A Star on Largo’s Horizon to Perform in Tampa Saturdayby Leo CoughlinLARGO – You could see this last Saturday on WEDU-TV, St. Petersburg’s PBS outlet. There she was – a stunningly beautiful girl who can sing like a dream (make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up) and she was promoting the dickens out of Largo. Largo! It was part of the PBS fund raising that goes on and when Chloe Lowery was not actually singing in that marvelous voice, she was constantly plugging Largo – over and over, talking about her hometown, being raised here and on and on. What a splurge of nationwide publicity for little old Largo, more exposure than the city could afford to buy. At 20, she is a new face in some quarters. She is with the Yanni group of singers who will be performing at the Forum in Tampa Saturday. If you don’t go see her, you can see a re-run of the performance of last Saturday tomorrow, April 9, on WEDU-TV at 9 p.m. So who is Chloe, this marvelous young woman who now stands as the best current ambassador for her home city? She is one of the talented troupe taken in hand by Yanni who has talent to burn. She is a powerful singer with a range from dulcet and tender to soaring and elevating. She is a dancer, writes music, plays the piano. And she is the daughter of Dave and Lisa Lowery, both physicians, who live in Harbor Bluffs. Her bio sheet from the Yanni promoters tells much of the story. She grew up on musicals and pop tunes and by the time she was 9 already had a taste of performing. At 12, she was signed to a record contract with RCA records... Of that she says, “They tried to turn me into combination of Britney Spears and Mariah Carey.” In those pre-teen years she had sung at an NCAA Final Four games and been on national television with standards like Good Morning America. Chloe started singing when she was 3, at church. Then she got involved with Entertainment Revue after studying tap dancing, ballet, voice, jazz and piano lessons. You listen to her sing and you can detect some of that good old gospel music in her background. When she was 16, Chloe moved to New York to be with her sister, a dancer with the New York Ballet Company. Through connections in the music world, she came to the attention of Yanni, who invited her to join his talent company in south Florida. As a teenager Chloe became a fan of classic rock and singers like Robert Plant who was with Led Zeppelin and she toured last summer performing Janis Joplin’s songs. She calls that “one of the greatest experiences” she has had. “To be able to sing the music of a legend was such an honor.” Since joining the Yanni troupe Chloe says, “I have learned a great deal about myself as a vocalist. They’ve made me reach further and do songs I wouldn’t have even dreamed of singing.”
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