When Ringgold rising junior Zachary Mendola auditioned for West Virginia University Instructor of Piano, Piano Repertoire and Jazz Piano Dr. James Miltenberger last summer, it didn't take long for the WVU professor to assess Mendola's talent.
“His talent was obvious when he auditioned,” said Miltenberger, who has been at the university more than 50 years and takes few private students outside the university setting. “He has innate musical ability. He is talented as a musician and a very gifted young man. He is obviously talented as a pianist, and talented in other areas, such as singing and the theater. He has the whole package.”
That whole package includes not just performing on the piano, but as a musical theater performer and composer.
Leslie Weinstein, who has taught theater arts at Ringgold High School since 2005, met Mendola when he was a fifth-grader and performing in his first show, a Halloween production with Mon Valley Actors and Artists in Monessen called “Boo! 13 Stories for Halloween.”
“Zack is extremely talented,” noted Weinstein, who also sponsors Thespian Troupe 7620 and is the theater director at Ringgold. “He has a myriad of strengths, most surrounding his absolute dedication and willingness to perfect his craft and artistry. He practices, he is creative, and very collaborative, and he has written original music for our fall show.”
For that fall performance this year, Weinstein handed Mendola the scripts, asking that scene change music was needed for the production.
“Within a month, I had exactly what I wanted, although I could never have described it,” she said, recalling Mendola's work. “Last year, when he joined the International Thespian Society as a freshman he had already accumulated more than 100 points in extracurricular theater involvement since the sixth grade. Each point represents approximately 10 hours of extracurricular work in school plays or other educational theatrical settings. This means that not only is Zach a thespian, he is an honor thespian, and because of his grades, a thespian scholar as well and he aspires to be a composer.”
When Weinstein presented Mendola with her scene-change needs, he read through the one-act comedies and responded with “whimsical music to correlate to the plays,” he said, chuckling.
For Mendola, his introduction to the piano when he was in the fourth grade was perhaps both accidental and coincidental.
“We had an old piano in our house and since there was a piano teacher in my neighborhood I decided to take lessons,” he said, “and I have never stopped.” His theatrical experience began when he watched sister in a show and thought that “it looked like a lot of fun. I have been involved with the theater ever since.”
At Ringgold, where Mendola, an honor student with 4.0 grade average, was cast as a freshman as Tarzan in “Tarzan,” he has been in the Show Choir Razz-ma-Tazz and spent three years as a member of the marching band's percussion section. Additionally, he has served as musical director for shows at the Grand Theatre in Elizabeth. With the Pittsburgh Musical Theatre, he has had parts in “A Chorus Line,” “The Little Mermaid.” “American Idiot” (lead role as Tunny), “Young Frankenstein” and “Peter Pan.”
In discussing his musical/theater interests, without hesitating, Mendola said, “Piano is one of my main passions. I like to perform on stage and write my own material in the musical theater style. My goal is to become a composer and write my own musicals. Composing is something I enjoy. It is not difficult for me, but it does take time.”
Noting that Mendola is “incredibly gifted in many ways musically, Miltenberger, who has seen several of his students perform in various musical areas on Broadway, added, “Zack will eventually focus and hone his skills in a particular area. I have worked with him privately for the past year as a pianist and I hope he can focus on those skills. He has the talent and potential to compose shows. He can go somewhere in the world of Broadway musicals.”
Les Harvath is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
