Jackson Lunch Hour Series
Literary and musical artists featured every semester.
The Professor Harry F. and Mary Ruth Jackson Lunch Hour Series presents a series of musical and literary programs each semester. All programs are free of charge and are open to students, faculty, staff, and the public.
Sponsored by the Utica University Social Cultural Committee, programs begin at 12:30 p.m.
- Musical performances are held in the Library Concourse.
- Literary readings are held in Macfarlane Auditorium in DePerno Hall, unless otherwise noted.
Learn more:
Series Calendar
Musical Performances on YouTube
Literary Readings on Soundcloud
Author / Performer Profiles
Spring 2026 Artists
February 4 | Patrycja Humienik, poet
Patrycja Humienik is the author of We Contain Landscapes (Tin House), selected as a New York Public Library Best New Poetry Book of 2025. An editor and teaching artist, Patrycja has developed writing and movement workshops for Arts+Literature Laboratory, The Seventh Wave, Brooklyn Poets, Northwest Film Forum, Henry Art Gallery, and in prisons. Her work can be found in The New Yorker, Gulf Coast, West Branch, Poetry Daily, Poetry Society of America, The Slowdown Show, and elsewhere.
February 11 | Paris Hill Brass Quintet
The Paris Hill Brass Quintet was formed in 2015 by community musicians and music educators passionate about chamber brass music. Founded to educate and share brass music with the community, the ensemble performs a diverse repertoire from the 16th century to the present at churches, schools, concert hours, sporting events, and fundraisers. Today's program features brass quintet staples and lighter, more programmatic works. We hope you enjoy learning about and listening to our music as much as we have enjoyed studying and performing it. The Quintet features Brian Picente, trumpet; Henryk Lotyczewski, trumpet; Robert Verkuyl, French horn; Richard China, trombone; and Dana Jerrard, tuba.
February 18 | Martha Grener, flute, and Ben Ellis, guitar
Martha Grener is a freelance flutist and music educator. She has served as principal flute for Geneva Light Opera, Chelsea Opera, Syracuse department of drama, and continues to serve as 2nd flute/piccolo for Fenimore Chamber Orchestra. She also serves as a substitute and extra for various upstate orchestras, including Syracuse Orchestra, Syracuse Stage, and Clinton Symphony Orchestra. Noted for solo recitals and chamber music, Ms. Grener has performed recitals for Civic Morning Musicals, Arts Across Campus, Utica University, and more. She serves as Adjunct Music Professor at Onondaga Community College where she teaches flute lessons, flute techniques and conducting 1 and 2. Ms Grener also serves at Lemoyne College as flute instructor. She also maintains a thriving private flute studio with students ranging in age from 8 to 80 years old. She loved her life of music and happily shares it with her Einstein like husband and their zany 11 year goldendoodle, Coco!
Ben Ellis is a classical guitarist, community arts organizer, and educator. He programs recitals that explore the unexpected corners of guitar repertoire. Programing and pairing works from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, Ellis finds unexpected threads that connect contrasting works. Recent performances include recitals for the Skaneateles Library Concert Series, the Classical Guitar Society of Upstate NY, the St. Eustace Music Series in Lake Placid, NY, WCNY Performance Space in Syracuse, NY, The Orangeburg Fine Arts Center in Orangeburg, SC, and the Tenri Cultural Institute in NYC.
March 18 | Dora Malech, poetry
Dora Malech is a poet, professor, artist, and editor. She is the author of Trying × Trying (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2025), Flourish (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020), Stet (Princeton University Press, 2018), Say So (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011), and Shore Ordered Ocean (The Waywiser Press, 2009). Flourish was a 2020 longlist finalist for the Julie Suk Award, and Shore Ordered Ocean was a 2010 longlist finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. Malech has been the recipient of an Amy Clampitt Residency Award from the Amy Clampitt Fund, a Mary Sawyers Baker Prize from the Baker Artist Awards, a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a Writing Residency Fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and she has been the Distinguished Poet-in-Residence at Saint Mary's College of California and a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome through its Visiting Artists and Scholars Program. She is one of the founders and former director of the arts engagement organization the Iowa Youth Writing Project. Having taught at institutions that include the University of Iowa, Augustana College in Illinois, and the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, she is now a professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.
April 1 | Daniel Shank Cruz, creative non-fiction and haiku
Daniel Shank Cruz (they/multitudes) grew up in the Bronx and now lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. Multitudes is the author of a book of literary criticism, Queering Mennonite Literature (Penn State University Press, 2019), a hybrid memoir/literary critical text, Ethics for Apocalyptic Times (Penn State University Press, 2024), and a good possible year for an apocalypse: poems (Red Moon Press, 2025). With James Knippen, they are the co-author of It Breaks Your Heart: Haiku and Senryu on the 2023 New York Mets (Redheaded Press, 2024). Among other honors, their work has received three Pushcart Prize nominations. Visit them at danielshankcruz.com.
April 8 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University Concert Band was founded by the late 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.
April 15 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
Tina Oyer Ponce earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
April 22 | Utica University Choir (Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist)
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara is also the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and serves as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired UC’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir.
Recent Past Seasons
Fall 2025 Artists
September 17 | Ananda Lima, poet
Ananda Lima is the author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil (Tor Books, 2024) and Mother/land (Black Lawrence Press, 2021), winner of the Hudson Prize. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Poets.org, Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She is a Contributing Editor at Poets & Writers and Program Curator at StoryStudio, Chicago. Lima was a mentor at the NYFA Immigrant Artist Program and the inaugural Latinx-in-Publishing WIP Fellow, sponsored by Macmillan Publishers. She has an MA in Linguistics (UCLA) and an MFA in Creative Writing (Rutgers-Newark). Craft, her fiction debut, was longlisted for the ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal. The New York Times describes it as “a remarkable debut that announces the arrival of a towering talent in speculative fiction.” Originally from Brazil, she lives in Chicago and New York.
