Performer Profiles - Fall 2016 Season
Coming September 7:
Carmen Caramanica Jazz Trio
Rick Compton, drummer
Cosmo Castellano, bassist
Carmen Caramanica, guitarist
About the Performers:
A busy professional guitarist, teacher, producer, and master of "every kind of music from country to jazz," Utica native Carmen Caramanica (guitar) has been a featured guitarist with Tony Orlando, Musical Director and Arranger/Conductor for Lou Rawls, guitarist for Raquel Welch, and guest conductor and guitarist for N.B.C.'s Tonight Show, Mike Douglas, and Merv Griffin. His Jazz Trio performed on PBS's "All American Jazz" TV show which was aired worldwide. Carmen has recorded for MGM, Bell, & Casa Blanca Records, and Paramount Pictures, and played concerts in most major cities in the U.S.
Rick Compton (percussion) has played with some great names in jazz, including Gary Burton, Marian McPartland, Marvin Stamm, Urbie Green, Joe Farrell, Clark Terry, Joe Williams, and Slam Stewart, plus he has played in ensembles conducted by Chuck Mangione, Hank Levy, Leon Breeden, and Chick Esposito. He is Percussion Specialist for the Utica City School District, and has also taught at Binghamton University and Hamilton College.
Cosmo Castellano (bass guitar) has played on television (WKTV Twist-O-Rama), local dances, and numerous other gigs. He has also backed up shows for Fred Travolina, Al Martino, comedian Pat Cooper, Roger Williams, and the Utica Symphony Orchestra. Cos has played with several jazz stars, like Marion McPartland, drummer Ed Shaughnessy and trumpeter Bob McCoy (both of Tonight Show fame).
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
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Coming September 21:
Jewel Trio
Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Greg Wood, cello
Peter Rovit, violin
About the Performers:
Violinist Peter Rovit (BM, Indiana University; MM, Hartt School; Professional Studies, Juilliard; DMA, SUNY Stony Brook) was among the last students of Josef Gingold at Indiana University where he also studied Baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie. As a chamber musician, recitalist, and soloist he has performed throughout the United States and at music festivals such as Aspen, Taos, Yellow Barn, Hot Springs, Skaneateles, and Musical Spring in Saint Petersburg (Russia). Mr. Rovit has also performed as a soloist with the Montgomery Symphony, the Fort Smith Symphony, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Tuscaloosa Symphony. He was a recipient of the prestigious Montgomery Symphony Violin Fellowship, has been a member of the Quartet Oklahoma, Associate Concertmaster of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and Concertmaster of the Tuscaloosa Symphony. Mr. Rovit has served on the string faculty of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Alabama.
Gregory Wood is Assistant Principal Cellist of Symphoria, and was Acting Principal Cellist of Symphoria for 2014-15. Mr. Wood was Assistant Principal Cellist of the SSO, and was also a member of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra. He is currently a member of the Fingerlakes Opera Orchestra in Geneseo, and has recently performed as substitute cellist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also performed as soloist with the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony, and as winner of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music concerto competition. He received the 2006 Excellence in Chamber Music Performance award from CMM and has performed solo and chamber music recitals regularly in the Central New York area. Mr. Wood is adjunct instructor of violoncello and coaches chamber music at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. He is also adjunct instructor of violoncello at Onondaga Community College. Mr. Wood received his Bachelor of Music Degree in performance at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
Sar-Shalom Strong is well known to east coast audiences as both a soloist and a collaborative pianist. He has had the privilege of collaborating with international artists such as flutists Judith Mendenhall and Gary Shocker, trombonist Joseph Alessi, violinist Sarah Crocker, singers Helen Boatwright, Peter Vandergraaf, and Sanford Sylvan, as well as multitudes of the fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. He has been involved in the premiere of many new works, and also appears on programs for Civic Morning Musicals, the Skaneateles Festival, A Little Summermusic, The Oasis Center of Syracuse, Hamilton College, and Utica College. He has performed orchestral keyboard with virtually all the orchestras in the area, most notably for almost ten years with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and is a founding member of both the Jewell Piano Trio and the Southwick Trio. Recorded performances with Society for New Music on Innova Records and with soprano Janet Brown on Russetbush Records have met with considerable acclaim. He is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College, and previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
Event calendar listing >
Coming October 5:
Dasan Ahanu, poet
About the Author:
Christopher Massenburg, better known as Dasan Ahanu, is a public speaker, organizer, workshop facilitator, poet, spoken word performer, educator, songwriter, writer, emcee, and loyal Hip Hop head born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to performing, Dasan has hosted many poetry, jazz, Hip Hop, and cultural arts events across the state. He is one of the founders of Black Poetry Theatre (BPT) where he has been a writer, director, producer, and cast member for their productions. As an active participant in poetry slam, Dasan has competed regionally and nationally as a founding member and coach of Durham, NC’s own Bull City Slam Team. In 2010 and 2014, Ahanu led the Bull City Slam Team in winning the Southern Fried Southeastern Regional Poetry Slam, the largest regional poetry slam in the country. He also led the team to a 3rd place finish at the 2010 National Poetry Slam and a 2nd place finish in Group Piece Finals at the 2012 National Poetry Slam.
