Burke Valley, Ryan Cooper tie for Suburban Chicago's Got Talent grand prize
A collective gasp arose from the audience at the Taste of Arlington Heights on Saturday as they watched the 2015 concert finale of Suburban Chicago's Got Talent.
That's because the four judges' scoring tallies resulted in a tie for the grand prize winner of the summerlong talent competition co-sponsored in part by the Daily Herald and Onesti Entertainment.
Lined up onstage, the top 10 finalists of SCGT eagerly eyed competition judge Ron Onesti, who announced the shared winners after doling out compliments for all the contestants.
“It was really close to a 10-way tie,” said Onesti, who also hinted that his connections as president and CEO of Onesti Entertainment could result in future performances for many SCGT finalists in the coming weeks and months.
Onesti then announced singer and guitarist Ryan Cooper of Schaumburg as the first of two grand prize winners, followed by the band Burke Valley, led by singer-songwriter Laura Burke with members Jason Edel, Ryan Gore, Alex Santilli and Mitch Klicki, all of Arlington Heights.
Cooper and Burke Valley each get a “STARter Kit,” a promotional package to help further a budding artist's performing career. It includes a performance as an opening act to a major headliner at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, a promotional concert photo session, professional talent mentoring, a gift card from Salon Lorrene of Palatine and more.
“I'll take it,” said Cooper about the tied win, adding that “the third time's the charm” because this is the third year in a row that he has advanced to the top 10 round of SCGT.
“It's always great exposure and free publicity,” said Cooper about SCGT, adding that he had to leave after his encore performance to get to another gig later that night at the Riverside Pub in Crystal Lake.
“I started the band a little bit before the competition,” said Burke, noting that she and her bandmates announced their official name of Burke Valley only at the Top 20 round July 5. “This competition actually made us get a lot better just because, you know, we had to push the envelope every week and improve ourselves.”
Burke Valley member Mitch Klicki is a son of Rich Klicki, who works for the Business Ledger, a property of the Daily Herald's parent company.
Singer-songwriter Meghan Foley of Villa Park was named the winner of the “Fan Favorite” portion of SCGT, which was voted on by the general public online at dailyherald.com/entertainment/talent after the top 20, top 15 and top 10 performance rounds at the Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg.
“It's so amazing to know that my family and friends voted for me,” said Foley, who used many social networking sites to encourage online voting. “I'm so excited, I can hardly speak right now.”
Foley received the most votes from an estimated 50,000 cast online, so she wins a Funjet Vacation for two valued at about $1,700.
Foley consistently performed her own original material, as did other finalists including the bands Aviation and the War, and Burke Valley. Other top 10 acts, including JT Snyder of Barrington and Amanya Amariel of Chicago, originally auditioned as soloists but later enlarged their performances by adding more supporting musicians in each round (both also performed original songs for the finale).
SCGT in 2015 featured several returning acts from previous years, though only Cooper and vocalist San Sandberg of Geneva cracked the top 10. A competition trend was a strong female turnout, epitomized by the popular local all-girl rock band Serendipity and singer-instrumentalists Laura Kuper of Wheeling and Rhea Garbis of Richmond.
Out of more than 70 initial auditioned acts, the top prize ended up going to the two acts that most impressed the judging panel of Onesti; Beth Waller, cultural arts supervisor for the Schaumburg Park District; John Flamini, chairman of the cultural commission for Schaumburg; and Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald theater critic and legal affairs writer.
“All 10 contestants were within points of each other, but we had a tie between (Cooper and Burke Valley),” said Waller, adding that she and her fellow judges started arguing reasons for one act over the other but then decided that a tie would be best.
“I've been doing this a long time and judged a lot of talent shows, and I've never seen such an array of top-level professional talent,” Onesti said. “It was really, really difficult. Any one of those people could have won. It all came down to today's performance.”
In addition to Onesti Entertainment and the Daily Herald, the fourth year of Suburban Chicago's Got Talent is sponsored by the Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg, AMITA Health, Rohrman Auto Group, Salon Lorrene and the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce.
Cooper and Burke are set to make a TV interview appearance on “Sunday Morning ABC 7 Eyewitness News” sometime after 8 a.m. Sunday and are slated to perform again at Septemberfest in Schaumburg at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5.