The face of Lynn DiMenna is becoming increasingly familiar to music fans around Vero Beach, particularly those who love the music of the Great American Songbook.
DiMenna, a cabaret singer and radio host for many years in Darien, Conn., has just moved permanently to Vero Beach after a decade of visiting in season.
With decades of live-performance experiences ranging from famous NYC cabaret locales to massive sports arenas, DiMenna considers Vero to be the musical treasure of the Treasure Coast.
And she should know. DiMenna was born into a musical family. Her grandfather came to the U.S. from Italy playing cornet for a big band. He began a sheet music company in the 1900s printing music for some of the most popular songs of the day. His success allowed him to move his family out of New York’s Little Italy to the bucolic and upscale area of Westchester County.
There, years later, his granddaughter Lynn got her first taste for singing and musical performance in the teen variety shows at Westchester Country Club. In high school, DiMenna became part of a folk group that performed in community centers in towns like Bronxville, Tuckahoe and Larchmont.
She smiles at a flyer she kept: “Price of admission is $1.50 at the door and $1.00 for advance tickets.” Tickets would likely be higher today considering her band mates in “The Hylanders” were Don McLean of “American Pie” fame and renowned food critic John Mariani.
DiMenna also performed on her own during high school, primarily at weddings, funerals and singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” at area events and games. But when she recalls her first solo public appearance, it is with a mix of pride and pain. She had been honored with an invitation to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” for a local political rally for Nelson Rockefeller. The rally was held at Larchmont, New York’s train station and a large crowd had gathered for the event.
DiMenna’s stage was a makeshift, wooden platform 6 feet off the ground, filled with dignitaries including the Rockefellers. Just at the “rockets’ red glare” line, the platform collapsed, and dozens of dignitaries with it.
“I’m singing and the whole group, Rockefeller, everyone, they just went crashing and tumbling down. It was terrifying,” she recalls.
Somehow, the spot she was standing on withstood the collapse. As women cried and the crowd shrieked, she just kept singing. “All these people were toppling and crashing into one another and there I was – to my great relief and my chagrin – singing and standing without a scratch.”
No one was hurt, but the event still made the morning papers.
DiMenna found herself in the news a few years later, during her sophomore year at Dunbarton College in Washington, D.C., when a recording she had made of the classic Italian Christmas song “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle” was aired worldwide over Vatican radio.
After graduation, DiMenna worked as an au pair with a family living in Rome. With nights and weekends free, DiMenna seized the opportunity to perform at nightclubs and resorts.
That year gave DiMenna a deep appreciation for her Italian heritage and she cherishes it to this day. She also believes that the chance to perform and “play out” with gifted musicians was instrumental in shifting her mindset as a vocalist. She now had experience outside of the hometown halls and the encouragement of friends and family. Now she had held her own on overseas stages and won the respect of appreciative audiences and fellow musicians.
The year DiMenna returned to the states she went to work as assistant to the A&R director of the Longines Symphonette, where she learned the ins and outs of record production and distribution for national TV.
She also met her future husband John, with whom she will celebrate their 46th wedding anniversary this May. The then-newlyweds moved to Darien, Conn., and DiMenna learned the modern balance of motherhood and working professional.
Following her passion for singing, DiMenna joined local choral groups, including The Blue Notes in Darien and The Grace Notes in Greenwich; through those groups, she learned the American Songbook repertoire.
“I fell in love with the lyrics of Berlin, Gershwin, Porter and Mercer. Like everyone did, like everyone still does.”
In the late 1980s with four small children and a busy career, DiMenna decided to enter an amateur singing contest on WNEW’s Ted Brown show. She won a trip to Las Vegas and was subsequently asked to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Kick-Off Classic at Giants Stadium to 78,000 fans.
After the Giants gig, DiMenna was asked to sing the anthem at the U.S. Open tennis tournament for two years and for the next 10 years at the College Hall of Fame Football Dinner in New York.
The ’90s found DiMenna hosting her own radio show, “Welcome To The Club,” interviewing hundreds of performers from Bobby Short to Kitty Carlisle. At the same time, DiMenna was fine-tuning her own gift as a vocalist performing with the orchestras of Stan Rubin, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Les Brown and Glenn Miller. She also produced and performed her own cabaret shows at venues like the Skylight Room, Tavern on the Green and the Algonquin. Four of her albums are still available on Amazon.
After 10 years on air in New York, DiMenna moved on to Connecticut where she co-hosted the show “At The Ritz.” Guests included Artie Shaw, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Maye, whom today she calls one of her greatest inspirations and cherished friends.
In 2008, DiMenna left radio to concentrate on her work in promoting the arts, reviewing shows and writing for the magazine Cabaret Scenes.
DiMenna and her husband made the permanent move beachside in 2016. She has appeared multiple times with the Jordan Thomas Orchestra, including at Grind and Grape and Cobalt, where her next appearance is April 20 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
