LIVE UNITED IN MUSIC IV

READ ABOUT WVIA'S COVERAGE OF LIVE UNITED IN MUSIC IV

UPMC presents LIVE UNITED in Music IV, benefiting the Lycoming County United Way, on Friday, October 18th at the Community Arts Center in Williamsport!

Back by popular demand, don’t miss your chance to sing along with the music of Billy Joel and Sir Elton John, starring Michael Cavanaugh, and backed by the LIVE UNITED in Music Pops Orchestra!

Joining Michael on stage will be Uptown Music Collective alumna Tess Marshall who will be joined by local artists Mallory Scoppa Gardner and Kimbo Reichley, and Miss Central Pennsylvania, Abby Traxler, who will perform our national anthem.

The show is produced by Mr. Walt Straiton and emceed by Gary Chrisman from 102.7 KISS FM.

All proceeds benefit the Lycoming County United Way and our support of 33 community service programs in Lycoming, Sullivan, and Tioga Counties.

Tickets are selling fast so make sure to get yours today!

Tess Marshall

Tess Marshall was born and raised in Williamsport and grew up performing on this very stage with the Uptown Music Collective, Act Up, and had the distinct honor of opening for Styx with her band Clyde Frog right here at the CAC. Tess currently resides in New York City where she is a Dance Captain and long-running company member of the Off-Broadway award-winning musical: Titanique. Along with performing eight shows a week, she also runs her voice and acting business, Tess Marshall Studio, with students in 6 states and three countries. She started her studio specifically to provide vocal training to students here in Williamsport. She is so thankful to this community for the opportunities throughout the years and for their continued support of her creative endeavors. What a wonderful place to be from.

Mallory Scoppa Gardner

Mallory Scoppa Gardner is a Williamsport native, an artist, a musician, and an educator. She performs with various groups and teaches art and music in the community. Mallory has performed with her folk duo Whiskey Sunday for more than a decade. She sings and plays various string instruments with her partner John Shively.

In addition to her performances, Mallory was on the staff at the Uptown Music Collective for more than eight years as a vocal instructor and performed in many of their alumni shows.

Mallory is married and has three beautiful children who share her love for art and music.

Kimbo Reichley

Kimbo has been a strong presence on the Central Pa. Music scene for over 50 years. As a young boy, his love of the great singers he heard on the radio led him to join his church and high school choirs, district chorus, and high school musicals. He started playing the guitar and then later the electric bass. He joined a band as a singer with the late George Virchick and his sister who played the Hammond organ with bass pedals.

This is where he started the bass and started his real love of the blues playing the music of Rufus Thomas, Booker T, Wilson Pickett, and other blues and soul artists. Over the years he became a multi-instrumentalist playing acoustic guitar, mandolin, and resonator guitars. He has competed three times in the international blues challenge in Memphis and toured the East Coast with electric violinist Davis Rose. In 2004, he toured China playing country music as a guest of the U.S. China Foundation. He records in his studio and has recorded many local artists along with 2 of his records. At the age of seventy, Kimbo is still a powerful and soulful singer, guitarist, and bass player.

Abby Traxler

A native of Lewistown, Pennsylvania, Abby Traxler is a singer, public speaker, financial literacy advocate, and Miss Central Pennsylvania 2024. In June, she placed first runner-up to Miss Pennsylvania. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Lycoming College, with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management, Abby embarked on her career as a Financial Analyst at The Hershey Company where she is currently employed.

Abby has performed at events, including the US Olympic Wrestling Trials, Penn State’s THON, Penn State Athletic events, and New York Fashion Week, and performed our national anthem at the Lycoming County United Way’s Annual Dinner and Awards Celebration last April.

Walt Straiton

LIVE UNITED in Music’s Executive Producer, Walt Straiton has enjoyed a blended career combining education, business, entertainment, and professional performance. Walt serves as the Director of Education for Korg, USA, leading their SoundTree music education technology division, and was recently appointed as Director of Orchestras at the Mansfield University campus of the Commonwealth University of PA.

A Harrisburg native, Walt first came to Williamsport in 1977. Walt enjoyed a 26-year tenure serving as Director of Orchestras at Williamsport Area High School, which included the creation of the renowned “Millionaire Strolling Strings” having also served on the orchestral conducting staff of both Messiah University and Penn State. During his tenure in WASD, Walt was one of four teachers in the nation honored to receive a coveted John F. Kennedy Center Fellowship for Teachers in the Arts. He also appeared as a finalist for “Teacher of the Year” in the nationally televised Walt Disney Corporation’s “American Teacher Awards, as well as being recognized by both the Lycoming Brotherhood USA and the Williamsport/Lycoming Foundation (now First Community Partnership of Pennsylvania) for his outstanding contributions to education in our region.

In addition to leading the LIVE UNITED in Music “Pops” Orchestra for all four performances, recent professional conducting appearances include performances with the Hawaii Symphony, Portland (ME) Symphony, and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras. Walt was the founding Artistic Director and Principal Pops Conductor of the Corona (CA) Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared with the New World Symphony Orchestra (Miami Beach, FL), The United States Air Force Symphony Orchestra, the Music at Penn’s Woods (Penn State) Festival Orchestra, and the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra.

