One of our areas most dynamic entertainers is featured at Tyrone is Summer Sunday Concert on August 3, in Reservoir Park. The best in music of the 1940s until today will be performed with that special blend of talent and showmanship only Zupe can offer.
Zupe has been entertaining audiences of all ages for more than a decade. He grew up studying big bands. Zupe’s early music education culminated with honors, being chosen to perform with the Pennsylvania State Choir in the spring of 1984. Throughout school, Zupe also performed bugle duty, playing “Taps” for local V.F.W. and American Legion ceremonies and funerals. His close association with veterans, including his own grandfather, guided Zupe into following their footsteps and serving his country. In July of 1984, Zupe enlisted in the United States Air Force.
During his four year stint, Zupe found several outlets for his music, becoming the student director/arranger of the Sheppard Air Force Base Drum and Bugle Corps, and once stationed in Germany, winning various talent competitions, including a National Champion title in the “Self-Accompanied Vocalist” category. Zupe also performed in various piano bars (even playing for fighter pilots at the Officers’ Club, but that’s another story) and playing keyboards in a high-energy rock band. All the while, Zupe befriended, and became an ardent follower, of Juilliard Master pianist/composer Paul Amrod in Kaiserslautern. Through Paul’s guidance, Zupe honed his compositional skills and applied them to the technologies of the time. It was here, that Zupe began experimenting, and making music with the use of computers.
In 1988, Zupe was honorably discharged, as a decorated sergeant, from the United States Air Force. He quickly made a name for himself as a modern-day one-man-band, using computers, keyboards and drum machines. Zupe later played in a successful rock band in Europe while studying jazz composition under a Julliard master pianist, and won rave reviews for his Top 40 Dance show in this country. His use of computers and keyboards allows Zupe to create a whole band effect so successful that the audience finds it hard to believe that only one man is on stage. In addition, everyone leaves with a smile.
Zupe’s published works have appeared on a variety of television programs, including Fox’s “Malcolm In The Middle,” and “The Simple Life,” NBC’s “Dateline,” MTV’s “Road Rules” and “Real World,” and several shows on cable networks, such as A & E and The History Channel.
“Zupe continues to be one of this area’s top showmen,” writes Jim Price of Pennsylvania Musician Magazine. “He’s one of the finest performers I’ve ever known,” says Dick DeAndrea, part of the Rod and Dick Morning Show on WALY-FM.
Summer Sunday concerts are held at the Reservoir Park amphitheater beginning at 6 p.m. and are free of charge. In the event of rain the concert will be held in the Lutheran Church on Logan Avenue and Thirteenth Street This project is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and Tyrone Borough. For additional information on the summer concerts please call the Arts Line Office at 684-ART2.