September 24 | Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers, poetry and non-fiction
Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers (she/they) is the author of a nonfiction collection, Miss Southeast: Essays, as well as three poetry collections: Chord Box, The Tilt Torn Away from the Seasons, and the forthcoming Bad Cell. Her poems have appeared in POETRY, AGNI, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Beloit Poetry Journal, Bennington Review, and elsewhere. Her creative nonfiction can be found in Best American Nonrequired Reading, Best American Travel Writing, The Missouri Review, Lithub, Prairie Schooner, and The Rumpus. She has received fellowships from the Kenyon Review, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, DC Commission of the Arts, the Spitsbergen Artists Center, Oberlin Shansi, and elsewhere. Rogers is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College, where she also leads the Writers in the Schools Program. She lives in Oberlin with her wife and two children.
October 22 | Johnny Calabrese, singer, songwriter
Johnny Calabrese is a singer-songwriter, pianist, composer, and music director from Utica, NY. After graduating with honors and an Associate of Arts in Individual Studies from Mohawk Valley Community College in 2021, Johnny continued his education with Purchase College and earned a Bachelor of Music in Studio Composition with a minor in Psychology summa cum laude, 2024. He self-taught piano at a young age, beginning his career by accompanying and singing in his high school choir during rehearsals and concerts, and therefore gained a bounty of skills in teaching and music directing. Over the years, he has participated in multiple NYSSMA choir festivals, been hired to play dinner music at local restaurants, volunteered at nursing homes, received the Curran Music Scholarship, performed cover songs for Utica’s Levitt AMP Concert Series in 2019, and performed his own music at venues like The Bitter End in Manhattan in 2023 as well as numerous performances across the Purchase College campus. Recent projects include his work as an assistant music director and rehearsal pianist for Rent (Rome Community Theater) in June 2025 and Mamma Mia (Thomas R. Proctor High School) in March 2025, and music direction for First Date (Rome Community Theater) in February 2025.
October 29 | Robbie Padilla, piano; Colleen O'Neil, clarinet; Claire Tuxill McKenney, horn
Robbie Padilla's work as an accomplished pianist spans the Central New York region and beyond. Padilla has been involved in a wide range of musical experiences from classical recitals to musical theatre productions as both a pit musician and music director. He regularly gives solo piano recitals and has ventured into giving online recitals to reach a larger audience. He collaborates with both experienced and upcoming vocalists and instrumentalists in both recitals and competitions.
Colleen O'Neil has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Performance from Ithaca College, and a Master of Music in Music Education from Syracuse University. A native of Rome NY, she has taught instrumental and general music in public and parochial schools in the Mohawk Valley area for eighteen years and has played previously as a sub/extra with the Utica and Catskill Symphony Orchestras. She is co-founder of the Rome Concert Band, Jewel Winds Quintet and Alliance Classical Players.
Claire Tuxill McKenney hails from Syracuse, New York and is an active freelance musician and private horn instructor in the greater Central New York area. Claire is a member of the Clinton Symphony of the Mohawk Valley and has performed with such groups as the Catskill Symphony, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and The Syracuse Orchestra, amongst others. She is often called upon to play Syracuse Stage and SU Drama musical productions, and enjoys performing chamber music with the trio Storied Winds and Alliance Classical Players. She holds music performance degrees from SUNY Fredonia and The Ohio State University, where she was the Graduate Teaching Associate in the horn studio. In her spare time, Claire can be found spoiling her Jack Russell Terriers.
November 5 | Kenneth Meyer, guitar
Kenneth Meyer, the national first-prize winner at the Music Teacher’s National Association Collegiate Artist Competition, is regarded by the Washington Post as, “A thinking man’s guitarist – he focuses on the inner structure of a piece…and plays with impressive gravity and power.” The Buffalo News has called him, “Impeccably articulate with superb technique.” Kenneth Meyer holds degrees in Music Composition and Classical Guitar Performance from the State University of New York at Fredonia and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He has served on the faculties of East Carolina University and SUNY at Fredonia and most recently held visiting professorships at the Eastman School of Music and SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. Currently, Dr. Kenneth Meyer directs thriving guitar programs at Onondaga Community College and Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music.
November 5 | Nathan Spoon, poetry
Nathan Spoon is an autistic poet with learning disabilities. Author of The Importance of Being Feeble-Minded (Nine Mile Books, 2025), his poems and essays have appeared in the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series, American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry, Poetry Daily, The Southern Review, and swamp pink, as well as the anthologies The American Sonnet: An Anthology of Poems and Essays, How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, Love Is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community and Friends, and The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal. He is editor of Queerly.
November 12 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
Tina Oyer Ponce earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
November 19 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University Concert Band was founded by the late 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.
December 3 | Utica University Choir (Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist)
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara is also the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and serves as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired UC’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir.
Spring 2025 Artists
February 5 | Kathleen Wrinn, Musical Theatre Master Class
Kathleen Wrinn is a musical theater performer, lyricist, librettist, and educator. As Assistant Professor of Musical Theater at the Syracuse University Department of Drama, Wrinn has taught all levels of musical theater performance and singing voice, as well as solo cabaret creation, workshopping new musicals, and collaborative musical theater writing. She earned her MFA at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and has written Book and Lyrics for multiple full-length musicals, as well as performed on stages throughout the country. Her original musical in development, THE BRIDGE (Book & Lyrics by Kathleen Wrinn, Music by Frances Pollock and Kathleen Wrinn), was recently showcased at Yale University in November 2024. In addition to her writing and performance, Kathleen’s advocacy work elevates the voices of underrepresented writers and composers to diversify the stories told in the musical theater canon. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Syracuse University’s NEW WORKS/NEW VOICES new musical developmental initiative and co-author of the upcoming book, Developing New Musicals in University Theater Programs: A Practical Guide (Bloomsbury Publishing, Methuen Drama, 2026). Wrinn is a member of Actors’ Equity and The Dramatists Guild of America and currently serves in leadership roles with Maestra Music, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), and the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance (MTEA). www.kathleenwrinn.com
February 12 | Lena Bertone, fiction
Lena Bertone is the author of Letters to the Devil, available from Amazon and from The Lit Pub, and of Behind This Mirror, a chapbook of collected short fiction, available from Origami Zoo Press. She lives in sunny & warm Central New York, where she teaches, parents, eats, sleeps, and thinks deeply about life's mysteries, among other things. But mostly, she sleeps.
