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22 | July 21, 2016 | The New Lenox Patriot life & arts
newlenoxpatriot.com
Providence Catholic graduate uses music as a tool to help others
Elissa Chudwin
Contributing Editor
Not many 8-year-olds join
a band and perform Weezer’s
“Beverly Hills” at the Taste
of Chicago, but those are
some of Lockport resident
Andrea Veltri’s earliest memories
onstage.
The 19-year-old Providence
Catholic High School
alumnus began taking guitar
and vocal lessons at Lockport’s
Allegro Music &
Dance Academy when she
was 6 years old. After joining
the academy’s rock sound
program, she became the
lead singer for the band The
Heartbreakers.
“It was pretty legit,” she
said of The Heartbreakers,
which disbanded five years
later.
Veltri now is entering
her sophomore year at
Illinois State University
and is studying business,
but her drive to become a
professional musician has not
wavered.
“I always used to tell my
mom I want to be a rock star;
I want to be onstage,” she
said.
As Veltri has matured, she
has transformed from covering
rock songs to writing
country music and performing
with an American flagthemed
guitar.
Veltri said country music
always has appealed to her.
“I love the meaning behind
it,” she said. “I think a lot of
people think it’s just pickup
trucks and drinking and girls.
… I feel like country music
always hits home for me.”
Veltri got a glimpse of life
in the spotlight in 2014 when
she opened for singer-songwriter
Anna Nalick in Steger,
Illinois. A year later, she
opened for country singers
Jason Michael Carroll and
Jana Kramer.
“It was the best times of
my life,” Veltri said.
Lockport musician Andrea Veltri now is a student at
Illinois State University but seeks to further her career as a
professional musician. Photo submitted
Discovering she was one
of three finalists in the BIG
95.5 FM’s Next Big Thing
Country Thunder competition
and was selected to open
for Kramer was a pivotal moment,
she said.
She submitted her entry
to the contest two days before
the deadline, Veltri said.
When she read online that
she was a Top 10 finalist,
she barged into her parents’
bedroom at 1 a.m. just to tell
them the news. A week later,
she learned she made the final
cut and was to open for
Jana Kramer.
“It was insane,” she said.
“It was one of the best moments
of my music career.”
As a high-schooler, she
played at the Bluebird Cafe
in Nashville and performed
for Sirius XM The Highway.
She also recorded a song she
wrote “Soldiers of America”
and sent 650 copies to members
of the military stationed
overseas, she said. The U.S.
Air Force mailed a letter of
honor and appreciation to
Providence Catholic High
School to thank her.
Veltri’s efforts to help others
through music expands
beyond the military, as she
started a music therapy program
at Silver Cross Hospital
in New Lenox. She said her
grandfather frequented the
hospital, and it upset her to
see so many people without
visitors.
She said she hopes performing
for patients of its
rehabilitation center provides
comfort.
“It really doesn’t have to
be such a sad place,” Veltri
said.
She still performs at the
hospital roughly once a
month since she moved to
Bloomington-Normal to attend
Illinois State University.
She focused on academics
as a first-year college
student, which caused her
to put her music career on
a temporary hiatus, and she
did not tell her peers she was
a musician.
“I was able to identify myself
as not Andrea the musician
but Andrea,” she said.
“Without that piece of me, I
felt boring.”
As sophomore year approaches,
she plans to prioritize
performing and has
started posting her music on
social media.
“I’m much more comfortable
with my music now than
I was in high school,” she
said.
“I’m more inclined to be
myself and just embrace who
I am as an artist.”
To hear Veltri’s music, visit
www.andreaveltrimusic.com.
A powerful
performance
Huey Lewis and the News bring popular
rock to the Commons
Huey Lewis plays harmonica on stage Saturday, July 16, at
the Village of New Lenox’s Summer Triple Play concert at the
Village Commons. Photos by Mark Korosa/22nd Century Media
Members of Huey Lewis and the News perform together at
the Village Commons.
Johnny Colla plays saxophone with Huey Lewis and the
News.