Inland Empire

Music teacher duets with Kristin Chenoweth at the Bowl (video)


chenoweth-horn.jpgRiverside vocal teacher Sarah Horn was picked out of the Hollywood Bowl audience Friday night to come up on stage and sing "For Good," from the musical "Wicked," with her musical hero Kristin Chenoweth. She aced her test. The video shot by her friend is sweeping YouTube, with more than 800,000 views.

Horn writes about the experience at Broadway World:

I had been counting down to this concert for months. My family and a friend, Mike Kestler, arrived at the bowl with seats in different sections and my dad surprised us with boxed seats. When we got into the bowl, there was ticket confusion with seats and party numbers so we ended up switching boxes with another party and sitting up in the very front, right in front of the pasarel. Count that - two spontaneous moves from where were were originally supposed to be sitting.


The concert was going wonderfully and my party of four raved about the performance during Intermission as we munched on the crackers and cheese I had smuggled into the Bowl in my purse.

Toward the end of the second half of the performance, Kristin wanders on to the pasarel. She held a mic up to a lady in front of me and asked if she knew the song "For Good." Nope. I took the chance, as I was directly behind Kristin, to stand up and wave and say, "I know the song!"

This is not like me - to jump up and wave my arms like a crazy person and raise my voice at a celebrity. As soon as she turned to look at me, I say right back down... and calmly said, "Hiiiii."

One of Kristin's backup singers held a mic up to my face so I could answer some questions...

The experience included a backstage meeting with Chenoweth and kudos from Bowl staffers. Horn is an adjunct voice professor at her alma mater, California Baptist University, and the music director at Riverside Youth Theatre.


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