More than just a pretty face.
Jerusha Turgeon is a young woman of many talents.
She will get to show off at least one of these talents during the B.C. Festival of the Performing Arts in Kamloops in June. Jerusha will be performing in the classical voice category, representing the Nechako Valley Performing Arts.
She will get to show off even more of her talents at the Music on the Mountain Festival in Fort St. James in August, where she will also be performing.
Jerusha is a vocalist, a violinist, a pianist and a gymnast, and she’s only 16.
The Nechako Valley Festival of the Performing Arts was held April 8-15 of this year in Vanderhoof, and at it, Jerusha received the highest scores in the classical voice category, and was selected to go to Kamloops.
She performed the classical pieces ‘Where you walk’ by Handel, ‘Sa tu mami’ in Italian, by Pergolasi, and ‘Turn again to Life’ by Barry Peters.
She also participated in the musical theatre section of the festival, which involves getting into character and singing more of a ‘showtune.’
While Jerusha has gone to the provincial level three times before, and one of those times it was for classical voice, it will still be tough.
“I’m really nervous,” she says. “It’s going to be different.”
The other two times were for musical theatre, which she said can be really challenging because of the theatrical aspect of it, classical voice is highly technical and “a lot more picky.”
But while the more traditional vocal training is what she is studying now, she sees this training as a base for her to develop her singing technically, so later on she can do what she wants with it, which is go professional.
“I’m aiming for a pop and soul style,” she says, but in the same token, she doesn’t want to pigeon-hole herself at such a young age.
“I don’t know where it’s going to take me,” she explains.
So far, performing dance has also taken Jerusha places. She travelled around taking classes to become a Zumba instructor, which is a form of dance fitness class.
She also choreographed a dance to a song she wrote and performed.
These are the steps it takes, and Jerusha is working on a recording now, so she can apply to different talent searches and competitions, such as the David Foster Star Search.