February 26 | Oliver Baez Bendorf, poetry
Oliver Baez Bendorf is an award-winning poet whose work explores interconnectedness, transformation, and queer liberation. He is the author of Consider the Rooster (Nightboat Books, 2024), Advantages of Being Evergreen, and The Spectral Wilderness. His poems have appeared in publications such as The Nation, American Poetry Review, and Yale Review, and have been featured in anthologies like Latino Poetry and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics. Recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Publishing Triangle Award, Oliver earned his BA from the University of Iowa and both an MFA in Poetry and an MA in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa, he now resides along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
March 19 | Martha Grener, flute and Maryna Mazhukova, piano
Martha Grener is a freelance flutist and music educator. Noted for solo recitals and chamber music, she has performed for many concert series including Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, Civic Morning Musicals, Goldenberg, Utica College, and more. Ms. Grener performs regularly as an extra with Syracuse Orchestra and other orchestras in New York state. She serves as Adjunct Flute Professor at Onondaga Community College and serves in a similar capacity at Lemoyne College.
April 2 | Joan Larkin, poetry
Joan Larkin’s sixth book of poems Old Stranger, is available from Alice James Books. Previous books include Blue Hanuman and My Body: New and Selected Poems, both from Hanging Loose. Joan co-founded Out & Out Books during the 1970s feminist literary explosion and co-edited Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time, among other anthologies. Her work includes Sor Juana’s Love Poems; Glad Day: Meditations for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People, and The Living, a play about AIDS. She has received Lambda, NEA, and Shelley Memorial awards.
April 9 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University Concert Band was founded by the late 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.
April 16 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
Tina Oyer Ponce earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
April 23 | Utica University Choir (Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist)
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara is also the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and serves as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired UC’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir.
Fall 2024 Artists
(Please note: Additional Fall 2024 events will be announced soon. Please check back.)
September 18 | Paris Hill Brass Quintet, chamber music
The Paris Hill Brass Quintet was formed in 2015 by community musicians and music educators passionate about chamber brass music. Founded to educate and share brass music with the community, the ensemble performs a diverse repertoire from the 16th century to the present at churches, schools, concert hours, sporting events, and fundraisers. Today's program features brass quintet staples and lighter, more programmatic works. We hope you enjoy learning about and listening to our music as much as we have enjoyed studying and performing it. The Quintet features Brian Picente, trumpet; Henryk Lotyczewski, trumpet; Robert Verkuyl, French horn; Richard China, trombone; and Dana Jerrard, tuba.
September 25 | Sarah Perry, nonfiction
Sarah Perry (she/they) is the author of Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover, forthcoming from Mariner/HarperCollins in February 2025, and After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search, which was named a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Recent short work includes a Huffington Post Personals essay that reached 1M+ readers and an essay for Cake Zine that was a nominee for the James Beard Foundation’s 2024 M. F. K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. Other essays have appeared in The Guardian, Elle magazine, and Off Assignment. Perry holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University, has taught in the graduate programs at Columbia and the University of North Texas, and was the 2019 McGee Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Davidson College. She currently teaches in the MFA program at Colorado State University.
October 2 | Songs by Request, featuring Monk Rowe and John Hutson
Monk Rowe is the Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College and has presented programs about the resource at conferences for the Jazz Education Network, the Music Library Association, and the International Society of Music Educators. Monk co-authored with Romy Britell the book Jazz Tales From Jazz Legends and created the edX online course, “Jazz: The Music, The Stories, The Players” with members of the Library and Instructional Technology Services. He is an active performer on saxophone and piano and has composed numerous works for both jazz and classical ensembles.
John Hutson was born in Indiana and attended college in Boston. Graduation was followed by five years of constant musical performance in the Boston area. A visit to L.A. turned into a 19-year stay during which John graduated with honors from The Guitar Institute of Technology. He spent hours in the studio working with the likes of George Benson and Freddie Hubbard. John relocated to the Utica area and his musical progress continued. He is a skilled recording engineer and guitar teacher, where he engages students in the “blues you can use” approach to playing. His versatility makes him an in-demand player throughout Central New York.
October 9 | Tina Toglia and Ida Trebicka, piano
Tina Toglia is a Lecturer in Piano at Hamilton College, and teaches Intro to Music Research at Syracuse University. She has taught music theory and music history at SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Poly, Utica University, and Stony Brook University. Toglia is an active soloist and chamber musician, and performs frequently throughout the Central NY and the U.S. Her current piano duo collaboration with pianist Ida Tili-Trebicka of Syracuse University brings to the fore works by women composers. She co-founded the Young Artist Institute at Hamilton College, a lieder and art song experience for high school students, with soprano Lauralyn Kolb. They recorded Just-Spring: Art Songs of John Duke, published by New World Records as part of its Recorded Anthology of American Music. Toglia is a frequent adjudicator for MTNA, CNYAMT, and National Federation. She was a fellow at the Tanglewood Institute and at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art and a finalist in the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition. She has a DMA from Stony Brook, and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. She also holds a master’s degree in Library Science and taught in public school for 10 years. She also loves jazz and popular music; her improv trio, Little Sunflower, performs throughout CNY.
