10 Singers, 2 Bands from New England Selected as 'Community Auditions' Finalists

10 Singers, 2 Bands from New England Selected as 'Community Auditions' Finalists

Competition This Sunday for Grand Championship, a Recording Contract and a New Car; Public Invited to Open Auditions for 2010 Season

LEDYARD, Conn., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Ten singers and two vocal groups from New England will compete for the Community Auditions 2009 Grand Championship to be held Sunday (Dec. 6) at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino. The event is sponsored by Verizon.

The 12 finalists have already wowed the judges with their vocal talents at several Community Auditions performances throughout the past year and competed with many contestants to make it to the finals.

The finalists are: Tara Canaday of Braintree, Mass.; Branden "Just B" Wilson of Hamden, Conn.; Daniel Taylor of Farmington, Maine; Megan Harney of Mansfield, Mass.; Liv Gaines of Enfield, Conn.; Briana Chaponis of Jefferson, Mass.; Michael Firicano of East Boston, Mass.; Lisa Bello of Boston; Louie Bello of Hyde Park, Mass.; Donna Lee-De Prille of Westfield, Mass.; the band Red Summer Sun, featuring Andrew Gregory, Nick Mathews and Pete Hunt, all of Topsfield, Mass., and Adam Fisher of Boxford, Mass.; and the band One Step Away, featuring Adam Carrington and Mike Nuzzolo of Andover, Mass.; Terence Healy of Wilmington, Mass.; and Alex Kwmuntis of Peabody, Mass.

Sunday's Grand Championship event is open to the public and will be videotaped and aired on Community Auditions shows throughout January.

The Grand Champion will be announced on a Community Auditions show in late January. The shows are aired on Verizon's FiOS TV network on FiOS1 Local Zone On Demand. The Grand Champion will win a recording contract and a new car.

Also on Sunday, the public is invited to Open Auditions for the 2010 season of Community Auditions. A number of New England TV and radio personalities, and well-known musicians and comedians, will be on hand at the event.

Videos and photos of the finalists and details of the open auditions can be found at www.communityauditions.com.

FiOS TV is delivered on Verizon's 100 percent fiber network, the only network that brings fiber all the way to a customer's home. FiOS TV offers a broad collection of programming, with more than 600 all-digital channels, including more than 126 HD channels, and more than 18,000 monthly VOD titles in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. FiOS provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; social TV, news and entertainment widgets; remote DVR management; multi-room DVR, and more.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 89 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 230,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

Community Auditions is the longest running entertainment TV show in history. After 39 years of song, dance, and laughs -- intentional and otherwise -- Community Auditions is a Boston institution and a family tradition with a following of proud parents, neighbors and friends throughout New England, to the unlikely enthusiasm of hip college students from Harvard to Holy Cross.

The new Community Auditions is staged in front of a live studio audience, at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort Casino, and is backed by the hardest working band in show business -- The Community Auditions All-Stars.

The show airs in all eight New England DMAs and exclusively on Verizon FiOS1 Local Zone Video on Demand. The programs are presented on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with our broadcast partners: Friday, 9:30 p.m. (WSBK TV38 Boston); Sunday 6:30 p.m. (WCTX MyTV New Haven); Saturday 10 p.m. (WPXT-TV Portland's CW); Saturday midnight and Sunday 12:30 a.m. (WBZ-TV CBS 4 Boston); Saturday 11:30 a.m. (MY R.I. TV Providence); midnight.

Source: Verizon

CONTACT: Phil Santoro, +1-617-743-4760, philip.g.santoro@verizon.com

Web Site: http://www.verizon.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/094251.html

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