Morristown OnStage Announces Judges

From Morris Educational Foundation: The Morris Educational Foundation (MEF) has announced this year’s panel of professional judges. The following four distinguished judges from the arts profession will judge the competition:

 TERRIE CARR - Terrie is the Program Director and Midday Personality at WDHA/The Rock of New Jersey where she rocks the Garden State every weekday between 10 and 3pm. With Terrie’s guidance, WDHA plays a wide variety of rock music from classics like Led Zeppelin to new bands like the Grammy nominated Greta Van Fleet and everything in between. For over 20 years, Terrie has been interviewing mega rock stars such as Slash, connecting with listeners, helping homeless animals with her Rock and Ruff Feature and interacting with the community and advertisers. Tune in middays and join the DHA rock and roll party hosted by Terrie Carr!
 ERIC HAYES - Hailing from Morristown, Eric is so much more than your all-American musician as a soul singer, piano player and Tedx speaker who combines art, story and song in perfect unison. Throughout his career, he has won over the hearts of music lovers performing at a variety of venues while recording new singles and sharing the stage with some of the world’s finest musicians. Eric’s credits include collaborating and performing with artists such as Rachel Platten, Gavin Degraw, Junior Mack, John Mayer, the Allman Brothers and Reggae legend Ziggy Marley. A William Patterson graduate, Eric has been featured in many media publications such as the New York Village Voice, the New York Post and the Star Ledger.
 DAVID TAMAKI - David serves as Director of Advancement for the New Jersey Ballet Company. He leads NJ Ballet’s “Dancing for Parkinson’s Program” which provides free, weekly dance classes for individuals with Parkinson ’s disease. Prior to his role as Director of Advancement, David was a principal dancer with the New Jersey Ballet for 11 years. He is an Associate Faculty member at Columbia University and was awarded an Innovation Scholarship from Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies to conduct research on the benefits of dance and Parkinson’s disease.
 DAVID WELSH - David is a Founder and Partner of Normandy Real Estate Partners based in Morristown with offices in New York City, Boston and Washington DC. He is also an accomplished musician and investor in several music venues and recording studios. As a student at Penn State in the 90’s, David was the keyboardist in the band “Out of The Blue”, one of the most successful bands to have come out of State College, PA which toured the east coast college circuit with bands such as Rusted Root, Blues Traveler and Dave Matthews Band. He co-owns Pittsburgh’s premiere, live music venue, Mr. Smalls Theatre and Funhouse, as well as co-owning Griffin Lane Productions which operates state of the art recording studios in Morristown and Pittsburgh. David continues to perform as a keyboardist in several area bands and currently serves as Trustee for the Mayo Performing Arts Center, the Peck School and Cornerstone Family Programs.

For the sixth year in a row, this year’s Master of Ceremonies and host of the show will be Tara Bernie, a senior correspondent for DailyMail TV and Morristown resident. “The Morris Educational Foundation is very excited to be sponsoring the 12th annual production of our talent
show, Morristown ONSTAGE” said Molly Servais, MEF Board Member and Chairperson of the Morristown ONSTAGE Committee. “We are thrilled to have this panel of professional judges and are looking forward to another great night celebrating great talent and great schools here in Morristown! We are grateful to our community for their support of this event.” The event will showcase the best amateur talent from Morristown, Morris Plains and Morris Township. The
show will be held on February 27, 2019 at 7 pm at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, New Jersey. There is a $1,000 cash prize for 1st place for contestants ages 19 and over, $1,000 cash prize for 1st place for contestants ages 18 and under, a $500 award for the “Audience Choice” Winner which will be determined by text-to-vote on the night of the show, and a $250 prize named in honor of Fran Rossoff, former event chair. The Rossoff Rising Star Award is given to a promising contestant by the Morristown ONSTAGE Committee to be used for lessons in their chosen talent. Atlantic Health System Morristown Medical Center is the event’s Headline Sponsor.

Last year, the event raised over $143,000 for the Morris Educational Foundation.

Images via Morris Educational Foundation