Secaucus Woman Sings National Anthem At Madison Square Garden

SECAUCUS, NJ — Located less than 30 minutes from Times Square, it should come as no surprise that a high number of professional actors, singers and dancers call the tiny town of Secaucus home.

Last week, we wrote about a Secaucus schoolteacher who landed a role in Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story:" Melody Marti, 26, makes her Hollywood debut as Pili the Shark; in theaters now.

And another Secaucus resident, Lisa Howard, just sang the national anthem at Madison Square Garden for the Dec. 4 New York Rangers game.

Howard is known for her beautiful, powerful soprano voice and she most recently premiered a holiday-season show “What Christmas Means to Me” December 12 at the famed Feinstein’s 54 Below.

"The Rangers people contacted my manager and asked if she had anyone who would want to sing and she suggested me," said Howard. "Since I just had my '54 Below' show and had just released my new album, so they agreed and that was that!"

When she's not performing in New York City and on Broadway, Howard is a busy Secaucus mother of two. She is well known as the best singer in her church, Our Saviour Episcopal Church of Secaucus, where she also is the Sunday school teacher.

Howard also just released her debut Christmas album “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” available on all services. You can find her album here: https://fatlab.com/MostWonderfulTime

On Broadway, Howard was last seen as Tammy in the new musical "Escape to Margaritaville."

Before that, she was a Drama Desk Nominee for her starring role of Jenny Steinberg in the musical comedy, "It Shoulda Been You," directed by David Hyde Pierce. Other Broadway roles include Diva 1 in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,"Missy Hart in the new musical "9 to 5," head nurse in Lincoln Center’s revival of "South Pacific" and Rona Lisa Peretti in the "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," for which she won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

Lisa has toured with the national company of Les Miserables and will soon be joining the national tour of "Wicked!"

Howard has also appeared in movies as Siobahn in the Twilight saga,"Breaking Dawn" and can also be seen in the indie psychological thriller, "Decay."

TV credits include: Ugly Betty, Power, Madame Secretary, The Good Fight and the upcoming Julian Fellows show "The Gilded Age." Her first solo CD, “Songs of Innocence and Experience” is available on itunes. Lisa is a graduate of the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

Learn more about Lisa here: http://www.lisahowardnyc.com/ Related: See Secaucus-ite Melody Marti In Spielberg's 'West Side Story'

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