American Idol Season XIII Premieres With A Two Night Extravaganza Beginning In Boston, Austin and San Francisco

January 15, 2014 by Masterclass Lady 6 Comments


20140115-160959.jpgPicture Credit:AmericanIdol.Com

American Idol Season XIII premieres on Fox with a four-hour, two-night extravaganza on Wednesday, January 15th and Thursday, January 17th.

And, I am hoping beyond hope that Executive Producer Pers Blanken and his team of Idol specialists can deliver as promised.

Personally, the biggest coup in this nicely tweaked format this season is the reinstatement of the Rickey Minor band along with his talented vocal coach, Dorian Holley. They are magnificent musicians and will bring a high degree of credibility to this show. The show needs them and not the other way around. Rickey is a brilliant arranger and his musical genius has been notably missed over the last few seasons.

I love the diversity of the new judging panel of Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopezand Harry Connick Jr. . Three judges are more than enough. Any more and my eyes glaze over listening to the comments.

There will be format changes galore and, more important, the song list will be more detailed and current. Thank Heavens!!

On Wednesday, the judges travel to conduct the Preliminary Auditions in Boston and Austin and, on Thursday, the auditions continue in Austin, followed by San Francisco.

Here is the complete breakdown of the format and schedule.

I have to say – I am very excited about the positive aura surrounding this show this season. And, leading the troops is the invincible Ryan Seacrest. He has always been a soothing and stable presence on this show, don’t you agree? Totally unflappable.

So let the season begin. We are back in the saddle again, MCL community. Comment away!

American Idol, American Idol Season 13, Singing, Television
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About Masterclass Lady

Rosanne (Giallonardo) Simunovic began her musical career in Timmins, Ontario. She studied piano with Anne Pizzale and later, at an advanced level, with Soeur Anita Vaugeois (Sister Cecile of Les Soeurs De L’Assomption in Timmins). Her vocal and accompaniment skills were nurtured by her aunt, the late Dorothea Mascioli. When Rosanne graduated from O’Gorman High School, she moved on to the University of Toronto where she continued her piano and vocal studies while attaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She was hired as a piano accompanist for several musical companies, most notably, the National Ballet Of Canada. She presently holds an A.R.C.T. Teacher’s Diploma in Voice from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Rosanne has studied choral conducting with numerous well known Canadian Conductors, including Wayne Riddell of Montreal, Quebec and the internationally renowned Dr. Elmer Iseler. She has been a founding member of numerous community-based arts organizations: the Timmins Arts Council, later known as Arts & Culture Timmins, the Timmins Symphony Orchestra, and, the Timmins Youth Singers…as well as the TYS Alumnus choir, the Timmins Concert Singers. In 1987, she was also selected to be the conductor of the Timmins Board Of Education Choir, comprised of talented students from Grades 5 to 8. In 1988, she was elected to the Board Of Directors of the Ontario Choral Federation (now known as Choirs Ontario), where she served as Chair of the Festivals Committee for six consecutive seasons. In 1996, in honour of the Ontario Choral Federation’s 25th Anniversary, Rosanne was selected as one of 25 recipients of the OCF’s Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contribution to the choral art. The ceremony was presided by Lieutenant Governor, Hal Jackman. In November 1997, Rosanne Simunovic was selected by the Rotary Club Of Timmins to receive the prestigious Paul Harris Award for her years of dedication to the artistic development of young musical talent in Timmins. In August of 2002, Rosanne Simunovic was selected by the Board Of Directors of Choirs Ontario to serve as Conductor of both the Provincial Junior and Teen Choir Camps, now renamed in honour of the Camp Benefactors, Don and Lillian Wright. In November 2002, Rosanne was the one of the recipients of the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, honouring her work in the development of the arts in Timmins. Under Rosanne Simunovic’s direction, the Timmins Youth Singers and the Timmins Concert Singers have been featured in numerous choral festivals and performing opportunities outside of Timmins. In 1985, they were selected to partici
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6 Responses to “American Idol Season XIII Premieres With A Two Night Extravaganza Beginning In Boston, Austin and San Francisco”

  1. Gene W January 16, 2014 at 6:03 pm

    I was pleasantly surprised by last night’s show. The judge’s panel is working well together, so far, and the elimination of the most ridicules auditions from the show was a very welcome and overdue change. I saw a few decent contestants and a lot of cannon fodder getting golden tickets and had several good laughs. Harry is bringing knowledge to the group and an unexpected sense of moral decency that Idol has stayed from a bit. I liked his comments in a few cases in particular. In one case he acknowledged that the contestant had resonated with the other two judges, and that was good even though he didn’t like the audition. Then there was the young girl singing the sexually suggestive Grace Potter lyrics that he said was not age appropriate for her. I love Grace but she is a 30 year old woman, not a 15 year old girl, so I was glad that he made the remark. I was mixed about the girl from Georgia who wore her little sister’s dress 😉 to the audition. I agreed with Harry about the runs and vocal gymnastics but in spite of all of that, the girl had a very nice tone so I’m glad the other two put her through.

    All of the talk about Pentatonic scales last night gives me an opportunity to tell you about something somewhat related that I saw a few days ago that surprised me. I had bought tickets at a local venue to see BB King, so I went on their web site to see if the show had sold out. It had, but strangely, the Gregg Almond show the following night had not. The big surprise was that the acapella group that won the “Sing-Off” last year, “Pentatonics” has already sold out their show scheduled for March 3rd at the same venue. I have also seen them fairly high on the charts. Who knew acapella singing groups were so popular?

    We’re a long way from seeing if this new format will produce the next big thing or not, but at least the season is off to a good start.

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  2. Vonnie :-) January 17, 2014 at 4:16 pm

    Hi Guys!

    Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! 🙂

    I really, really liked Sam Woolf…My fav so far!

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  3. Jessica Reffler January 17, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    Hi everyone!

    I like Jesse Roach best. Black hair/blue eyes/black guitar. I also liked TK Hash.

    There were a few let through to Hollywood that they considered not putting through because of immaturity. I think HC, Jr was thoughtful in his considerations and probably spot on in the end. He wasn’t afraid to disagree, and he made some interesting decisions based on the “whole package.”

    I’m sure Masterclass Lady was thanking the Lord that the panel warned several (or more) contestants that their vocal technique could probably not stand the test of time or was too far in the head voice (the cheerleader whose abs he noticed … LOL).

    Can’t wait for everyone to start chiming in. Well, that was a bad unintended pun.

    I wanted to go see John Mayer in Phoenix this summer, but the tickets were waaay out of my range.

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  4. janey79 January 18, 2014 at 3:22 am

    Someone from my neck of the woods is going to Hollywood!

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  5. Masterclass Lady January 18, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    Janey – that is exciting. Who is it? Please share. :):)

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  6. janey79 January 19, 2014 at 11:37 am

    MCL, it’s David Luning. The judges liked him but said he really wasn’t Idol material which I think we can all pretty much agree on. Btw, the top 31 spoilers have posted for anyone interested. He has more original material on his website. He’s very talented. I think I’ll try to catch a show when he appears nearby.

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