His work has been featured on National Public Radio (NPR) where he has been noted for his appearances on “News and Notes with Ed Gordon” and “State of Things with Frank Stacio.” His writing has been featured in online and print publications. Dasan has released two full-length books of poetry entitled The Innovator and Freedom Papers and toured with his last two spoken word CDs The Darkest Eye and Catharsis.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
MacFarlane Auditorium, DePerno Hall
Event calendar listing >
Coming October 12:
Karin Lin-Greenberg, author
About the Author:
Karin Lin-Greenberg's story collection, Faulty Predictions, won the 2013 Flannery O'Connor Award in Short Fiction from the University of Georgia Press and was Foreword Reviews' 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year in the Short Story category. Her stories have appeared in literary journals including The Antioch Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, Crazyhorse, Epoch, Five Chapters, Kenyon Review Online, and North American Review. She earned an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, an MA from Temple University, an AB from Bryn Mawr College and has been awarded fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, the Wesleyan Writers Conference, and the MacDowell Colony. She has taught creative writing at Missouri State University, the College of Wooster, and Appalachian State University. Currently, she lives in upstate New York and is an assistant professor in the English Department at Siena College.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
MacFarlane Auditorium, DePerno Hall
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Coming October 26:
Elizabeth Carville Evans, flute
Valeri Ludlum Wright, piano
This performance will include selections by Mozart and C.P.E. Bach as well as three compositions by Dr. Louis Angelini, Emeritus Professor of Music, Utica College: Silver Fountain for solo flute; Fantasy for flute and piano; a suite of seven movements for piano.
About the Performers:
Elizabeth Carville Evans, flutist, holds both Bachelor and Masters degrees in Flute Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, where she was a student of Claude Monteux. She was a winner of the 1985 James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition, and a four time winner of the Conservatory Gala Chamber Music Competition. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician in Boston's Jordan Hall, the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Harvard's Sanders Theater, among others. A native of New Hartford, her early flute studies were with John Oberbrunner. She returned to the Utica area in 1987 and has since established herself as performer, teacher, and active member of the B Sharp Music Club, performs solo and chamber recitals throughout the area, and with the Utica and Catskill Symphonies.
Valerie Ludlum Wright began piano at age 7 with Eleanor Dick of New York City. Later teachers included pianists Rosalind Simonds, Agi Rodo, Agi Jambor, and organist Robert Smart. After obtaining a B.A. in Music and German Literature from Swarthmore College, she studied accompanying with Vladimir Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She did further graduate study in language and music at Princeton University and Eastman School of Music. Valerie has been Organist and Director of Music at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Clinton, New York, since 1993.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
Event calendar listing >
Coming November 2:
Jake Wolff, Writer
About the Author:
Jake Wolff is a writer and teacher in New York. His stories and essays have appeared in some of the country's best literary journals, including One Story, American Short Fiction, and Tin House. He's a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's MFA program in fiction, where he received the Milofsky Prize in Creative Writing, and Florida State University's PhD program in creative writing, where he received the Harper Award for Creative Writing and the Edward and Marie Kingsbury Fellowship. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Hartwick College. Learn more at www.jakewolff.com.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
MacFarlane Auditorium, DePerno Hall
Event calendar listing >
Coming November 9:
B Sharp Musical Club
About the Performers:
The B Sharp Musical Club, established in 1903, is a non-profit organization celebrating its 113th year of making music in central New York. The club supports music and the arts in the Mohawk Valley community, presents free concerts and musical outreach throughout the year, and annually awards competitive scholarships in Voice, Piano, Strings, and Woodwinds-Brass-Percussion to talented young musicians. The object of this club is to encourage a broader culture in the performing arts among its members and in the community at large. The B Sharp Musical Club is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. Both performing and supporting memberships are available at www.bsharpcny.org
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
Event calendar listing >
SPECIAL EVENING EVENT