Ida Trebicka has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and China, as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Invited by the Italian Federation of Women of Professions, Arts and Affairs and the University Ancona, she has performed solo recitals in Ancona, Italy. She has also performed at the Galleria dell Accademia, in Florence, at the Philharmonic Hall of Beijing, Xi-An, Guilin and Guanzhou universities, in China and Hong Kong. She has also performed in Harlem, Netherlands, and St. Georges Cathedral in Kingston Ontario. Ida has performed with Syracuse Symphony, National Orchestra of Radio Television in Tirana, Albania, Syracuse University Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Baroque Festival Orchestra. As a scholar and educator, Ida has participated to EPTA, the European Piano Educators National Conferences in Helsinki in 2017, CollabFest at the University of North Texas UNT, Song Collaborators Consortia at LSU, among others. This coming September she will present and perform at the European Conference of Piano Educators in Portugal. He has given masterclasses at Tirana University of Arts, European University of Tirana, LeMoyne College, Hamilton College. She is in demand as judge in various competitions, such as MTNA, Federation of Music Clubs, Chopin Competition, “Songs of Motherland” International Competition in Ksamil, Albania, SFCM Chamber Music Youth Competition, CMM/Symphoria Competition. She is an Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of Piano Department in the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. This program presents music by women composers and is envisioned with her friend and Forty Fingers Ensemble co-founder Tina Toglia. This project is dear to her heart and brings forth music by women composer from 1700-to present day.
October 23 | Malcolm Tariq, poetry
Malcolm Tariq is a poet and playwright from Savannah, Georgia. He is the author of Heed the Hollow (Graywolf, 2020), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the 2020 Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry, as well as Extended Play (Gertrude Press, 2017). His plays have been developed by Working Title Playwrights and Brave New World Repertory Theatre. He was a 2016-2017 playwriting apprentice at Horizon Theatre Company and a 2020-2021 resident playwright with Liberation Theatre Company. A graduate of Emory University, Malcolm holds a PhD in English from the University of Michigan. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is the senior editorial manager for PEN America's Prison and Justice Writing Program.
November 13 | Sarah Giragosian, poetry
Sarah Giragosian is the author of the poetry collections Queer Fish, a winner of the American Poetry Journal Book Prize (Dream Horse Press, 2017), and The Death Spiral (Black Lawrence Press, 2020). In 2023, the University of Akron Press published the craft anthology Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems, which she co-edited. In 2024, Middle Creek Press released Mother Octopus, a co-winner of the Halcyon Prize. Sarah's writing has appeared in such journals as Orion, Ecotone, Tin House, Pleiades, and Prairie Schooner, among others. She teaches at the University at Albany-SUNY.
November 13 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
Tina Oyer Ponce earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
November 20 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University Concert Band was founded by the late 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.
December 4 | Utica University Choir (Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist)
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara is also the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and serves as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired UC’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir.
Spring 2024 Artists
January 31 | Richard Mirabella, fiction
Richard Mirabella is a writer and civil servant living in upstate New York. His work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Story Magazine, One Story, and elsewhere. He is the author of New York Times Editor's Choice Brother & Sister Enter the Forest.
February 7 | Reeds and Keys: Tina Toglia, piano; Judy Marchione, bassoon; Colleen Reilly O'Neil, clarinet; Janelle Snell Bookhout, oboe
Pianist Tina Toglia is a Lecturer in Piano at Hamilton College, and teaches Intro to Music Research at Syracuse University. She has taught music theory and music history at SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Poly, Utica University, and Stony Brook University. Toglia is an active soloist and chamber musician, and performs frequently throughout the Central NY and the U.S. Her current piano duo collaboration with pianist Ida Tili-Trebicka of Syracuse University brings to the fore works by women composers. She co-founded the Young Artist Institute at Hamilton College, a lieder and art song experience for high school students, with soprano Lauralyn Kolb. They recorded Just-Spring: Art Songs of John Duke, published by New World Records as part of its Recorded Anthology of American Music. Toglia is a frequent adjudicator for MTNA, CNYAMT, and National Federation. She was a fellow at the Tanglewood Institute and at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art and a finalist in the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition. She has a DMA from Stony Brook, and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. She also holds a master’s degree in Library Science and taught in public school for 10 years. She also loves jazz and popular music; her improv trio, Little Sunflower, performs throughout CNY.
Janelle Bookhout has a degree in oboe performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. She is a retired Instrumental teacher and Band Director from the former Mohawk Central School. She was an adjunct professor of woodwinds and piano at HCCC for seven years working with the Music Industry students. She is currently Principal Oboe in the Syracuse Chamber Orchestra and Auburn Chamber Orchestra.
Colleen O’Neil has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Performance from Ithaca College, and a Master of Music in Music Education from Syracuse University. A native of Rome NY, she has taught instrumental and general music in public and parochial schools in the Mohawk Valley area for eighteen years and has played previously as a sub/extra with the Utica and Catskill Symphony Orchestras. She is co-founder of the Rome Concert Band, Jewel Winds Quintet and Alliance Classical Players.
Judy Marchione, bassoon, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of George Goslee and Ronald Phillips and a Master of Music Performance degree from the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman she was a student of K. David van Hoesen and Philip Kolker. Currently Ms. Marchione performs with the Catskill Symphony, and Clinton Symphonies. She has performed over the years with such orchestras as the Tri-Cities Opera, Schenectady Symphony, Binghamton Philharmonic, Utica Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony, Ohio Ballet, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony, and the Evansville Philharmonic. She is a member of the Jewel Winds Woodwind Quintet, the Alliance Classical Players, and the Topaz trio. She is a performing member of the B Sharp Musical Club, and has a private bassoon studio.
February 21 | Sar Strong, piano
Sar Shalom-Strong is well-known as both a collaborative pianist working with international artists as well as with multitudes of fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. He has been involved in the premiere of many new works, and appeared on programs for Civic Morning Musicals, the Skaneateles Festival, A Little Summermusic, The Oasis Center of Syracuse, Hamilton College, and Utica University. He has performed orchestral keyboard with virtually all the orchestras in the area and is a founding member of both the Jewell Piano Trio and the Southwick Trio. His recorded performances with Society for New Music on Innova Records and with soprano Janet Brown on Russetbush Records have met with considerable acclaim as has his 2016 Mark Records release of eight recordings he made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan. Sar is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College and was previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
February 28 | Sara Lupita Olivares, poetry
Sara Lupita Olivares is the author of Migratory Sound (The University of Arkansas Press), which was selected as winner of the CantoMundo Poetry Prize, and the chapbook Field Things. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Times, Black Warrior Review, Salt Hill Journal, Fugue, The Colorado Review, and elsewhere. She has received support from the Vermont Studio Center. Currently she lives in the Midwest and is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois Springfield.
