Owen, Ali has been a fairly active performer in/around New York since she graduated from NYU. She does a lot of concert work (Monday Nights New Voices, etc.), had a featured part in the Playwrights Horizons workshop of Mrs. Sharp & played Olive in Papermill's production of Spelling Bee. I wouldn't say the Baby concert used her solely because of the Glee Project (though I wouldn't be naive enough to think that wasn't considered now that it has begun to air, either)
Was the sound quality really poor on that recording? Some of those performers didn't exactly sound their best and I know these people have good voices.
I wonder if they each felt the need to be the "best belter in the room", since there were so many awesome people involved. Or maybe the music director told them to belt their faces off, and they all did. I mean the energy is there, but it all definitely sounds screamy.