Miss America 1991 Talent (Cynthia White, OK)

Cynthia White's rendition of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Rheme of Paganini." Wonderful performance.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• miss
• america
• pageant
• 1991

[LilBrownieD]

If only Miss America were as wonderful a telecast as it used to be. Now outer beauty is more valued over talent and inner beauty. Too bad, I wish I was old enough back then to watch Miss America in the good ol's days.

[thepianodude]

They don't have wonderful talents like this any more. What a shame.

[Parker528]

@LilBrownieD One more recommendation if you want to see absolutely outstanding vocal talent from final night.  In the 96 pageant, when Tara Holland won Ms America 97, Shani Nielsen from Indiana belts out "in His Eyes" from the musical Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. It's one of the best talents on final night ever. She's seems to be very talented naturally with outstanding pitch & intonation. I have had to buy a 2nd tape from that yr b/c I watch her talent so much I ruin the tape! Check it out.

[Parker528]

@Juliaflo But talent doesn't score anywhere near as high as it did through the 80's into the mid 90's. It used to be 50% of the final nights score. Now talent is to be done in such a short period of time that noone can get in a decent piano piece anymore w/o destroying it and rendering it boring. Talent IS still the highest SINGLE score counted on final night, but way below the 50% mark. That seems to prevent any great talent overall.

[Parker528]

@LilBrownieD Some talent to watch if you ever buy tapes: In the 90 pageant, Marjorie Vincent(Ms America 91) plays Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu & is astounding; she'd been in notable nat'l piano contests so she def stood out in talent. Ms America 94, Kim Aiken is an impressive vocal talent for someone who never took a singing lesson, only sang in the church choir. She sings Summertime from Porgy and Bess. And she faced stiff competition from Titilayo Adedokun with the Jewel Song that year.

[Parker528]

@LilBrownieD Well, you CAN buy the tapes or dvd's for final night on the Miss America website. The talent from most of the 80's and thru to mid 90's was outstanding. I bought some yrs just so I could see talent that I missed not watching the pageant in the early to mid-80's. One of the best years for talent in the final was the 95 pageant when Shawntell Smith became Ms America '96. Helen Goldsby, Ms New York, who was from Julliard, brought down the house with her Puccini aria. Check it out.

[linsalicious989]

haha now a days that would never pass at nationals. no it needs to be much more complicated! it so hard for piano pageant girls to get be impressive now a days.

[Juliaflo]

@denzelwvu I second that. Talent counts for a high percentage of the scoring.

[Juliaflo]

This, of course, is the signature Rhapsody 18.

[denzelwvu]

I love this piece! None of the Miss Amearica contestants are really talented anymore...

[twiggy11051991]

No, normally people wear shoes! It doesn't really matter though.

[KevinAtkis]

Huh?