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When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St.
Tickets: $15 to $80; 345-0606.
It’s not every Motown crooner who sports a degree from Princeton University.
But Cushney Roberts, who appears this weekend with the Omaha Symphony, spent 10 years working as a corporate engineer in Chicago and Dallas before switching to full-time singing in Las Vegas.
Why the paradigm shift in careers?
“I got laid off from my day job,” Roberts said.
Don’t feel too sorry for Roberts. He was talking on his cell phone from a beach on St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.
When he’s not performing in Vegas or with an orchestra, Roberts sings his high C’s on the high seas. He and his Motown tribute group Spectrum had just been entertaining audiences on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
A native of East Orange, N.J., Roberts got his start in music as a boy soprano singing in church choirs. He later learned trombone and guitar.
During his Ivy League days, he earned extra cash managing and performing with Quiet Fire, a group that styled itself loosely after the Fifth Dimension.
Roberts continued moonlighting in nightclubs while working as an engineer.
After he was laid off, he took the risk of moving to Vegas. It paid off when he found himself opening for stars such as Tony Bennett and Doc Severinsen.
Spectrum, his vocal quartet, has modeled itself after the Four Tops. The group uses many of the original Motown orchestral arrangements. And their performance includes vintage Motown choreography.
“We give people a trip down memory lane with a stylish and energetic show,” he said.
Contact the writer:
444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com
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