Cancer and 40 pills a day can't keep this Shore teen from Radio City Music Hall's stage
Like a lot of kids who go through childhood cancer, Daniel Carnevale feels a need to give back.
"A lot of them try to be doctors," the 17-year-old Aberdeen resident said. "And I'm not a doctor, never gonna be a doctor. I'm not really big on medical stuff."
So he turned to his love of music, which he credits with helping him through treatment.
"I wanted to be able to perform and help people that way, and either be someone to look up to or be able to give back with raising money."
Carnevale is a junior at St. John Vianney High School, where he transferred after the closure of Mater Dei. In 2017, when he was 11, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He underwent five rounds of chemotherapy and 20 rounds of radiation at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, or CHOP.
While he has been cancer-free since 2018, during treatment his doctors discovered he has Gitelman Syndrome, a rare kidney disorder. He now takes more than 40 pills a day to manage his kidney disease.
On April 19, Carnevale will join more than 150 young people from the tri-state area — all facing hardships ranging from cancer to other illnesses to homelessness — at Radio City Music Hall for the 15th Garden of Dreams Talent Show. He'll sing Ed Sheeran's "Perfect," a song he said he listened to many times on the long car rides to and from CHOP.
"I feel like you can show so much emotion, so much about my story, everything I went through," he said. "Even if people don't listen to the lyrics, they still feel the emotion of the song. And it's been a way I can express myself."
Carnevale plans to attend college for music, hoping to get a well-rounded look at the industry, from engineering and songwriting to music theory.
Garden of Dreams Talent Show
The 2023 show will feature vocal performances of both original music and songs from various music genres, dance numbers, instrumental performances, monologues and more.
The 22 acts are made up of young people from 22 of the Garden of Dreams Foundation’s 29 partner organizations, including Make-a-Wish, Children’s Aid, Children’s Village, Covenant House, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, SCAN-Harbor and more.
Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of RUN DMC is the talent show creative director and a Garden of Dreams Foundation board member.
“The annual talent show is dear to my heart, as both a musician and someone who has faced adversity — the joy it creates and impact it makes on our young people and in our communities cannot be overstated,” he said.
The foundation, in partnership with MSG Entertainment and MSG Sports, "provides young people with life-changing access to educational and skills opportunities, mentoring programs and memorable experiences that enhance their lives, help shape their futures and create lasting joy," a news release said.
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Elisha Rodriguez-Ford
Also performing at this year's show is Elisha Rodriguez-Ford, 19, of Pennsauken. She'll sing “I Could Have Danced All Night” from "My Fair Lady."
"It's just a really energetic song," she said. "I get to fully express the character how I see it. So it just really gives me a lot of energy and it's a character piece."
The 19-year-old loves performing.
"Being able to get all the different costumes, the different songs, the characters, meeting new people, getting better at what you love — it's just it's so energizing," she said.
Rodriguez-Ford graduated from Camden County Technical Schools, where she studied culinary arts.
In 2021, Elisha was diagnosed with stage 2 ovarian cancer. The news hit particularly hard when she realized she would have to miss the remainder of the school year after just returning from the COVID closure.
It was then that her mom realized she had stopped singing.
"Music is my life," she said. "It's always been ever since I was 3 years old. I've been singing around the house. I sang in church at young ages. And so seeing how music wasn't even doing anything for me, (my mom) got really concerned."
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But she was able to turn back to music.
"Music started helping me through things," she said. "There's a song for pretty much every feeling, and I really like instrumental classical pieces — so it was a way to relax and put my mind at ease whenever my emotions were running a little wild."
Rodriguez-Ford has big plans for her future.
"There are so many things in life that I want to do," she said. "And even now there's certain things that have made me realize that I'm a little bit more passionate about things. I want to be a performer, a performer or a model. I want to see the world in so many different ways."
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Other performers
Other performers from New Jersey include 15-year-old Xavier Mack of Bayonne, who is dancing in tribute to his late sister Wynter.
Wynter performed in the 2022 Garden of Dreams Talent Show, wowing the audience with her dance skills and charm.
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Also performing is Izzy Rita, 9, of Bridgewater, who will sing "My Shot" from the Broadway musical "Hamilton." Izzy was diagnosed with a spinal cord tumor at 12 months old and earned the nickname “Izzy Warrior Princess” after undergoing 42 chemo treatments in 14 months.
She was left with physical disabilities and suffers from daily nerve pain.
"Despite these challenges, she has a vibrant life as a performer, and singing provides her both solace and a means for building her confidence and feeling 'equal to her peers,' " according to a news release.
Go: 2023 Garden of Dreams Talent Show, 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, Radio City Music Hall, 1260 6th Ave., New York, free tickets are available at the door; gardenofdreamsfdtn.org/talentshow2023. To learn more about the foundation, visit gardenofdreamsfoundation.org.
Ilana Keller is an award-winning journalist and lifelong New Jersey resident who loves Broadway and really bad puns. Reach out on Twitter: @ilanakeller; ikeller@gannettnj.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Garden of Dreams Talent Show 2023 features teen cancer survivor
