Englewood’s got talent

Posted by Mark Chapman on September 3rd, 2010 at 9:52 am

Nick Han­felder got a last-minute call from Engle­wood Idol direc­tor Jen­nifer Kelly the other day: One of the 10 final­ist cho­sen through audi­tions for the fund-raiser based on the TV show “Amer­i­can Idol” had with­drawn, and she needed a singer. She needed a singer who could step in on short notice and hold his or her own against the nine peo­ple who won their spots through auditions.

Nick is one of Kelly’s for­mer stu­dents, an impor­tant part of the the­ater depart­ment at Lemon Bay High for four years. His tal­ent was well known to Kelly and to many oth­ers around Engle­wood who had heard Nick sing at karaoke nights and assorted small venues.

Nick Han­felder

So Nick, who loves to sing, stepped into the gap. He showed up at rehearsal pre­pared to sing one song, and found that his voice was a bit scratchy and the song didn’t work. So he reached into his deep reper­toire for one of his favorites, Billy Joel’s anthem, “New York State of Mind.”

And long about 8 p.m. Thurs­day, Nick Han­felder blew nearly 400 peo­ple out of their seats at the Lemon Bay High Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter with a dynamic, dra­matic, bluesy ren­di­tion of the song. The per­for­mance won Han­felder a stand­ing ova­tion, a $250 check and, accord­ing to Kelly, a cou­ple of gigs before he left the building.

You hear about ath­letes achiev­ing per­son­als bests. Its a sta­ple of the sports pages. Run­ners, jumpers and run­ning backs reg­u­larly are cited for post­ing per­sonal best times, heights and yardage. It ‘s a mea­sur­able sta­tis­tic. A pitcher strikes out 13 bat­ters in a game, and he had never fanned more than 12, that is, obvi­ously, a per­sonal best.

But singers? That’s harder to quan­tify. There are a lot of things that go into “best” per­for­mances, and not all of them are notes. The mood has to be right. The singer’s con­nec­tion to the mate­r­ial has to be spot on. The notes have to be there. The audi­ence has to be into it.

Thurs­day night, Nick Han­felder put up a per­sonal best when he sang “New York State of Mind.” I’ve heard him sing that song a dozen times. As a young singer, Nick’s ten­dency was always to push it hard, sing every note as if it were the crescendo. The result was usu­ally a good, pow­er­ful per­for­mance full of impres­sive notes, but it gen­er­ally left lis­ten­ers feel­ing a bit cheated. There was more inside there, but it wasn’t allowed out.

This time, Nick nailed it. Nick is a big guy with a big voice. He has a dynamic range, a bluesy sense that is real, not arti­fi­cial like so many “Amer­i­can Idol” con­tes­tants. And, Thurs­day night, he pulled it back, found the song’s nuances. He painted a pic­ture using the full spec­trum of col­ors and shades, not just the bright pri­mary col­ors.  He was the com­plete performer.

But as with many young peo­ple with boat­loads of tal­ent, the 23-year-old is stuck. He’d love to pur­sue his dream — to go New York, go to audi­tions, take his shot at music the­ater or maybe con­cert work — but he has to sup­port him­self in a small town with lit­tle oppor­tu­nity for singers beyond karaoke nights and small bars.

Nick doesn’t have a life-threatening ill­ness. He’s not liv­ing in a card­board box some­where. But his tal­ent, his gift, is going to waste, and that’s a tragedy all its own.

Here’s hop­ing that some­one might find away to help send Nick off on his quest. Artists of all types find spon­sors — angels, they’re often called — all the time. With­out angels, there would be pre­cious lit­tle the­ater. Nick Han­felder could use a few angels to help launch him on his way.

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