By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The National Anthem is Abby Paskvan’s favorite song.
The 20-year-old singer has been performing “The Star Spangled Banner” since she was 8, when she opened a Bowling Green State University basketball game.
On Wednesday, July 20, she’ll have the chance to perform it on her biggest stage yet, the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (She is scheduled to sing at 7:45 p.m.) And she’s thrilled. “I’m super excited,” the Bowling Green resident said. She was already considering going to the convention as an observer. She has several friends involved in organizing events in conjunction with the convention, so she was hoping a get tickets.
Paskvan said she’s interested in politics and with a national convention nearby “it would be awesome to see it up close.” To be able to sing there is “a once in a lifetime experience.”
She expects to take the stage at about 7:45 p.m. She will sing without accompaniment.
She assumes she was approached by convention officials because someone heard one of her previous performances, such as her recent appearance at a Cincinnati Reds game. She has sung the anthem at numerous sporting events, including the National Tractor Pulling Championships.
“It’s my favorite song to sing,” Paskvan said. “It takes a lot of power.” That’s a quality she’s had since she first appeared in public as a little girl with an astonishingly large voice.
The singer was confident enough that when organizers asked if she wanted rehearsal, she at first deferred. They convinced her to take a trial run in Quicken Loans Arena.
Her approach to singing the anthem is to stick to its roots. Sing the melody with no embellishment and “not over sing… not adding your own twist that it’s not supposed to have.”
Paskvan is a junior studying marketing at BGSU. More and more, she said, she is considering making music a career. Her business training, she said, will help her manage that career.
She has studied voice for about six years with Tina Bunce. “I would definitely not be where I am without her,” she said. She hopes to fit in a lesson before her convention appearance.
The young singer already has a thriving career as a gospel singer. She is a regular at Christmas in the Smokies in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and has also performed at Dollywood, Gatlinburg Gathering, and on a Carnival Cruise to Alaska.
Paskvan, the daughter of Brian Paskvan and Rebecca Martin-Paskvan, has five recordings to her name, with a sixth on the way. Those recordings have had steady airplay on Christian radio and have earned her a number of honors.
