Marissa Veldman Wins “Orcas Has Talent”

Marissa Veldman, with accompanist Kellan Comrie, takes top honors in "Orcas Has Talent"

Updated Feb. 6 at 9 a.m.

She’s long and lean and a singing machine: Orcas High School junior Marissa Veldman triumphed over eight challengers to win the Grand Prize in”Orcas Has Talent,” the annual talent competition produced by the Orcas Island Prevention Partnership (OIPP).

Veldman’s powerful voice and sultry, stylized interpretations of “My Temporary Home” and “You Know How I Feel” won her a place in the final round, with the band “Almost Canadian” and singer-songwriter Carl Burger.

Veldman’s piano accompanist in the first two songs, Kellan Comrie (who also plays drums in “Almost Canadian”) stood out for his accomplished chops too. Marissa hummed and sang “Amazing Grace” unaccompanied for her final, show-winning number.

Along with the title, Veldman wins a $500 award from White Construction Company and dinner for two at Chilada’s restaurant.

The show was a huge success, showing off Orcas’ great talents in event production, staging, lighting, sound — and improvisation. At one point the microphones for the drums and then lead vocals in “Almost Canadian”‘s second number (“Walking on Sunshine” tuned out, and Judge Bob Shipstad requested the group be allowed to repeat the number at full tilt.

The band, composed of Julia Bailey, Christian Bailey, Emmy Carter, Lisa Carter, Kellan Comrie and Dylan Thompson, wowed the audience with their first number, “If I Ruled the World.” Christian Bailey’s versatility, switching from guitar to rap to saxophone, was a resounding crowd-pleaser.

For their final number, “Almost Canadian” performed the Bob Segar classic, “Old Time Rock and Roll,”  in a manner that would do Tom Cruise proud.

Carl Burger accompanied himself on 12-string guitar with his updated 60s’ protest song, “Garbage.” Burger’s wit and virtuosity on the guitar held him through the second round, when he performed the progressive, key-changing, atonal “Key of R” with its final refrain, “the key of R flat minor seventh diminished dominant ninth.”

In the final competition round, Burger sang of the challenges of a music career, with his trademark segue into the spiritual folk song, “Kumbaya.” (“Someone’s clueless Lord, kumbaya.”)

The finalists beat out some formidable competition:

• Ceolina, the school string group, who played an elegant version of ColdPlay’s “Viva la Vida,” after their first-round success playing “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
• Matthew Laslo-White’s Magical Act, where he advanced from the first-round ring and handkerchief tricks to the mind-boggling levitation act, with the nerve-rattling assistance of Arla Sutton.
• KT Laslo, who dazzled the audience, not only in a self-designed white dress, but in her soulful Aretha Franklin-esque delivery. She had transformed from a growly, dangerous-looking and -sounding version of “You’re Not the One for Me,” in the first round.

The first-round finalists who had made it through the auditions on Jan. 28 and won their Golden Ticket to perform in last night’s show were:

• Maura Pellettieri, who accompanied herself on keyboard while singing her original song, “Not Looking Down;”
• The Bicycle Horse Brigade with sax-player Al Bentley and tuba-player Matthew “Wally” Walrath, joined by their understudy, Michau Sauvage;
• Rhiannon Lawson singing a show tune from “Burlesque.”

From a show with innumerable highlights, the entre-act performances captured the hearts of the audience with the M&M’s (Sabrina Bailey, Paris Wilson and Camryn Thompson) cleverly-choreographed and costumed version of “Determinate;” Donna Laslo’s warm and funny film, “Orcas’ Special Talents,” and the return of last year’s “Orcas Has Talent” champions, dancers Charles Dalton and Laura Ludwig.