Performer Profiles - Fall 2015 Season
Coming September 9, 2015:
Monk Rowe Trio
Jazz with a taste of blues
About the Performers:
 Monk Rowe is the director of the Hamilton College Saxophone Ensemble. He is also an instructor of saxophone and the Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive. This oral history project is part of Hamilton’s Burke Library Special Collections. [www.hamilton.edu/jazzarchive]. Over 315 videotaped interviews have been gathered with jazz personalities from across the country. Monk composed and recorded a series of tunes written for and dedicated to nine of the artists interviewed for the archive. Monk is an active performer on saxophone and piano and has arranged music for the Utica Symphony, the Fredonia Alumni Jazz Ensemble, the Silverwood Clarinet Choir and the Hamilton College Saxophone Ensemble. The Monk Rowe Trio is well-known in Central New York, performing Jazz, Delta Blues, Swing, Rock & Roll – America's great art forms.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
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Coming September 16, 2015:
Jerry Mirskin
Poet
About the Author:
 Jerry Mirskin was born in the Bronx, NY, and has lived in California, Wisconsin and Maine. He has worked as a herdsman on a dairy farm, as a carpenter, and as a New York State Poet-in-the-Schools. He is currently an Associate Professor at Ithaca College. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, and he has presented his work and given workshops at universities, colleges, public libraries, art centers, and on public television and radio. He was the winner of the Mammoth Books prize for poetry, and his first collection, published by Mammoth, is entitled, Picture a Gate Hanging Open and Let that Gate be the Sun. A second collection, In Flagrante Delicto, (rated PG-13) was described by one reviewer as the “poetry of an adult man.” Jerry is the winner of the 2013 Arts & Letters Prime Poetry Prize. His recent collection, released in 2014, is entitled Crepuscular Non Driveway.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
MacFarlane Auditorium, DePerno Hall
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Coming September 23, 2015:
Valzhyna Mort
Poet
 About the Author:
Valzhyna Mort was born in Minsk, Belarus. She is the author of two poetry collections, Factory of Tears (2008) and Collected Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2011), as well as an editor of two poetry anthologies. A recipient of the Lannan Foundation Fellowship and the Bess Hokin prize from Poetry, she teaches at Cornell University.
(More information and images at: http://blueflowerarts.com/artist/valzhyna-mort/ )
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
MacFarlane Auditorium, DePerno Hall
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Coming September 30, 2015:
Adinkra "Collection to Realization"
Gallery talk
About the Presentation:
 Adinkra is a symbolic visual language designed to hold and communicate knowledge, meaning and understanding. It was a cultural expression of the Asante of The Gold Coast of Africa and is carried forward into the new nation of Ghana. Today we engage the art of Adinkra for learning in higher education at Utica College. From its makers, its collectors, as a collection and our students, Adinkra holds and shares special meanings and memories.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
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Coming October 7, 2015:
Danniel Schoonebeek
Poetry and prose
About the Author:
 Danniel Schoonebeek’s first book of poems, American Barricade, was published by YesYes Books in 2014. It was named one of the year’s ten standout debuts by Poets & Writers and called “a groundbreaking first book that stands to influence the aesthetic disposition of its author’s generation” by Boston Review. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Tin House, Iowa Review, Fence, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, jubilat, and elsewhere. The recipient of awards and honors from Millay Colony, Poets House, Oregon State University, the Juniper Institute, and the Akademie Schloss Solitude, he hosts the Hatchet Job reading series and edits the PEN Poetry Series. In 2015, Poor Claudia will release his second book, a travelogue called C’est la guerre.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
MacFarlane Auditorium, DePerno Hall
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Coming October 14, 2015:
Danan Tsan, mezzo soprano
Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Music
About the Performers:
 A graduate of Eastman School of Music with Master of Music degree in 2000, Danan Tsan, Mezzo-Soprano, is a versatile performer with a background in classical music and a career full of rock and roll, musical theater and opera. Roles include The Sorcerer in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with The Society for New Music, Maddalena in Rigoletto at Oswego Opera, Charlotte in A Little Night Music with Syracuse Opera, Fantine in Les Miserable with The Baldwinsville Theater Guild, and Aldonza in Man of LaMancha with Syracuse Opera’s summer series.
She has also released 4 solo albums of rock and roll, jazz, and new age music while touring with various rock bands all around the world, as well as being featured with The London Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Pops, The Naples (FL) Pops, and The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Danan currently teaches voice at LeMoyne College, is the Associate Director of The Syracuse Community Choir, and continues to be in demand as a performer all over Central New York.
Danan is also an active member of the Holistic Moms Network and recently served as its Syracuse Chapter Leader. Danan is a proud advocate of holistic living, organic gardening and home birthing.
 Sar-Shalom Strong is well known to east coast audiences as both a soloist and a collaborative pianist. In a career spanning over 25 years, 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 a multitude of the fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. In March 2013, he performed a solo recital for the Walker Lecture Series in Concord, NH, where he has also appeared several times as a collaborative artist. Locally, he performs with the Society For New Music, where 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.
Currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College, where he has taught since 2001, and previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities, Mr. Strong maintains a strong commitment to teaching and encouraging aspiring younger musicians: pianists, singers, instrumentalists, and composers. He is active as an adjudicator and vocal coach, and also has been the accompanist/music coach for West Genesee High School since 1997. In December 2012, he was selected to a panel of judges for the Humans in Space Youth Art and Music Competition sponsored by NASA. He is a member of The College Music Society, Music Teachers National Association, American College of Musicians, and the American Federation of Musicians. Major teachers and musical influences include Charles Beno, Murray Baylor, Alexander Braginsky, Robert Weirich, and Barbara Lounsbury.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
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Coming October 21, 2015:
Blagomira Lipari, violin
Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Music
About the Performers:
 Blagomira Lipari is a native of Bulgaria. She holds a Bachelor's degree in violin performance from the National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria and a Master's degree and a Doctoral degree from Louisiana State University in violin performance with a minor in orchestral conducting. Mrs. Lipari has studied orchestral conducting with Gindong Cai. Her violin teachers include: Vesselin Spirov, Evelina Arabadjieva, Evgenia-Maria Popova, and Kevork Mardirossian.
Mrs. Lipari has appeared as a soloist with the Shumen Philharmonic, Orfei Chamber Orchestra, National Academy of Music Orchestra in Bulgaria, and New Millennium Orchestra in Chicago. She is the exceptional prize winner of the International Chamber Music Competition in Neerpelt, Belgium in 1989. Mrs. Lipari has toured extensively throughout Europe since the age of sixteen as a member of various groups including the European Union Youth Orchestra, Philharmonia Pioneer, and the Sofia Chamber Orchestra. She has also been a member of the New Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria), the Baton Rouge Symphony, and the New World Symphony (Miami).
Mrs. Lipari maintains a very active schedule as a chamber musician, regularly performing with a variety of chamber groups.
Sar-Shalom Strong is well known to east coast audiences as both a soloist and a collaborative pianist. In a career spanning over 25 years, 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 a multitude of the fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. In March 2013, he performed a solo recital for the Walker Lecture Series in Concord, NH, where he has also appeared several times as a collaborative artist. Locally, he performs with the Society For New Music, where 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.
Currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College, where he has taught since 2001, and previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities, Mr. Strong maintains a strong commitment to teaching and encouraging aspiring younger musicians: pianists, singers, instrumentalists, and composers. He is active as an adjudicator and vocal coach, and also has been the accompanist/music coach for West Genesee High School since 1997. In December 2012, he was selected to a panel of judges for the Humans in Space Youth Art and Music Competition sponsored by NASA. He is a member of The College Music Society, Music Teachers National Association, American College of Musicians, and the American Federation of Musicians. Major teachers and musical influences include Charles Beno, Murray Baylor, Alexander Braginsky, Robert Weirich, and Barbara Lounsbury.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
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Coming November 11, 2015:
B Sharp Musical Club
Talented area musicians
About the Event:
 The B Sharp Musical Club, established in 1903, is a non-profit organization celebrating its 112th 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
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Coming December 2, 2015:
Utica College Concert Choir
David Kolb, director
Alane Varga, accompanist
About the Performers:
Please join us for this special performance of the Utica College Choir, directed by David Kolb.
David Kolb 
a graduate of Hamilton College with double concentrations in music and mathematics, has taught math at Mohawk Valley Community College, and directed choirs for the Utica Maennerchor and the Stone Presbyterian Church in Clinton. He is currently the Director of Music for First Presbyterian Church in Rome.
After several years’ hiatus, the Utica College Concert Choir was reconstituted in fall 2010, with David as its director.
He is also a frequent performer in local theatrical productions and sings with the local music ensemble Above Standards. David was a featured soloist in the production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in Syracuse and in the Hamilton College and Community Masterworks Chorale’s performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams Fanstasy on Christmas Carols performed at Hamilton College.
 Alane Varga, piano accompanist, is a native of Pittsburgh, PA. Alane 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 Womyn’s Resource Center at Utica College. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students at Utica College. She is now the College's Dean for Diversity and Student Development. Alane's 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
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Coming December 9, 2015:
Utica College Concert Band
Michael J. DiMeo, director
About the Performers:
The Utica College Concert Band was founded by Dr. Louis Angelini in 1981. Frank Galime then directed the band until his retirement. Currently the band is directed by Michael J. DiMeo, retired director of bands from New Hartford High School. At New Hartford High School, Michael 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.)
The Utica College Concert Band has a well-balanced instrumentation and includes students, local music educators, members of the Utica College staff and local community. The band, for students, can be taken as a liberal arts course for credit or just as an audit.
The Band plays music from the standard band literature that is both challenging and musically rewarding. They usually perform once per semester at the Professor Harry F. and Mary Ruth Jackson Lunch Hour Series. Other regular performances include an annual Concert for Veterans and a combined concert with MVCC Concert Band. The Band also performs programs for local events and at senior citizen communities such as the Masonic and Presbyterian Homes.
Event begins at 12:30 P.M.
Library Concourse
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