Hamilton native Briana Rossi sings national anthem before Red Sox game
BOSTON -- Briana Rossi is hardly a newbie in the singing world, but she has always wanted to perform the national anthem for her home team. At Sunday night's Sox vs. Yankees game, that dream came true thanks to her company.
In the minutes before Rossi belted out the national anthem, there was a moment for reflection. "I've been a singer my own life so I've done many anthems all over the world but I think this for me is like a coming home," she said.
Rossi, a Hamilton native, has spent many years singing professionally for Cirque De Soleil and even performed for the president at the Kennedy Center.
"I think there's nothing like a bunch of live fans in the room, excited for baseball. It's just, I don't know, it's something so tangible and different," she said.
So when her new employer, Vox Global, started a "dream grant" program last year to support the aspirations of employees away from work, you could guess what Rossi's was.
As she sang at Fenway, she couldn't help thinking beyond her own dreams, and to those of her two-year-old son. "To be an enabler of his dreams means that I have to be an open space for him to speak them, to come to me and say 'hey mom, this might sound crazy but I want to do x, y, z,' and tell him he's not crazy," Rossi said.