March 20 | Ronald Caravan, clarinet; Sar Strong, piano
Dr. Ronald Caravan is a performer of both clarinet and saxophone. He served on the faculty of the Syracuse University School of Music for 35 years (1980-2015) where he taught both single-reed instruments and directed the Syracuse University Saxophone Ensemble. Prior to that he taught in the State University of New York system for three years. As a performer, Dr. Caravan has broad solo and chamber-music experience and occasionally performs with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra as a saxophonist (soprano, alto, tenor) as well as a clarinetist (Bb, Eb clarinets). He is also an experienced clinician who has served in numerous educational venues. Dr. Caravan has numerous works published for clarinet and saxophone, and is particularly well known for his music and teaching materials dealing with unconventional sound resources on the single-reed instruments. He earned the Performer’s Certificate on clarinet from the Eastman School of Music as well as the Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education and the Master of Arts in Music Theory. Dr. Caravan has served as president of the North American Saxophone Alliance as well as editor of its journal, The Saxophone Symposium. Currently, he is the Woodwind Editor for the New York State School Music Association’s School Music News.
(See Sar Strong's biography above.)
March 27 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University Concert Band was founded by the late 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.
April 3 | Finger Lakes Trio
The Finger Lakes Trio, with Sonya Stith Williams (violin), Heidi Hoffman (cello), and Rob Auler (piano) was established in 2017 after they realized they could not stop at just one concert together. They have played concerts throughout the Central New York and the Syracuse area including soloing with Symphoria on Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. In addition to the concert hall, their performances have been broadcast on the radio as well. They are each orchestral players, soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers. Sonya Stith Williams studied at the Eastman School of Music and is the associate concertmaster of Symphoria. Heidi Hoffman studied at the Eastman School of Music as well as SUNY Stony Brook and is the principal cellist of Symphoria. Rob Auler studied at Northwestern University, University of Michigan, and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and is a Professor at SUNY Oswego.
April 3 | Trey Moody, poetry
Trey Moody was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of Autoblivion (Conduit Books, 2023), winner of the Minds on Fire Open Book Prize, and Thought That Nature (Sarabande Books, 2014), winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. He has received the Poetry Society of America Robert H. Winner Memorial Award and his poems have appeared in The Atlantic, The Believer, and New England Review. A graduate of State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he teaches at Creighton University and lives with his daughter in Omaha, Nebraska.
April 17 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
Tina Oyer Ponce earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
April 24 | Utica University Choir (Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist)
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara is also the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and serves as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired UC’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir.
Fall 2023 Artists
September 13 | Phil Memmer, poet
Philip Memmer is the author of six books of poems, most recently Cairns (Lost Horse Press, 2022). His poems have appeared in such journals as Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Poetry London, and Mid-American Review, in many anthologies, in the Library of Congress’s “Poetry 180” website, and in Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” column. He lives in upstate New York, where he serves as Executive Director of the YMCA of Central New York’s Arts Branch, and where he founded the Downtown Writers Center in 2001. He is the recipient of a 2023 Individual Artist Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, serves as Publisher at Tiger Bark Press, and teaches creative writing at Hamilton College.
September 10 | Piano Fusion: From Classics to Chart-Toppers | Ida Trebicka, piano; Tina Toglia, piano
Pianist Tina Toglia is a Lecturer in Piano at Hamilton College, and teaches Intro to Music Research at Syracuse University. She has taught music theory and music history at SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Poly, Utica University, and Stony Brook University. Toglia is an active soloist and chamber musician, and performs frequently throughout the Central NY and the U.S. Her current piano duo collaboration with pianist Ida Tili-Trebicka of Syracuse University brings to the fore works by women composers. She co-founded the Young Artist Institute at Hamilton College, a lieder and art song experience for high school students, with soprano Lauralyn Kolb. They recorded Just-Spring: Art Songs of John Duke, published by New World Records as part of its Recorded Anthology of American Music. Toglia is a frequent adjudicator for MTNA, CNYAMT, and National Federation. She was a fellow at the Tanglewood Institute and at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art and a finalist in the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition. She has a DMA from Stony Brook, and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. She also holds a master’s degree in Library Science and taught in public school for 10 years. She also loves jazz and popular music; her improv trio, Little Sunflower, performs throughout CNY.
Ida Trebicka has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and China, as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Invited by the Italian Federation of Women of Professions, Arts and Affairs and the University Ancona, she has performed solo recitals in Ancona, Italy. She has also performed at the Galleria dell Accademia, in Florence, at the Philharmonic Hall of Beijing, Xi-An, Guilin and Guanzhou universities, in China and Hong Kong. She has also performed in Harlem, Netherlands, and St. Georges Cathedral in Kingston Ontario. Ida has performed with Syracuse Symphony, National Orchestra of Radio Television in Tirana, Albania, Syracuse University Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Baroque Festival Orchestra. As a scholar and educator, Ida has participated to EPTA, the European Piano Educators National Conferences in Helsinki in 2017, CollabFest at the University of North Texas UNT, Song Collaborators Consortia at LSU, among others. This coming September she will present and perform at the European Conference of Piano Educators in Portugal. He has given masterclasses at Tirana University of Arts, European University of Tirana, LeMoyne College, Hamilton College. She is in demand as judge in various competitions, such as MTNA, Federation of Music Clubs, Chopin Competition, “Songs of Motherland” International Competition in Ksamil, Albania, SFCM Chamber Music Youth Competition, CMM/Symphoria Competition. She is an Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of Piano Department in the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. This program presents music by women composers and is envisioned with her friend and Forty Fingers Ensemble co-founder Tina Toglia. This project is dear to her heart and brings forth music by women composer from 1700-to present day.
