‘The Lyric Tenor’ Mark Daniels, right, a 1994 Kennebunk High School graduate, shown here with pianist Rob Goodling, left, has organized a recital to benefit the school’s music and theater programs set for 4 p.m. April 1. Tomas Flint Photography, 

LLC

KENNEBUNK -When Mark Daniels was a student at Cousens School in the 1980s, music teacher Keith McClelland took his grandmother, Myra Sparkowich, aside one day and asked if she knew the young fellow could sing.

She pursued the matter, and soon Daniels was a member of the choral group The Boy Singers of Maine.

“It gave me an early appreciation for pitch and harmony,” said Daniels by phone from his home in Rochester, New York, earlier this month. From there he would sing at school events and later studied with renowned Maine singer David Goulet.

“In my freshman year at Kennebunk High School I saw a poster for ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,’” said Daniels. “I honestly didn’t know what a musical was, but (it came) at the time music began to be important to me.”

A special guest at an April 1 recital organized by tenor Mark Daniels (’94) to benefit Kennebunk High School music and theater programs is 2016 KHS graduate soprano Rosemary Crimp. Courtesy Photo

He said his earliest memories of his grandfather, Gerald Sparkowich, are of him “strumming his guitar, singing hymns and making up folk songs,” with him singing along.

He went on to study at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and has performed in venues across the United States and  in Italy, where he sang the lead role of Ferrando in Mozart’s ‘Cosi Fan Tutte.’ He will soon be headed to Florida for a recital with the Ilse Newell Fund for the Performing Arts.

And on April 1, Daniels is coming home to Kennebunk. The 1994 Kennebunk High School graduate has organized a recital to benefit the school’s  music and theater programs.

“This recital is very special to me,” said Daniels. “It is giving me the opportunity to give back to the school that really started me on this trajectory.”

He will be joined by soprano and 2016 KHS graduate Rosemary Crimp, by Goulet and by collaborative pianist Rob Goodling.

“This will be a show of musical theater, popular songs, art songs, opera, I try to put something in there for everyone,” said Daniels.

Daniels and Crimp will perform a duet from “La Boheme.”

Dennis St. Pierre, theater and dance instructor and manager of the KHS theater, said the school is excited about the recital and grateful for the opportunity Daniels has provided.

St. Pierre said the money raised through the fundraiser could be used to purchase music rights, help pay costs associated with getting students competing in jazz and band competition where they need to be, and more.

Daniels said he hopes the fundraiser will become an annual event.

He’s been back to Kennebunk annually – he was raised in the same farm house as his mother and grandmother – but hasn’t yet been in the new auditorium. The last time he performed in the old auditorium was the summer after his freshman year in high school, he recalled, when he played Tony in the school’s production of “West Side Story,” produced and director by Bruce Lewia.

Daniels said the recital is in memory of his late mother Susan D. Danis, and dedicated to his grandmother, Myra Sparkowich.

Tickets for the 4 p.m. recital at the KHS auditorium are $25 and available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-lyric-tenor-returns-home-tickets-524078261187