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All-Valley Talent Show: A showcase of young performing talent throughout the region

Courtesy/ All-Valley Talent Show
The second place winners of last year's talent show, Andrea Romero Naiera and Angel Romero Najera.
Courtesy/All-Valley Talent Show

This article previously stated the wrong date.

The Roaring Fork and Grand Valleys are never lacking in talented young people, but stages for them to perform on are not always as abundant. 

The Glenwood Springs Kiwanis Club decided to foster the young talent in the region by reviving their late talent show, Stars of Tomorrow, which ended in 2016 after 50 years of running. 



“We feel like it’s a great opportunity for the kids to showcase themselves and for the community to develop an appreciation of what the students of our valley can do,” Co-organizer Bob Littler said.

Last year, the show debuted as the All-Valley Talent Show, and April 14 will be its second year after revival. 



“It’s a worthwhile thing to try and resurrect, and try to do and in a way that is really tailored to our area,” Littler said. 

Littler and Joe O’Donnell, both members of the club, decided to bring it back with this being the second year of its return. 

“The theme of everything we do is to support the youth of our community,” Littler said. 

O’Donnell has since retired from his short stint in show business and now Tyler Desiderio has taken over as the co-organizer with Littler. Shanti Gruber, a Glenwood Springs High School choir teacher, and Lorraine Curry, a local choir teacher, are also organizers for the show, bringing to it a little more professional performing arts perspective. 

Now called the All-Valley Talent Show, students from eighth grade through high school, and from Aspen to Parachute, are encouraged to audition to compete in the performing arts show.

Last year, the club had three winners with all categories competing for the same first through third prize placements. This year, to change it up and make it more fair, they decided to make categories with one winner in each category.

All of the contestants of the 2022 All-Valley Talent Show.
Courtesy/All-Valley Talent Show 2022

This way, they can have a professional from each category vote as a judge, which makes the competition more specialized to the category of performing arts. 

The three categories this year are dance, singing and instrumental. Littler said that they hoped to have a section for acting, but they did not have any actor auditions.

When recruiting young people to audition, Littler said they went to 26 respective schools from Aspen to Parachute. This included private and public schools, and they were also open to anyone who is homeschooled to audition too. 

Gruber was the one to motivate the organizers to include eighth graders in the talent show. 

The first prize amount is $1,800 for each category and was partially funded by the sponsors.  

All of the judges are professional in their art: A singing professional for the singers, an instrumentalist for the instrumental performers and a dance professional for the dancers. 

There will be four performances per category, with 12 total performances competing. Students from Coal Ridge, Glenwood Springs, Roaring Fork, Aspen, Basalt, Eagle and Rifle high schools all made it as finalists and will be performing.

There will be a special performance from Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Folklórico.

The show will be hosted by the same hosts from last year. Both are students from Glenwood Springs High School, Tyler Madden and Theo Corwin. The Glenwood Springs High School key club will serve refreshments outside of the auditorium. 

If you go…

What: All-valley Talent Show

When: 7 p.m. April 14

Where: Glenwood Springs High School Auditorium, 1521 Grand Ave.

How much: $10 individuals and $30 for families


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