October 4 | Kenneth Meyer, guitar
Kenneth Meyer, the national first-prize winner at the Music Teacher’s National Association Collegiate Artist Competition, is regarded by the Washington Post as, “A thinking man’s guitarist – he focuses on the inner structure of a piece…and plays with impressive gravity and power.” The Buffalo News has called him, “Impeccably articulate with superb technique.” Kenneth Meyer holds degrees in Music Composition and Classical Guitar Performance from the State University of New York at Fredonia and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He has served on the faculties of East Carolina University and SUNY at Fredonia and most recently held visiting professorships at the Eastman School of Music and SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. Currently, Dr. Kenneth Meyer directs thriving guitar programs at Onondaga Community College and Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music.
October 11 | Kathleen Wrinn, Musical Theatre Master Class
Kathleen Wrinn (she/her) - is a musical theater writer, performer, director, and educator. As Assistant Professor of Musical Theater at Syracuse University, Wrinn has taught all levels and styles of musical theater performance and singing voice, as well as solo cabaret creation and collaborative musical theater writing. A fierce advocate for new work, Wrinn is the founder and Artistic Director of NEW WORKS, NEW VOICES, a new musicals developmental initiative at Syracuse created to support work by writers and composers whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented in the musical theater canon. Her full-length musical, THE BRIDGE (Book & Lyrics; Music by Peter Hodgson) is currently in incubation with Midnight Oil Collective as part of their Chapter Three artists’ cohort and was featured at the Yale Innovation Summit in May 2023. Wrinn is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, Actors’ Equity, the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance (New Works Subcommittee), and Maestra Music, where she has served as the Directory Manager for the past five years. BFA Syracuse University, MFA New York University. www.kathleenwrinn.com
October 18 | Manifique Musique pour Flute et Piano, featuring Sar Shalom-Strong and Martha Grener
Sar Shalom-Strong is well-known as both a collaborative pianist working with international artists as well as with multitudes of fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. He has been involved in the premiere of many new works, and appeared 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 and is a founding member of both the Jewell Piano Trio and the Southwick Trio. His recorded performances with Society for New Music on Innova Records and with soprano Janet Brown on Russetbush Records have met with considerable acclaim as has his 2016 Mark Records release of eight recordings he made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan. Sar is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College and was previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
Martha Grener is a freelance flutist and music educator. Noted for solo recitals and chamber music, she has performed for many concert series including Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, Civic Morning Musicals, Goldenberg, Utica College, and more. Ms. Grener performs regularly as an extra with Symphoria and other orchestras in New York state. She serves as Adjunct Flute Professor at Onondaga Community College and serves in a similar capacity at Lemoyne College.
October 25 | Janine Joseph, poet
Janine Joseph is a poet and librettist from the Philippines. She is the author of Decade of the Brain: Poems and Driving Without a License, winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize. She is also co-editor of Undocupoetics: An Introduction, forthcoming from Harper Collins/Harper Perennial. Her commissioned works for the Houston Grand Opera and Washington Master Chorale include The Art of Our Healers, What Wings They Were, “On This Muddy Water”: Voices from the Houston Ship Channel, and From My Mother's Mother. A co-organizer for Undocupoets and MacDowell Fellow, she is an associate professor of creative writing at Virginia Tech, where she previously served as the inaugural Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Scholar.
November 8 | Byron Aspaas, essayist and memoirist
Byron F. Aspaas was raised within the four sacred mountains of Dinétah. In a 2017 essay, “Nádleehí: One Who Changes,” Aspaas explains how these elements are interconnected and under continuing threat. Aspaas’s first published work was included in Yellow Medicine Review and since then his writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Aspaas’s writing revisits the destruction of sacred land and engages his readers in a dialogue about preserving Diné culture and land. He uses imagery and persona to present explorations of language, landscape, and identity.
November 15 | Utica University Choir (Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist) | Coro Italiano (Alfred Valentini, director)
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara is also the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and serves as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired UC’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir.
Alfred Valentini (Alfredo to his family, Fred to friends, Prof. V to his students) is a longtime educator, having taught in secondary schools for 33 years and over 20 years as an adjunct professor of Italian (yes, there’s overlap in those careers). He is the co-author of “Amici,” a textbook series for young learners of Italian. His accomplishments in the field of education have garnered him recognition on the local, state, and national level. He has worked as a consultant to the New York State Bureau of Foreign Languages and represented teachers of Italian on the committees drafting national standards for students and teachers. For 16 years he was the director of the Summer Program in Italy for the Italian-American Committee on Education, through grants from Italy’s Ministry of Foreign affairs. In semiretirement he is part of the World Language team of the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES. For 13 years, Valentini has created regular programs of virtual tours of cities of Italy with regional meals as a fundraiser for The Italian Heritage Club of the Mohawk Valley (formerly The Sons of Italy). These programs have raised thousands of dollars for scholarships for graduating high school seniors.
Alfredo has also been singing all his life. His first performance before an audience was in third grade and he has never stopped! He has sung with choral groups, performed as a band member, had leading roles in local musical theater, is a cantor at Saint Mary of Mount Carmel/Blessed Sacrament Church and presently directs the “Coro Italiano,” a group composed of persons “of a certain age” who love to sing Italian and Italian-American songs. He studied dance as a younger man in Albany, New York, and Rome Italy. His knowledge of music, theater, and dance gave him the tools to direct, choreograph and produce many theatrical productions with children and adults in Albany, Long Island and Utica.
November 29 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University Concert Band was founded by the late 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.
December 6 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
Tina Oyer Ponce earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
Spring 2023 Artists
January 25 | Courtney Faye Taylor, poet
Courtney Faye Taylor is a writer and visual artist. She is the author of Concentrate (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Rachel Eliza Griffiths as the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Courtney earned her BA from Agnes Scott College and her MFA from the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers’ Program where she received the Hopwood Prize in Poetry. A recipient of the 92Y Discovery Prize and an Academy of American Poets Prize, Courtney’s work can be found in Poetry Magazine, The Nation, Ploughshares, Best New Poets, and elsewhere.
