Team Cincinnati will sing at Macy's

Source
By John Kiesewetter • jkiesewetter@enquirer.com • July 20, 2008

Nick Lachey's Team Cincinnati singers will perform (without Lachey) before their biggest area audience when they appear at Macy's Music Festival Saturday.

Seven months after their national TV exposure on NBC's "Clash of the Choirs," the vocalists will be on stage at Paul Brown Stadium in a lineup including Frankie Beverly & Maze, Jill Scott, KEM and J. Holiday.

The group will premiere several new songs at the stadium, says Chuck Merk, choir member and a Lakota West High School teacher.

Since winning NBC's live reality competition in December, the choir has performed throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky and recorded a Cincinnati tourism commercial. The $250,000 prize from NBC was presented to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center at a "thank you" concert March 30 at Crossroads church in Oakley.

The singers recorded a background track in June for a song, "Til The World Stands Still," on Lachey's new CD, which is to be released this fall.

By end of summer, Team Cincinnati leaders plan open auditions to replace some singers, Merk says.

"With a few group members moving away in the fall, we are looking to fill a few spots in the group, and also have a few alternates ready to perform," he says.

The group may be contacted by e-mailing teamcincinnatichoir@gmail.com, or through www.myspace.com/teamcincinnati.