Honored for the opportunity to collaborate with Michael Cavanaugh regularly, Walt has previously conducted concerts featuring a wide variety of contemporary pop/jazz artists, including Chris Botti, Bob James, Burt Bacharach, David Benoit, Maynard Ferguson, Chuck Mangione, Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, Phil Woods, The Captain and Tennille, The Spinners, Patti Austin, Neil Sedaka, Franki Valli and the Four Seasons, The Empire Brass Quintet, and Bobby Rydell.

Robert Byham

Rob is the product of the South Williamsport School District. He graduated in 1974 and headed to Juniata College to major in football and cards. Discovering that he had no future in either, he transferred to Mansfield University where he majored in music performance. After four semesters, he left Mansfield to tour with “The Spiral Starecase” whose song “I Love You More Today Than Yesterday” topped the charts in 1969. Rob was also a member of Daddy-O and the Sax Maniacs and had the opportunity to perform twice at The White House during the Clinton Administration.

In 1981, he enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied theory and arranging. He also met his wife Cathy while living in Boston and they were married in Lancaster, New Hampshire in 1985. It has been a musical relationship as she is a vocalist, and their three children have all studied music at the Pennsylvania State University School of Music.

In addition to serving as special music arranger for LIVE UNITED in MUSIC over the past three years, Rob has arranged for the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra (WSO) and is an arranger for the Susquehanna Valley Chorale (SVC) pops concert, something he has done since the late 1980s. In addition to the WSO and the SVC, Rob has arranged music for Davy Jones of the Monkeys, the Empire Brass Quintet, and the Uptown Music Collective. Rob also arranged for the Chrisman Show Live, Walt Straiton Productions, and does commercial work for Michael A. Caschera Productions.

LIVE UNITED in Music Pops Orchestra

The LIVE UNITED POPS Orchestra under the direction of Walter Straiton, returns for its third performance with Michael Cavanaugh and his band. The 47-piece orchestra is made up of professional musicians with local ties to the music programs in our community.

Gary Chrisman
A Williamsport native, Gary is a 1971 graduate of Williamsport High School and a 1975 graduate of the University of Miami. He started his broadcast career in college and from 1973 to 1975, he did play-by-play announcing for Miami Hurricane football and baseball. In his senior year, he was the Sports Director of WVUM Radio and was honored as a member of the National Broadcast Society, Alpha Epsilon Rho. In 1975, he received the award for one of the top communications students at the University of Miami.

Locally, Gary worked summers of his college years at WWPA Radio. In 1974, he teamed with his longtime play-by-play partner Ken Sawyer and broadcasted his first Little League World Series. Gary has done every World Series since that time. This past August marked his 50th Little League World Series as part of the broadcast team.

After college graduation, Gary returned to Williamsport and started, with his zany cast of characters, the Chrisman Show on WWPA (The Twin), and in 1987, he moved the morning show to KISS FM (WKSB). This April, he celebrated his 37th anniversary on KISS-FM.From 1984 to 1987, Gary was also a regular feature reporter and part-time co-host on the nationally syndicated television series PM Magazine on WNEP-TV.
In 1987, after teaming with Ken Sawyer for many years broadcasting Williamsport Millionaire sports, he moved his play-by-play career to TV by pioneering locally televised high school and college games with his Cable Sports Productions. For 34 years, Gary and his TV partner, Babe Mayer, televised hundreds of local football and basketball games. He retired from the “Cable Sports Game of the Week” in 2021.

In 1990, Gary took his morning show on the road and produced a 2-hour live variety show, featuring his wacky cast of characters and the area’s top singers and musicians. From 1990 to 2001, “The Chrisman Show Live” entertained thousands at venues like The Community Arts Center, Knoebel’s Amusement Resort, The Scottish Rite Auditorium, Brandon Park, and many others.

From 2011 to 2022, Gary was the lead announcer on WVIA’s nationally televised Challenger Exhibition Game at the Little League World Series. The 2011 broadcast was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Special Program in the Middle Atlantic Region. Gary also served as an on-air anchor of the televised Little League Grand Slam Parade from 2009 to 2022 on WNEP, WBRE, and WVIA.In 2014, Gary was inducted into the West Branch Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. In 2016, he was honored as one of the first 20 sports personalities in Lycoming County to receive a permanent medallion on the Williamsport Sports Walk downtown. In 2017, Gary received the coveted Fran Fisher Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism from the National Football Foundation’s Central Pennsylvania Chapter.
Gary can still be heard on weekday mornings, 5:30 am to 10:00 am, hosting the “Chrisman Morning Show” on 102.7 KISS FM, the “80s to Now”.

All proceeds benefit the Lycoming County United Way and our support of 33 community service programs in Lycoming, Sullivan and Tioga Counties.

BAG POLICY effective July 1, 2023 we have updated our bag policy across all events. Small clutch purses & wallets (6.5″ x 4.5” x 1”), clear totes, or (1) one-gallon, zip-close style plastic bag may be carried into the venue. All other bags are prohibited. For more details please visit our FAQs page.

ALL TICKET SALES ARE FINAL. Unless a performance is canceled or rescheduled by the Community Arts Center or the performer, there are no refunds or exchanges. In case of inclement weather, should the performance occur, there are no refunds or exchanges. Should you be unable to use your tickets for any show, you may wish to consider donating them back to the Community Arts Center at least 24 hours before a performance as a tax-deductible gift. Ticket orders may be canceled if, at our sole discretion, it is suspected that tickets are being purchased by resellers. For guaranteed lowest prices, always purchase with confidence directly from caclive.com or the CAC Box Office.