February 1 | Tina Toglia, piano; Bill Thistleton, bass
Pianist Tina Toglia is a Lecturer in Piano at Hamilton College, and teaches Intro to Music Research at Syracuse University. She has taught music theory and music history at SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Poly, Utica University, and Stony Brook University. Toglia is an active soloist and chamber musician, and performs frequently throughout Central NY and the U.S. Her current piano duo collaboration with colleague Ida Tili-Trebicka brings attention to works by women composers. She co-founded the Young Artist Institute at Hamilton College with soprano Lauralyn Kolb, an art song experience for high school students. They recorded Just-Spring: Art Songs of John Duke, published by New World Records as part of its Recorded Anthology of American Music. Toglia is a frequent adjudicator for MTNA, CNYAMT, and National Federation. She was a fellow at the Tanglewood Institute and at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art and a finalist in the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition. She has a DMA from Stony Brook, an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. Her principal teachers were Gilbert Kalish and Vladimir Sokoloff. She studied harpsichord with Arthur Haas and performed with the Early Music Ensemble and the Capital Chamber Players. She also holds a MSLIS from Syracuse University and had a second career as a teacher-librarian in public school for 10 years. She is a fan of jazz and popular music; her improv trio, Little Sunflower, performs throughout CNY.
Dr. William Thistleton is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, where he teaches a wide range of graduate and undergraduate classes in analysis, probability, statistics, design of experiments, and data science. After serving in the United States Peace Corps as a math and physics teacher in Cameroon, he completed his graduate studies at Stony Brook University in Computational Fluid Dynamics and Ground Water Modeling. He has served as Department Chair and as Program Coordinator of the Applied Math major at SUNY Poly, as well as coordinator of the Graduate Advanced Certificate in Data Analysis. He develops and delivers workshops for area teachers, employees, and students. He consults with companies in the areas of data science and machine learning. He has been an early and aggressive proponent of distance education and has developed traditional online courses as well as a successful Coursera course in Time Series Analysis. He designs and delivers workshops in Data Science for professional development at the corporate level and has delivered a distance workshop in Machine Learning to the New York State Master Teacher Program. He is a SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador. Dr. Thistleton has been an electric bass player and singer for many years and regularly performs in several jazz and rock ensembles.
February 8 | Jessica Wilbee and Karlinda Caldicott, harpists
Jessica W.H. Wilbee is a professional harpist based out of Utica, NY. She attended Eastman School of Music where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Harp Performance and was awarded a Performer’s Certificate in Harp. Jessica held the position of Principal Harpist for the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in Lancaster, PA from 2014 to 2021. She performs frequently as principal harpist for many other orchestras all over central New York including Utica, Syracuse, Ithaca, and Binghamton. She loves to perform as a solo harpist and is a member of the B Sharp Music Club in Utica, NY. Additionally, she and her sister, Brittany Hart DeYoung, recently created Convergence Harp Duo and enjoy playing together both in Utica, as well as in Mrs. DeYoung’s home state of Michigan. Currently, Jessica is a lecturer in music (harp) at Cornell University, Hamilton College, and most recently, Syracuse University.
Karlinda Caldicott is Principal Harpist with the Schenectady and Catskill Symphony Orchestras and Albany Pro Musica’s Orchestra Pro Musica. She also appears periodically with Symphoria and Binghamton Philharmonic as well as other regional and/or pickup orchestras as needed. Karlinda is in her 11th year as church musician at State Street Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, NY. She also enjoys performing at lighter functions such as weddings and other special events (www.thelivingharp.com). In the teaching arena, Karlinda is currently private harp lesson instructor at Hartwick College, teaches at RPI, SUNY Schenectady, SUNY Oneonta and The College of Saint Rose (when there are enrolled harp students), and has several private students of all ages and interests. She currently owns five harps of varying sizes and types, which are used for various purposes. Karlinda and her family live in Saratoga Springs, NY with their two slightly-insane cats, Koko & Widgit
February 15 | Dominic Fiacco, pianist
Eighteen-year old Dominic Fiacco began studying music at age 4. His curiosity about the organ began when he attended an organ recital at age 8 at First Presbyterian Church in Utica, immediately after which he was invited to try the organ. That fall, he began lessons with Stephen Best, organist at First Church. He has performed recitals at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City and at the Cadet Chapel at West Point, location of the third largest organ in the world. He has also participated in several organ camps in Philadelphia, where he has studied with Alan Morrison, organ professor at the Curtis Institute of Music, and with Peter Richard Conte, organist at the Wanamaker Organ in Macy’s. Finally, Dominic is also assistant organist at the Parish Community of St. Leo and St. Ann in Holland Patent, where he plays the 8:45 AM Mass every Sunday. He continues to study piano with Hamilton College lecturer Sar-Shalom Strong. He has won multiple prizes in several piano competitions, including the Central New York Music Teachers Association piano competitions, the Steinway Competition, and the B-Sharp Scholarship Competition. In addition, he has performed several times on the Society for New Music’s Rising Stars programs both as an organist and as a pianist. Dominic’s favorite composers include Beethoven, Mahler, and Shostakovich. He has six younger siblings. He intends to pursue a career in organ performance.
February 22 | Misha Rai, fiction writer
Misha Rai’s work has received support from the Kenyon Review Fellowship Program, the Whiting Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, MacDowell, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Dana Award in the Novel Category. Her short story, “Twenty Years Ago” is a Distinguished story in the 2021 Best American Short Story anthology. Her essay, “To Learn About Smoke One Must First Light a Fire,” winner of the Dogwood Literary Prize in Nonfiction is listed as a Notable Essay in the 2019 Best American Essays anthology. Her prose appears in a number of journals and anthologies. She was born in Sonipat, Haryana and brought up in India, where she first worked as a journalist, and then, later, in human rights for the National Human Rights Commission, The International Labour Organization and on projects run by the Ministry of Women & Child, India, and UNICEF.
