Singing Strong: DeShon teams up with Hamlisch at Pops Concerts

Published 11:40 am Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Not many people can say that Marvin Hamlisch guided their singing career.

Rachel DeShon, a 2001 Inglemoor High graduate, is fortunate to have the legendary composer in her life. He’s won Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes and a Tony. On Broadway, his music for “A Chorus Line” received a Pulitzer Prize.

“He’s just an amazing mentor,” DeShon said. “He’s always been so supportive and so wonderful.”

Now 28, DeShon — who won Hamlisch’s “Search for a Star” competition the same week she graduated from high school — sang with the master songwriter  and the Seattle Symphony for the Holiday Pops Concerts Dec. 8-11 at Benaroya Hall. She loaded up with eight songs, including “Ave Maria,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” “Hanukkah Lights” and more.

“Last night’s concert went great and I received a standing ovation for ‘O Holy Night,’ which was the end of the first half,” she said of the opening-night performance.

“With the symphony, the sound is incredible, there’s a full orchestra … and it propels you to go out and sing those notes,” said DeShon, a trained classical and musical-theater singer who graduated with honors from Western Illinois University. She’s also sung with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, in Singapore and at Yale University and has been a regular performer with Teatro ZinZanni in Seattle and San Francisco.

“I am extremely lucky, seeing that I make a living being an artist,” she said. “I don’t have a day job — I’m just singing. That’s been remarkable.”

Mother Cheryl digs back into her daughter’s past for one of Rachel’s more memorable performances, which didn’t even take place on stage.

“At Kenmore Junior High School, Rachel was always in trouble as she could never keep her mouth quiet in class. Once a teacher who didn’t know she could sing told her she would have to sing songs from musicals for the entire hour. Well, that was right up her line and she had no problem doing it,” Cheryl said. “I think she sings from the heart and gives it everything she has. When I watch her, I think about all the work she has done to get to where she is and I am so thankful for her that it is all paying off.”

While attending Western Illinois, DeShon found her singing sweet spot and that pushed her to continue on her path to become a full-time performer.

It’s with Teatro ZinZanni where DeShon’s found a home for the last five years. She’s amassed 800 performances with the troupe, which unleashes a three-hour show of vaudeville revue, improv comedy, music, dance and more in an intimate setting to the dinner-imbibing crowd. It has been described as “the Kit Kat Klub on acid.”

To perform with Teatro ZinZanni, the stars must always be on their toes.

“There are 300 people there sitting on your stage. It almost frightened me at the beginning,” she laughed. “It’s like, ‘You can touch me. You can be in my space.’ I don’t know what to do with it. It’s stifling now to do regular shows.”

DeShon has performed high above the crowd on a trapeze and in a gilded cage. “My first show I was in roller skates singing opera — It was crazy,” she said.

It’s a gutsy job with minimal rehearsals. It’s as if they say, according to DeShon, “’Let’s jump off a cliff. Let’s try it, guys. Let’s go.’”

Teatro ZinZanni gave her freedom to do anything and everything, and now DeShon wants to perform a solo show and start her own production company, Lamb Project (Rachel means “little lamb” in Hebrew).

Hamlisch gave her a start, and now the woman with the self-described “huge voice” is ready for more.

“When I hear her sing, I am often moved to tears,” said Rachel’s godmother Pat Young, who traveled from Phoenix, Ariz., to attend the Pops concerts. “Rachel is very generous in sharing her talent and will sing at the drop of a hat.”