Meet this year’s Tech Monkey Crew for the 2019 – 2020 Performance Season!
Below is a short bio of all the Tech Monkey members that are a part of this year’s performance season.
Click Here to check out this year’s upcoming performances!
Matthew Bellino
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Matthew has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for over a year now. He has teched six performances, including last year’s performance season. He is 12 years old and is in sixth grade at St. Joseph School in Danville. Matthew comments, “Being on the Tech Crew is so important to me because I get to help people.”
Matthew has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for over a year and a half now taking bass lessons with bass instructor, Levi Stover. He is involved in classes and workshops including, the Blues Workshop and plays bass in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases. Matthew also plays bass in one of the Collective’s Community Performance Group’s, Vinyl Rewind.
Matthew is most excited to tech the Aerosmith show at the Community Arts Center!
Sylvie Briggs
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Sylvie has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for two years now and has teched about fourteen shows total, including reprises and showcases. She is 15 years old and is in eleventh grade in home school where she resides in Mill Hall, PA. Sylvie comments, “Being in the tech crew is quite important because of several factors, but the most obvious reason is that the switches in between songs must be smooth and quick. Aside from that, the performers just do not have time to run around and tune their instruments, especially when they are on the song before. Even though singers adjust their mics sometimes, it is much more professional to have a tech monkey adjust it for them. Sometimes they might have an instrument and be unable to adjust it themselves. In some cases, something like bringing out a costume piece to a performer can make or break a performer’s moment. Being a part of the tech crew, when you are dedicated, can exercise your work ethic while bringing you the opportunity to be a part of a major UMC performance.”
Sylvie has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for almost two years now taking voice lessons with vocal instructor, Haley Miller and taking guitar lessons with the fantastic guitar instructor, Willi Ort. She is involved in classes and workshops including, the Rock Workshop and is involved in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases. She says, “I have never been in a performance group, though I will work my tail off to get there.”
Sylvie is most excited to tech the Elton John/Billy Joel show, commenting, “Mostly for Elton John, though I guess I’ll give Billy Joel a bit of credit.”
Ben Feuerstein
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Ben has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for three months now. This will be his first year teching a performance season. He is 14 years old and is in ninth grade at Lewisburg Area High School. Ben comments, “Being on the Tech Crew is so important because the show would not be able to run without us. We hold the show together.”
Ben has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for three months taking guitar lessons with guitar instructor, Gabe Stillman. He is involved in classes and workshops including, Guitar Solos 1 and Music Theory 1. He also plays guitar in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases.
Ben is most excited to tech the Aerosmith show at the Community Arts Center!
Haden Ferguson
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This is Haden’s second semester being involved in Tech Monkey Workshops. He has teched the 2019 Summer Music Festival at Brandon Park, but this will be his first year teching a performance season. He is 10 years old and is in fifth grade at McCall Middle School. Haden comments, “The tech crew is so important, because if you didn’t have the tech crew, the shows would fall apart.”
Haden has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for six months now taking keyboard lessons with vocal and keyboard instructor, Haley Miller. He is involved in classes and workshops and plays keyboard in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases.
Haden is most excited to tech the 20th Anniversary Performance at the Community Arts Center!
Grace Godin
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This is Grace’s second semester being involved in Tech Monkey Workshops. She has teched one performance, but this will be her first year teching a performance season. She is 10 years old and is in fifth grade at Lycoming Valley Intermediate School. Grace comments, “Being on the Tech Crew is important because, without it, the music wouldn’t be heard. All the hard work from the performers would go down the drain. Without the tech crew, the music wouldn’t be able to increase volume, and then everyone wouldn’t be able to hear how great the performers are.”
Grace has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for one year taking voice lessons with vocal instructors, Mallory Scoppa and Sara Scott. She continues to be involved in the semesterly student showcases!
Grace is excited to tech all of the performances, and says, “but the Community Arts Center shows will definitely be the most exciting and stressful!”
Todd Henry
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Todd has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for a little over a year now. He has teched last year’s performance season and is excited to tech this year’s performance season. He is 16 years old and is a sophomore at Montoursville Area High School. Todd comments, “Being involved in the Tech Crew is so important because you get to be a big part of what makes the show so great.”
