MODESTO — Valley’s Got Talent, the amateur talent contest which debuted last year as a fund-raising event for the Gallo Center for the Arts, is returning for its second year with 26 acts involving more than 90 performers.  

The contestants will be competing for cash prizes before a panel of judges including Robert Ulrich, a casting director for the Fox Television hit, “Glee.”

Conceived as a live stage version of such popular television shows as “America’s Got Talent” and “So You Think You Can Dance,”  Valley’s Got Talent will be presented at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 26-27.  Audience voting will take place during the Friday show and the winners will be announced at the Saturday performance.

Tickets are $10 - $25, and are available for purchase at the Center’s ticket office, 1000 I Street in downtown Modesto; online at www.galloarts.org; and by phone at (209) 338-2100.  

Musical variety artist Lindsay Pearce of Modesto, the grand prize winner of the 2010 contest, will make a special appearance at this year’s event.  As a direct result of her win in Valley’s Got Talent, Pearce was invited to audition for and was subsequently selected to appear on “The Glee Project,” a reality show on Oxygen Network.  The show has been airing this summer, and the soon-to-be-announced winner will earn a part on the Fox Television phenomenon, “Glee.”

Ulrich, a Modesto native, was a judge for the 2010 talent show, along with his wife, daytime television actress Kim Johnston Ulrich, who is from Ripon.  She also is returning to judge Valley’s Got Talent 2011.

Performers for Valley’s Got Talent 2011 are vocal soloists Shelly Bort (Modesto), Jessica Lynn Griffin (Stockton), Francesca Heyward (Modesto), Paige Ivy (Modesto), Jasmine Mangal (Ripon), Kristi Nelson (Modesto), Gregory Pyatt (Modesto), Ronnie Joy & PJ Rodriguez (Escalon), Justin Su’esu’e (Modesto), and Rosie Vaughn (Ripon). Vocal group acts include Josh Rosenblum Band (Modesto) and Stop Motion Poetry (Modesto). Chelsea Hill (Stockton) will perform a dance solo and Mirage (Modesto) will perform a dance duet. In the Dance Ensemble category are the groups The Dance Academy (Modesto), Juline Regional Youth Ballet (Modesto), The Radio Waves (Modesto), Ryan Maharaj’s Tashan (Ceres), and Strut Studio of Dance (Modesto). Instrumental solos will be performed by Heath Rojas (Turlock) and Steven Converse (Modesto). CSUS Marimba Trio (Atwater) and Hot Club Faux Gitane (Modesto) will perform in the instrumental group category. James Knight (Modesto) and Chris “Yo Yo” Ng (Oakdale) will perform specialty solos and Wolfe & Martinez (Modesto) will perform a specialty duet.

Prizes to be awarded include the Children’s Hospital Central California Grand Prize of $1,500, Varni Brothers 7 UP Bottling Company Vocal Talent Achievement Award of $750, Dance Talent Achievement Award of $750, Instrumental Talent Achievement Award of $750, and Specialty Talent Achievement Award of $750.