PERFORMING ARTS TAKE CENTER STAGE
Dreams in music and theater are coming to life for students at area schools.
Opportunities for students to find a calling in voice and theater abound at some of our area’s schools due to an exceptional commitment to the performing arts.
Two students, Ailyeh Ashlie, 13, of Phoenixville, Chester County, and Christopher “CJ” Hartung, 27, of Baltimore, who grew up in Boyertown, Berks County, are each at different stages of their educational and professional journeys, but both have a shared appreciation for the past and present experiences that have shaped them into the performers they are today.
They also both share an early, formal introduction to the performing arts through lessons they took in their childhood. When Hartung was in preschool, his mother, Eileen Rossman, took him to the YMCA for a multisports program, but it became clear very quickly that it wasn’t his element.
“He didn’t like sports, so I put him in music lessons,” she said. “He started playing piano at age 3 and did his first duet with his preschool teacher at age 4.”
Hartung, who grew up in Gilbertsville, was at Boyertown Junior High School when he had the opportunity to be a part of the school’s music and theater programs.
“The music program is phenomenal,” said Rossman, who is also an administrative assistant at the school. “He was in the musicals and most of the theater productions. I think their productions are better than New York sometimes.”
After graduating high school in 2014, Hartung attended the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he received a bachelor’s of music and a master’s of music, both in vocal performance. Afterward, he received his MBA from Eastern University.
Now a professional actor and opera singer, Hartung, who was most recently seen performing with the Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., looks back at his time at Boyertown High School with an appreciation for what was available to him and other students.
“The vocal and theater offerings at Boyertown were exceptional and beneficial to each student that participated, regardless of their professional career aspirations after high school,” Hartung said. “The vocal music and theater faculty were very committed to our success, and I truly felt that they had the best interest of every student involved.”
He recognized how his experience at Boyertown positively impacted his professionalism in the field.
“It taught me how to be flexible, well rounded, prepared and ahead of the game,” he said. “Much of my success as a professional musician today is because of the opportunities and lessons I learned from the program.”
Named Berks Best in the Performing Arts in the Reading Eagle in 2014, Hartung is a contracted artist with Annapolis Opera, Maryland Lyric Opera, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Young Victorian Theatre Company and the Maryland Opera, in addition to his other pending contracts.
He has performed with the Berks Opera Co. and plans to join them this summer for the production of “Gianni Schicchi,” in which he will play the title role. When he’s not performing, he’s often auditioning for new local, regional, national and global opportunities.