Young, the choral director at Lenape Middle School, had just sent one of her students - Justin Guarini - to the Bucks County Music Festival, an annual event celebrating the top student vocalists in the county.

Donald Dumpson, adjunct professor of sacred music at Westminster Choir College at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., was directing the program. He is a notable music educator, vocal coach and composer who has worked with artists such as Boyz II Men and Patti LaBelle.

Dumpson selected a spiritual - "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" - for students to sing during an audition for a solo at the festival concert.

"Justin said, 'I know this is my kind of song,' " Young recalls. "He had just learned it the day before. And when he sang, there was a hush that fell over the entire room. Everybody sat there completely stunned - and you're talking about a room of 100 of the strongest musicians in the county and about 30 of their teachers.

"Mr. Dumpson didn't bother to hear anybody else after Justin sang. He got the solo for the concert, and he got a standing ovation."

So just what was it about Guarini's voice that silenced a roomful of talent?

"What makes him special," says Young, "is the beauty of his voice, the amazing range of his voice and the ability to sing from the depth of his heart and convey that to people who hear him."

Ask just about anyone who's worked with Guarini, a 1997 graduate of Central Bucks East High School, about their experiences with him and the praise is no less effusive. Debbie Thompson, theater director at Upper Dublin High School, directed Guarini in the lead role of Johnny in a rock 'n' roll musical, "The Zombie Prom."

"Everybody knew Justin had the potential to do something," she says. "He was professional from the minute I met him. He was a perfect gentleman. He was poised. He did whatever he could to help make the program a success that summer, and he was just a pleasure to work with."

So it was hardly a surprise to tune into the premiere of Fox TV's "American Idol: The Search for a Superstar" two weeks ago and watch the 23-year-old dazzle the judges with his soulful rendition of the Jackson Five's "Who's Loving You Now."

Before a panel of brutally honest judges, TV's latest reality show narrowed a pool of 10,000 singing hopefuls from across the country to just 30.

And Guarini has made the cut. This week, he made it to the next round with two fellow contestants.

"American Idol" - based on the wildly successful British TV series "Pop Idol" - gives audiences the chance to vote via telephone for America's next superstar. The 30 contestants eventually will be narrowed down to two, who will compete in the season finale for the "American Idol" title.

His parents - his stepfather, Jerry Guarini, and his mother, Kathy, both of Doylestown - say their son, the youngest of eight children, has always had that certain star quality.

"We've been watching Justin since he was a little kid," says Kathy, a free-lance broadcast journalist and Realtor, "and he loves to entertain. It really is a natural God-given gift, although I do have to emphasize that Justin is the product of public school music teachers - passionate, dedicated public school music teachers."

"(My parents) have always been behind me 100 percent," he says. "I don't think I could have done it without their support. A lot of parents won't support something so uncertain, and they didn't pigeonhole me."

After graduating from Central Bucks East, he went to the University of the Arts, where he studied vocal performance and musical theater for two years, as well as a bit of dance. He then transferred to the New York School of Film and Television.

"When I was younger, I had little flights of fancy, where I thought maybe I'd be an FBI agent or something like that," he says, "but no matter where I went and what I did, I always came back to music. My dream was to be a mega-superstar and everything that embodied it."

That dream has never been fueled by ego or arrogance. Besides accolades others are quick to offer for his singing, those who know him also will point out that Guarini is simply just a nice individual.

Which is more than can be said of one of the judges on "American Idol." The caustic and critical Simon Cowell, a noted English record executive whose often rude and insulting commentary reduced many contestants to tears, had nothing but praise for Guarini.

After waiting at a Times Square hotel for more than eight hours to get into the first series of auditions, Guarini finally made it before Cowell, singer and choreographer Paula Abdul and music industry veteran Randy Jackson.

"My heart was pounding before I went in," says Guarini, "but the greatest thing about my nerves is once I start singing, they go. I realize it sounds kind of New Age-ish, but I really just let go and let God, in a sense."

Still, having heard from other contestants in line about some of the comments Cowell had been making, he did have some trepidation after he finished singing. Cowell, however, had to concede after hearing Guarini that the American talent was better than the English was and that his voice was the stuff talent search dreams were made of.

"I was so expecting something nasty," says Guarini, "it took a second to get into my brain that he was complimenting me."

Guarini had auditioned several times for the role of Simba in Disney's Broadway production of "The Lion King" while in New York and turned down a last-minute offer for an eight-month chorus role to try his luck with "American Idol."

"I'd love to do the show," he says. "If the opportunity is truly there, it will come around again, or something like it will."

If he doesn't become the next "American Idol," it won't be a devastating blow.

"My true and honest goal is to have as much fun as I can," he says, "and to do what I love. I love to be up on stage, to perform, to sing and dance, and if I can make one person smile and forget about their troubles in life, which most people don't realize are so temporary, then that's my job.

"The only thing I can be is the best I can be, and if I didn't, that would be horribly disrespectful."