Todd has been attending the Collective for a little over a year now taking drum lessons with drum instructor, Bobby Leidhecker. He is involved in classes and workshops and plays drums in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases.
Todd is most excited to tech the Walk This Way: The Music of Aerosmith show at the Community Arts Center!
Noah Joy
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Noah has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for one semester. This will be his first year teching a performance season. He is 18 years old and is a senior at Williamsport Area High School. Noah comments, “The Tech Crew is so important because, without us, the band wouldn’t be able to perform as well.”
Noah started guitar lessons when he was 10 for 2 years and resumed at age 16. He currently takes guitar lessons with guitar instructor, Willi Ort. He is involved in classes and workshops including, the Rock Workshop and Music Theory. Noah also plays guitar in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases.
Noah is most excited to learn how to run the stage, the lights, and get the overall experience.
Jossian Lilley
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Jossian has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for over a year. He has teched six performances, including last year’s performance season. He is 14 years old and is in eighth grade at Loyalsock Township Middle School. Jossian comments, “Being a good tech allows you to have perspective when performing as to how vital each role is. It also allows you to become familiar with the equipment used in those situations.”
Jossian has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for almost two years now taking guitar lessons with guitar instructor, Gabe Stillman. He is involved in classes and workshops and plays guitar in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases. He also plays guitar in the Collective’s community performance group, Vinyl Rewind.
Jossian is most excited to tech the 20th Anniversary Performance at the Community Arts Center, and more specifically the Led Zeppelin show!
Annaleigh Maffei
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This is Annaleigh’s second semester being involved in Tech Monkey Workshops. This will be her first year teching a performance season! She is 15 years old and is in ninth grade at Danville Area High School. Annaleigh comments, “Being in the tech crew is important because we need to be there if something goes wrong and help fix those things fast.”
Annaleigh has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for about a year now taking guitar lessons with guitar instructor, Ben Geise. She plays in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases.
Annaleigh is most excited to tech the Time in a Bottle: Singer/Songwriters of the ’60s & ’70s Performance at the Community Theatre League, because she enjoys listening to Jim Croce!
Caleb Mahoney
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Caleb has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for three years now. He has teched seven performances, including last year’s performance season and the summer showcase. He is 11 years old and is in sixth grade and homeschooled. Caleb comments, “Being on the Tech Crew is so important because knowing what goes on behind the scenes is crucial. It is the foundation of the shows.”
Caleb has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for three and a half years taking keyboard lessons. He currently takes his private lessons with keyboard and vocal instructor, Haley Miller (his favorite teacher yet) . He is involved in classes and workshops including,Tech Monkey workshops, and Music Theory. Caleb also has been performing in the student showcases.
Caleb is most excited to tech the Time In A Bottle: Singer/Songwriters of the ’60s and ’70s show at the Community Theatre League!
Patrick Schon
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This is Patrick’s first semester being involved in Tech Monkey Workshops and teching a performance season. He is 19 years old. Patrick comments, “I enjoy being in Tech Monkey because I get a good grasp of how the equipment functions.”
Patrick has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for almost two months now taking guitar lessons with guitar instructor, Willi Ort. He is involved in classes and workshops including, Music Theory and Guitar Solos. He plays guitar in one of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases.
Patrick is most excited to tech the Walk This Way: The Music of Aerosmith Show!
Elizabeth Zellers
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Elizabeth has been involved in Tech Monkey Workshops for over now. She has teched two performances so far, but this will be her first year teching a performance season. She is 14 years old and is in 8th grade at Reach Charter Cyber School. Elizabeth comments, “Being on the Tech Crew is so important because it will help expand my knowledge as to what goes on behind the scenes, as well as be able to help the shows run smoothly.”
Elizabeth has been attending the Uptown Music Collective for a year and a half now taking keyboard lessons with keyboard/piano instructor, Steve Adams. She is involved in classes and workshops and plays keyboard in two of the Collective’s Backing Bands for the student showcases.
Elizabeth is most excited to tech the Captain Fantastic & The Piano Man: The Music of Elton John & Billy Joel fundraising performance at the Community Arts Center!
The 2019 – 2020 Performance Season Tech Crew with Technical Director, Willi Ort.