NEW PHILADELPHIA —When you go to a concert, you expect to listen, not be called on stage to sing.
However, that’s exactly what happened to Laura Schupbach June 4 while she was attending a concert by Josh Groban in Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.
“I had been looking forward to the concert,” said Laura, a New Philadelphia native who now teaches music in Mifflin Elementary near Mansfield.
“I’m a real fan and we got our tickets three or four months before,” she said. “I am an avid Josh Groban fan.”
Laura said for this tour, Groban encourages those attending to text questions, several of which he then answers during the concert.
“I sent him a text asking which Power Ranger was his favorite,” said Laura.
Unbeknownst to Laura, her mother, Dyan Schupbach of New Philadelphia, also sent a text if Laura could come on stage and sing with Groban.
“She signed my name and gave my set number,” said Laura. “And she didn’t tell me.”
Laura she and her mother and great-grandmother, Millie Sherman, were sitting in the fourth row enjoying the concert, when Groban said he would answer some questions.
“It was really crazy,” Laura said. “When he called my name, I thought he was going to answer my Power Ranger question.”
Instead, he informed the audience that Laura wanted to come on stage and sing with him.
“At first I was not happy with my mom,” Laura said. “I had had really bad allergies that morning, and I was thinking, ‘please, not in front of 15,000 people’.”
That was about all she had time to think about, because Groban jumped from the stage, took her by the wrist, took her to center stage.
“He asked what I did and I said I was a music teacher and I was from New Philadelphia,” said Laura.
“He offered me a bottle of water and asked what I wanted to sing, and the only song I could think of was ‘The Prayer’ (from the animated movie “Quest for Camelot”).”
Laura said when they finished singing, the response from the audience was exciting and exhilarating.
“As we were leaving, complete strangers were coming up to me and asking where they could send pictures and videos they had taken while we were singing,” Laura said.
“It just goes to show there are still a lot of nice people out there,” she added.
Laura, who just completed her first year of teaching, recently had surgery to remove a femoral rod from her left leg, which was placed there after a traffic accident in October 2009.
She will be in the area to sing with the Dominic Greco Band in August and with the Tuscarawas Philharmonic in October. She also is new member of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.
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Congratulations Lauren!
Thanks for blogging this :-) Gotta love Josh Groban, what a down-to-earth guy!
ReplyDeleteYou're more than welcome. What a great experience. And I've gotta agree with you about Josh being a down-to-earth guy.
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