Paul Lisicky is the author of five books: The Narrow Door, Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Conjunctions, Ecotone, Fence, The Offing, Ploughshares, Tin House, and in many other magazines and anthologies. A 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, his other awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Corporation of Yaddo, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where he was twice a Fellow. He has taught in the creative writing programs at Cornell University, New York University, Rutgers University-Newark, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and elsewhere. He currently teaches in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden, the low residency program at Sierra Nevada College, and at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. He is the editor of StoryQuarterly and serves on the Writing Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
SPECIAL EVENING READING at THE DEV in UTICA
Event begins at 7:00 P.M
The DEV
41 Devereux St. Utica, NY
(315) 732-1340 | www.thedevutica.com
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Coming November 16:
Paul Lisicky, writer, memoirist
About the Author:
Paul Lisicky is the author of five books: The Narrow Door, Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Conjunctions, Ecotone, Fence, The Offing, Ploughshares, Tin House, and in many other magazines and anthologies. A 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, his other awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Corporation of Yaddo, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where he was twice a Fellow. He has taught in the creative writing programs at Cornell University, New York University, Rutgers University-Newark, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and elsewhere. He currently teaches in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden, the low residency program at Sierra Nevada College, and at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. He is the editor of StoryQuarterly and serves on the Writing Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
SPECIAL EVENING READING at THE DEV in UTICA
Event begins at 7:00 P.M
The DEV41 Devereux St. Utica, NY
(315) 732-1340 | www.thedevutica.com
Event calendar listing >
Coming November 30:
Utica College Concert Choir
David A. Kolb, directorAlane Varga, accompanist
About the Performers:
David A. Kolb, adjunct lecturer at Utica College, and voice teacher, is a graduate of Hamilton College with double concentration in mathematics and music. He has studied voice with Lauralyn Kolb and Timothy LeFebvre and directed choirs for the Utica Maennerchor and Stone Presbyterian Church in Clinton. He is currently the Director of Music for First Presbyterian Church in Rome. David has been a soloist with the Hamilton College and Community Masterworks Chorale, the Greater Utica Choral Society, the Mohawk Valley Choral Society, and the Catskill Choral Society. He is also a frequent performer in community theater productions, including as Javert in the Rome Summerstage production of Les Misérables.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, attended Slippery Rock State College for her Bachelor’s degree in Special Education and her Master’s in Counseling Services. Alane began her career at Utica College in fall 1983, as a counselor in the Academic Support Services. She was cofounder with Dr. Della Ferguson of the Woymn’s Resource Center at Utica College. From 2011 to 2014 Alane served as Dean of Students at Utica College. Since then she has served as Dean of Diversity and Student Development. Her musical experience includes serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, including community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica College reflecting her love of Broadway, and the UC Lunch Hour Series.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
Event calendar listing >
Coming December 7:
Utica College Concert Band
Michael J. Dimeo, directorAbout the Performers:
The Utica College Concert Band was founded by Dr. Louis Angelini in 1981. Frank Galime directed the band until his retirement. Since then the band has been directed by Michael J. DiMeo, retired director of bands from New Hartford High School. Mr. DiMeo received his B.S. and M.S. in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. He is a veteran Utica area performer and instructor, having spent 30 years as an educator in Westmoreland and New Hartford central school districts. At New Hartford High School, Mike helped their marching band become State Champions on four occasions. He has devoted his time to several competitive marching band circuits and received two outstanding soloist awards as Head Brass Instructor/Soloist for the Syracuse Brigadiers Drum and Bugle Corps. In addition to directing the Utica College Concert Band, Mike conducts the New Hartford Citizens Band in the summer and was a member of the versatile group “Classified” (which was recently inducted into the Rome Arts Hall of Fame.). In addition to regular performances in the Professor Harry F. and Mary Ruth Jackson Lunch Hour Series, the band plays an annual Concert for Veterans, a combined concert with Mohawk Valley Community College Concert Band, and at local events and at senior citizen communities such as the Masonic and Presbyterian Homes.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
Event calendar listing >
