Over three million viewers have watched the U.S. Navy Band’s official chorus, the Sea Chanters, featuring Greenbelter Bill Edwards, perform selections from Jersey Boys on YouTube. Greenbelters have the opportunity to see these lively artists at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) on Thursday, September 1 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., an early lead-in to the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival. The 39-year-old Edwards last took the stage at ERHS 22 years ago when he was a student there. He is excited to return. “Drama and musical theater at Roosevelt was a tremendous opportunity for me. I loved it.” Performing with the Sea Chanters at ERHS, he said, “is a fantastic way to bring the community together, celebrate America, give back to the community and represent the military, and it’s going to be a great honor to be able to do that in my hometown.” While he grew up in Bowie, Edwards spent a large part of his childhood in Greenbelt. His grandparents lived here, he attended Camp Pine Tree and his father had a law practice in Roosevelt Center. Edwards’ aunt and uncle live in Greenbelt, and Edwards went to high school at ERHS.
A resident of Greenbelt U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters Concert Features Bill Edwards by Kyla Hanington now for the last 10 years himself, Edwards continues to be a presence in the community. He has sung the national anthem at the opening ceremonies of the Labor Day Festival previously and will again this year and he performed with the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra at the Old Greenbelt Theatre’s Anniversary Gala earlier this year. According to Edwards, when he was in fourth grade his mom signed him up for the Maryland Boychoir because “I was always singing around the house as a kid and my mom had seen an article in the paper” about the Boychoir. The choir gave him the opportunity to “sing not only in a choir, but also to do solos, to just learn how to sing. And my first professional gig sort of came from all the experience I got through them.” When he was in sixth grade, the Prince George’s Civic Opera was mounting a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors and needed two boy sopranos for the title role.
Click here to see the paper for more information and a full schedule of events for the Festival.