Like all eleven of the children in the Tillemann-Dick household featured in a July 10 Westword cover story, 24-year-old Charity Sunshine followed her bliss – right into opera, in her case. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, she’s recently been studying the work of Hungarian composer Ferenc Erkel as a Fulbright Scholar in Budapest. She’s also been heard on prominent stages around the world, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., where in 2005 she performed a solo soprano concert accompanied on the piano by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Recently, Charity’s been working on her latest composition, Facebook: The Musical, which is about a 24-year-old soprano singer named Charity Sunshine. The character, says the real Charity, "is at closest a total caricature of someone who once looked like me." She’s currently shopping around the musical, which includes songs about pasta dishes, metrosexuals and, of course, the vagaries of Facebook. Until it hits Broadway, you can hear a few samples of Charity’s singing below. They should keep her budding fan base happy. -- Joel Warner
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"Wouldn't It Be Loverly"
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"California, Here I Come"
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