Modesto’s Ryan Hammond wins Valley’s Got Talent

Crooner Ryan Hammond’s cover of Sam Smith’s “Lay Me Down” stole the show – and judges’ hearts – at the 2015 Valley’s Got Talent competition Saturday at Modesto’s Gallo Center for the Arts.

Hammond took home the coveted $1,500 E.&J. Gallo Winery Grand Prize and the fame that comes with being the overall winner of the Valley’s most prestigious talent competition, which is title-sponsored by the Gallo Center and The Modesto Bee.

The 2015 VGT performance – on Friday and Saturday nights – featured 26 acts competing in five categories. In addition to Hammond, winners are:

Noah’s Spring Water Vocal Talent Achievement Award: Judges awarded a tie between Evan Olmos, who sang Andrew Ripp’s “Won’t Let Go,” and Mario and Liliana Hernandez, who performed the Rocio Durcal and Juan Gabriel duet “El Destino.”

KHOP 95.1 Specialty Talent Achievement Award: Slam poet Sam Pierstorff.

Clark & Marion Bradford Dance Talent Achievement Award: Juline Regional Youth Ballet.

Crystal Creamery Band Talent Achievement Award: Live Again.

ATTY Instrumental Talent Achievement Award: Roy Mendiola, for a solo piano performance of “Ripples of My Soul,” which he wrote. Mendiola also won the Paul M. Tischer Classical Music Scholarship.

Audience Favorite Award, sponsored by Cruisers, Prime Shine Car Wash & United Capital Financial Life Management: Luso-American Youth Council 24, Northern San Joaquin Valley, performing a dance routine, “Pieces of Traditions are the True Diamonds of Our Culture.”

Both shows were performed to sold-out audiences for the first time in Valley’s Got Talent’s six years. Sarah Guadalupe Hosner served as production director. Judges were Britta Foster, Marie Gallo, Jim Johnson, Joe Kieta, MoJoe Roberts, Robert Ulrich and Melanee Wyatt.

This story was originally published August 30, 2015 at 11:28 AM.