Nov. 5--NEOGA -- There's a running joke at Jacob Dow's house that there were more people in the crowd when he sang in the Chicago area last month than there are in the town where he grew up.

But what comes next is bigger, not just in the size of the crowd but the scale of opportunity that goes along with his performance.

the Neoga High School senior leaves today for Vancouver, British Columbia, where three days later he'll compete against nine other people from across the United States. Dow and the others qualified for a talent search competition conducted by Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter David Foster.

At stake are $7,000 in prize money and going on a tour with Foster, who's been the producer for singers such as Celine Dion and Whitney Houston and wrote the title song to the 1985 movie "St. Elmo's Fire."

"That opens a whole, big window of opportunity," said Dow, who admits that he's "overwhelmed."

His singing experience before auditioning for the competition was made up mostly performing in school musicals.

Dow said he heard about the competition and sent a DVD recording of his singing to enter, meeting a deadline of Oct. 18. All he did, he said, was stand against a wall and sing the Frank Sinatra standard, "Fly Me to the Moon," explaining that he likes that style and "can't really get into newer music."

Three days later, he said, he was at a friend's house when his mother called him and told him to come home right away.

"I asked her why and she said, 'Because we're going to Chicago,' " he said.

Dow sang the same song at the Rosemont Horizon in front of a crowd of about 4,000, competing against a 25-year-old singer with opera training who sang a pop song. He said after their performances, Foster told them both they did so well he was going to have the audience help decide the winner.

When Dow heard the applause for the other competitor, it was enough to make him think "I came all the way up here just to go back home," he said. But when it was his turn for the crowd's reaction, "most of them jumped out of their seats and started screaming," he said, and a few hours later, he learned that he won.

Because of the trip to Canada, the Neoga High School musical in which he has a role had to be postponed, but that was an easy decision to make, said music teacher and band director Doug McClure. Performances of "The Little Shop of Horrors," in which Dow will play shop owner Mr. Mushnik, were to start this week but now will begin Nov. 12.

McClure said rescheduling the musical is something he would have done to accommodate the opportunity for Dow "even if it were not this big of a deal."

Dow said he plans to go to college after high school, but he'd readily postpone that if he were to win the competition.

"If I get the chance to go on tour, I'm going," he said. He hopes for a singing career and said it would be "like I was unemployed and still getting paid."

dfopay@jg-tc.com 238-6858

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