By Craig Horleman

The joke around Caroline Hermance’s family is that she was singing before she was talking.

“We had a family wedding in Ireland and there’s a video on my website of me singing at 5 years old. I sang a song that I learned at The Little School (in Dover) talking about the American flag or something. But it’s just a running family joke that anytime I could be singing, I was trying to make it work,” she joked.

The Camden native, now living in Newark, has kept singing and performing and will show off those musical talents this evening during the first day of the free Smyrna at Night celebration.

Smyrna at Night, which was canceled last year due to pandemic restrictions, will showcase music tonight and Saturday. Tonight will have singers stationed at various spots around the town from 5 to 8 p.m. although Ms. Hermance will perform from 4 to 7 p.m. at Main Street Market.

The music continues on five stages Saturday at George C. Wright Jr. Municipal Park from 1 to 8 p.m.

Although Ms. Hermance is known now as “the girl with the ukulele” at various local venues, she has dabbled in all kinds of musical pursuits.

“I have always loved musical theater. I’m an avid music listener so I love all kinds of music and I did shows a lot when I was in high school, middle school,” said Ms. Hermance, who attended Campus Community School in Dover and then Polytech High in Woodside.

“I did one show at the Children’s Theater. I was Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I’ve been Mary Poppins, in high school. Lots of cool roles. And then there’s a volunteer organization called Pursuit for Peace. It’s based out of Dover and they do the princesses. I was Ariel and Rapunzel.”

In high school, she played volleyball and lacrosse. But her musical pursuits were not left on the field.

“I would warm up, practice, run over to sing the national anthem and then I would run back and play the game,” she recalled.

A classically trained singer, she also performed the national anthem for Dover Air Force Base’s Thunder Over Dover event and the Delaware high school boys basketball championship game at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

She is also proficient on the bagpipes and helped start the Dover Fire Pipes and Drums.

Founded in 2012, the band is comprised of first responders who provide a service for all military, veterans and first responders throughout the state, marching in local parades and participating in events.

“My dad, who is not very musical, wanted to learn the bagpipes. So he started taking classes with the state police’s bagpipe band, and so I was like 7 years old and I used to go up with him and go to practice. So I started to learn and was later this 8-year-old girl in a room full of fully grown guys trying to learn as well,” she said.

She and her father, Chris, a Dover police officer, would often be seen marching together at local parades and helped start the Dover pipes and drum band. They played at a NASCAR race and for now-President Joe Biden. Ms. Hermance even became a bagpipe instructor.

She also plays piano, violin and learned to play the guitar over the last year but her solo music career started when he she picked up the ukulele.

“The ukulele is the greatest instrument for learning something quickly and easily with just four strings. I always joke that it’s the easiest instrument to learn. I started teaching myself to play it and writing songs with it,” she said.

“I started playing live in my senior year of high school. I was 17 and my first show was at Tre Sorelle Dolce, the ice cream place in Camden when they used to be a shack and a parking lot, and now they’re this huge stuff. It’s still one of my favorite places to play.”

Tre Sorelle Dolce has since expanded with a miniature golf course and hosts artists every weekend.

“The first time I played, I had to rent all my equipment and I had to learn how to make a setlist and it was a very new thing. I just look back on that like wow, I’ve improved so much. I’ve also learned a lot about preparing for shows and setting up equipment and in college I took a few elective classes in music. So I did recording studio class and music theory and it just was so cool to learn more about this thing that I’ve been teaching myself and getting actual instruction in what I like doing and making me better, said Ms. Hermance, who graduated from Loyola College in Baltimore in 2020 with a double major of biology and psychology.

Her shows, such as the one for Smyrna at Night tonight and then Park Cafe in Wilmington Saturday, also from 4 to 7 p.m., combine her originals with cover songs.

“It’s kind of a mix of things but sometimes I’ll play a few throwbacks — not ukulele genre things. So I like to take even hip hop music or show music and play it on the ukulele and sing it in a live performance music setting. So I love doing stuff like that. I have a couple of mashups I’ve written of different genres of music that I play on the ukulele. I do one from the ‘Beauty and the Beast, movie. It’s one of my favorites,” she said.

This evening, Ms. Hermance will join artists at 10 different locations, including the Smyrna Opera House, Sayers Jewelry, Sheridan’s Pub, Brick Works, Painted Stave and Blue Earl Brewery.

Saturday features 24 bands at the park, including on the main stage Smyrna’s Party Fowl at 1 p.m.; Wilmington’s Richard Raw and The Word Warrior Band at 2 p.m.; local favorites Hoochi Coochi at 3 and Mike Hines and The Look at 4:30 p.m.; and Ladybugs of Soul performing their tribute to the likes of Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan and more at 6:30 p.m.

A variety of food and dessert vendors will be on hand at the park Saturday.

There will be road closures along North Main Street and around the park. Parking will be at Smyrna Middle and Smyrna High schools on Duck Creek Parkway with shuttles running from noon to 8 back and forth from the venue.

No coolers or outside food and drink will be permitted. For more information, visit here.

Spirits high

Also Saturday, The Delaware Beer Wine and Spirits Festival celebrates its 11th year from 5-7:30 p.m. at the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village, 866 N. Dupont Highway, Dover.

The festival will feature beer, wine and spirits tastings, food trucks, live music, outdoor games, exhibits and guided tours of the museum.

A VIP hour will start at 4 p.m. For more information, visit here.

A revival in Salisbury

From the same team that formed the Milton Theatre, comes Salisbury, Maryland’s newest live venue revival @ City Center.

This new live performance space will be bringing local, regional, and national acts to audiences with a full kitchen and full bar.

The soft opening continues tonight with a Neil Diamond tribute featuring the Sol Knopf Band at 8 p.m.

Saturday will be stand-up comedy with headliner Larry XL, featuring Keith Purnell at 8 p.m.

Sunday Drag Brunch will feature Magnolia Applebottom featuring Salisbury’s own Vickey Fischer and Miss Mann at 1 p.m.

Revival @ City Center is located at 213 W. Main St., Suite 302 in Salisbury.

For tickets, email boxoffice@revivalshows.com or call (667) 281-0101.

Choral auditions

The Wilmington Children’s Chorus will hold auditions on Sept. 7 and 12 for their 20th anniversary season. Any qualified child can participate for free, regardless of financial or social background. To learn more and schedule an audition, visit here.

“During challenging times, music connects us to each other, allows us to express our feelings, and helps us heal,” said WCC Artistic Director Kimberly Doucette. “As the world continues to deal with uncertainty, we are committed to keeping our young people safe and singing in our musical family.”

The Wilmington Children’s Chorus is the nation’s only tuition-free, community children’s chorus. Founded in 2002, the mission of WCC is to empower young people to change their world through music. The choir regularly serves 500 children annually across the greater Wilmington region.

WCC’s 20th anniversary season will be offered fully in-person, with robust health and safety precautions.

The choir is looking forward to performances for Delaware Peace Week and World Singing Day, concerts with Delaware Choral Arts and the Cartoon Christmas Trio, a collaboration with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Opera House, and their 20th-anniversary concert – a celebration of two decades of music, friendship, and community.

Now showing

New this weekend in theaters is the horror film “Candyman.”

To share news of your entertainment venue, event or group, contact Craig Horleman at 741-8224 or email chorl@iniusa.org.