
Now in his 24th season leading the Express program, Lewis won the 801st game of his college coaching career on Tuesday when they faced off against Lakeland. Add those wins to the 373 wins coaching high school, and Lewis has been on the winning side more than 1,101 times.
“I’ve been here a long time, so that gets a lot of that in,” Lewis said. “My associate head coach, Denny Caldwell, has done a great job of recruiting people in the area. They want to come here and play, and since they see we do well, that gets us some good attraction.”
This season, the Express is 19-9 overall after hosting Lakeland Community College Tuesday night for the Pack The SHAC Night at the Student Health and Activities Center.
“Lakeland played very well against us, especially the first two sets. You know, that was very unexpected that they won the first two sets against us. We had to come back and win the next three,” Lewis admitted after the game. “I gave our kids a lot of credit. They come back on the next three for us to win the match.
“We’ll just keep working. Right now we have a lot of things going on, like three of our starters were not playing tonight. Our No. 1 middle is out with an injury; our No. 1 outside hitter is out with an injury; and then our libero was out because she had a class she had to go to. We’re banged up a little bit right now. We’re just trying to recover from it and get back on our feet,” Lewis said.
Lewis isn’t the only one to reach a career milestone for the Express this year. Sophomore libero Lilly White (Monroeville H.S.) went over 1,000 digs this season, and sophomore setter Michaela Hahn (Fremont St. Joseph H.S.) got the 1,000th assist of her career.
“It was definitely something I was aiming for; it’s good to have goals,” White said. “When I saw that I had 600 last year, I thought it was possible (to get 1,000) this season. … I just go out and play, hope for the best.”
White ended last week with 541 digs, an average of nearly six per set. Lewis called White the “back bone” of the team.
Hahn leads the team with 416 assists, along with 148 digs. The Owens program is obviously a well-oiled machine, and Hahn gave credit for her success to the abilities of her teammates.
“It shows how good our program works together,” Hahn said. “It wouldn’t be possible without Lilly digging the ball or my hitters putting it away. It shows how good of a school we are at volleyball.”
The Express are going for their third straight Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) title. They’re currently tied with Lorain County Community College atop the standings at 7-1. They split their two meetings this year, with both schools winning their home matches.
To learn more about the Owens volleyball team, visit Owens Volleyball.
David Brooks touts book
Bestselling author discusses importance of connecting with others
SYLVANIA – Lourdes University hosted hundreds of people Oct. 8 for a lecture, Q&A session, book signing and reception with New York Times bestselling author David Brooks.
Brooks discussed his new book, How to Know a Person, at the Lourdes University Franciscan Center.
In his 40-minute speech, Brooks opened with stories from his early life. He said the book, A Bear Called Paddington, inspired him to be a writer at seven years old. He also talked about his educational background and journey to obtaining an education at The University of Chicago.
Brooks also gave good advice on making people feel heard or important. One example he gave is not to try to respond to someone’s struggles with something worse that happened to you.
He offered three steps to know someone:
- the first encounter
- accompaniment
- conversation
After his speech, Brooks invited audience members to ask him questions for about 30 minutes. When the Q&A was finished, he signed copies of his book. After the book signing, he took the time to explaine to fans what How to Know a Person is about.
It’s really about how to see others deeply and make them feel deeply seen. How to make the people in your life feel like you really understand them and respect them and value them.
David Brooks
Brooks said he’s is trying to reach a large group of people with this book, and understands that most people would benefit from making more friends or social connections.
He also said that he wrote this book because of the social breakdown he was witnessing. Worsening statistics for higher suicide, depression rates, and an increase of people who say they feel lonely or have no close friends were factors in his decision to write his book.
“When a third of Americans say they’re lonely, then we’ve clearly got a national problem around this. There are a lot of different ways to address it, but the piece I thought was important was arming people with the skills: If you’re going to make a bench, you need to have some carpentry skills. If you’re going to be a decent human being, you need some social skills,” he explained.
Brooks said connecting with people is important because it makes them happy, and having good relationships makes people feel fulfilled. He finished by offering some of the advice from his book.
“Some of it is just practical, like how to ask good questions, how to be a really good listener, how to take an average conversation and turn it into a deep conversation. And that’s done by asking big questions, like I mentioned in there. If five years is a chapter in your life, what’s the chapter about?” Brooks asked.
“If we have a conversation about that, then I’m going to learn something about you and you’ll learn something about me, and we’ll take a normal conversation and make it a memorable one,” he said.
Power Tour educates voters
Reinvest Toledo wraps up its 4-show voter education initiative
Story and photos by Au’Ree Antoinette
TOLEDO – The nation is buzzing with anticipation as the 2024 presidential general election nears. Campaign signs dot neighborhoods across the country. Yet, despite these signs of engagement, many still feel uncertain regarding the future of both state and nation, as all 468 seats in the U.S. Congress are up for grabs.
Closer to home, Reinvest Toledo, a local nonprofit, took on the daunting task of educating Toledo residents on the importance of voting this fall.
On Sept. 22, Reinvest Toledo launched one of its pillar programs, the Power Tour: Unlock Your Vote. This initiative aimed to bring voter education to its target demographic: low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods. Each tour, held at the Collingwood Arts Center, included a 90-minute multimedia production that focused on voter education, and featured speakers and artists that spanned music, spoken word and film.
Power Tour shows:
- Sept. 22 | Bridging the gap regarding voter engagement | Host Montrice Terry
- Sept. 28 | Then & Now: How voting has impacted the queer community | Host Lexi Staples
- Oct. 6 | Your vote can impact issues facing your community | Host Morgan Harper
- Oct. 12 | How voting can change what you see everyday in your neighborhood | Host Rob Pasker
“The communities or wards with the lowest voter turnout are predominantly African American,” explained Amelia Gibbon, Reinvest Toledo’s executive director. “That’s why we chose to focus on the Englewood and Junction communities.”
The third Power Tour event on Oct. 6 was hosted by Morgan Harper, Columbus-based advocate and director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project. The event featured a panel of neighborhood leaders who shared their experiences and discussed how they’re applying their expertise to uplift their communities.
Panelists Sommer Clayborne, Chris Matthews, Dr. Brittany Jones, Matthew Smith Jr., and Coleena Ali tackled a variety of topics, including reproductive health, gun violence, food access and affordable housing.
Founded in 2015, Reinvest Toledo began as a partnership with the Lucas County Land Bank and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). Its intention is to act as a connector between neighborhood leaders and city officials. The founding members hope to empower residents with the tools and knowledge needed to advocate for change within their communities.
“We wanted to place power in the hands of the people,” Gibbon said. “Like the mother who sits on the porch or Miss ‘So and So.’ They are leaders, too, and for so long they have been denied the title of leaders. They need to be recognized for who they are because they have the influence, not us.”
Beyond their Power Tour, Reinvest Toledo runs several other impactful initiatives. One being the Raised Advocacy Project, a six-month program designed to equip eight participants with the skills to advocate for their neighborhoods. Additionally, participants collaborate with neighborhood leaders to build capacity for tackling community challenges.
Their Environmental Justice efforts are focused on the future of the Doehler-Jarvis site that has been abandoned for over 50 years.
“The Land Bank has identified funds for brownfield remediation,” Gibbon said. “Now we’re discussing as a community what we want to do with that land once the site is cleared.”
Reinvest Toledo’s mission is clear: Empower the voices within the community. Gibbon added, “I always tell people, don’t wait to be invited to the table. Create your own table and make them come to you. Otherwise, you’re just going to be an afterthought.”
For more information or to get involved in their mission, visit Reinvest Toledo's website.