March 29 | Alfred Valentini, tenor and John Krause, piano
Alfred Valentini (Alfredo to his family, Fred to friends, Prof. V to his students) is a longtime educator, having taught in secondary schools for 33 years and over 20 years as an adjunct professor of Italian (yes, there’s overlap in those careers). He is the co-author of “Amici,” a textbook series for young learners of Italian. His accomplishments in the field of education have garnered him recognition on the local, state, and national level. He has worked as a consultant to the New York State Bureau of Foreign Languages and represented teachers of Italian on the committees drafting national standards for students and teachers. For 16 years he was the director of the Summer Program in Italy for the Italian-American Committee on Education, through grants from Italy’s Ministry of Foreign affairs. In semiretirement he is part of the World Language team of the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES. For 13 years, Valentini has created regular programs of virtual tours of cities of Italy with regional meals as a fundraiser for The Italian Heritage Club of the Mohawk Valley (formerly The Sons of Italy). These programs have raised thousands of dollars for scholarships for graduating high school seniors.
Alfredo has also been singing all his life. His first performance before an audience was in third grade and he has never stopped! He has sung with choral groups, performed as a band member, had leading roles in local musical theater, is a cantor at Saint Mary of Mount Carmel/Blessed Sacrament Church and presently directs the “Coro Italiano,” a group composed of persons “of a certain age” who love to sing Italian and Italian-American songs. He studied dance as a younger man in Albany, New York, and Rome Italy. His knowledge of music, theater, and dance gave him the tools to direct, choreograph and produce many theatrical productions with children and adults in Albany, Long Island and Utica.
John Krause is a graduate of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and received his Master’s degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. John is an avid musical theater enthusiast and has performed in, directed, and musical directed numerous productions in the area, primarily with Stage Two productions but also Players of Utica, Rome Community Theater, Ruckus Productions, Upstagers, The Earlville Opera House, Chelsea Opera, as well as many area high schools and colleges. Mr. Krause has taught choral music at New York Mills Jr.-Sr. High, and H.C.C.C. He recently retired from Herkimer High School where he was the choral instructor and drama instructor.
April 5 | Rosebud Ben-Oni, poet
Born to a Mexican mother and Jewish father, Rosebud Ben-Oni is the winner of 2019 Alice James Award for If This Is the Age We End Discovery (March 2021), which received a Starred Review in Booklist and was a Finalist for the 2021 National Jewish Book Award in Poetry. She is also the author of turn around, BRXGHT XYXS (Get Fresh Books, 2019) and the chapbook 20 Atomic Sonnets (Black Warrior Review, 2020) in honor of the Periodic Table’s 150th Birthday. She has received fellowships and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, City Artists Corps, CantoMundo and Queens Council on the Arts. Her work appears in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Poetry Society of America (PSA), The Poetry Review (UK), Poetry Wales, Tin House, Guernica, Electric Literature, among others. Her poem “Poet Wrestling with Angels in the Dark” was commissioned by the National September 11 Memorial Museum in NYC, and published by The Kenyon Review Online, and her poem “Dancing with Kiko on the Moon” was featured in Tracy K. Smith’s The Slowdown. In May 2022, Paramount commissioned her video essay “My Judaism is a Wild Unplace” for a campaign for Jewish Heritage Month, which appears on Paramount Network, MTV Networks, The Smithsonian Channel, VH1 and many others
April 12 | Utica University Choir, Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara is also the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and serves as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired UC’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir.
April 19 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director; Heather Buchanan-Wise, soloist
Tina Oyer Ponce earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
Heather Buchanan-Wise, violinist, is in 11th grade at Holland Patent High School and also taking classes, including String Ensemble, at Utica University. She is a student of Sonya Stith-Williams, studying with her since the summer of 2021. Prior to that, she studied violin with Tina Oyer Ponce for ten years. Heather has also studied piano with Tina Toglia for seven years. Heather has been playing with the Symphoria Youth Orchestras for the last six years, most recently as a member of the Symphoria Young Artist’s Orchestra (Violin I). She also plays in her high school orchestra and string ensemble. Heather was the Concertmaster for the Oneida All-County (Elementary and Junior High) Orchestras for six years. She also served as the Principal second violinist and, most recently, the Concertmaster for the NYSSMA Regional All-State Orchestra. She also was selected and played Violin I for the NYSSMA All-State orchestra. Heather placed first for strings in the B Sharp Scholarship Competition in 2022 and 2023. Heather has performed solo pieces at the Utica University Jackson Lunch Hour Series (2022) and as a Rising Star in the Cazenovia Counterpoint Festival of the Expressive Arts (2022). She has also played in various venues, including a Utica mayoral inauguration and the Utica International Festival, and has enjoyed playing for seniors at the Sitrin Health Care Center and Masonic Home. Heather is a member of Jr. B Sharp and the Tri-M Music Honor Society. She wants to attend college and continue playing violin in a college orchestra or ensemble, but is undecided about a major.
April 26 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University Concert Band was founded by the late 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.
Fall 2022 Performers
September 21 | Jazz Tales from Jazz Legends, featuring Monk Rowe and John Hutson
Monk Rowe presents excerpts from video interviews conducted for the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College. Monk and John Hutson will enhance the videos with live music.
Monk Rowe is the Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College and has presented programs about the resource at conferences for the Jazz Education Network, the Music Library Association, and the International Society of Music Educators. Monk co-authored with Romy Britell the book Jazz Tales From Jazz Legends and created the edX online course, “Jazz: The Music, The Stories, The Players” with members of the Library and Instructional Technology Services. He is an active performer on saxophone and piano and has composed numerous works for both jazz and classical ensembles.
John Hutson was born in Indiana and attended college in Boston. Graduation was followed by five years of constant musical performance in the Boston area. A visit to L.A. turned into a 19-year stay during which John graduated with honors from The Guitar Institute of Technology. He spent hours in the studio working with the likes of George Benson and Freddie Hubbard. John relocated to the Utica area and his musical progress continued. He is a skilled recording engineer and guitar teacher, where he engages students in the “blues you can use” approach to playing. His versatility makes him an in-demand player throughout Central New York.
September 28 | Dan Rosenberg, poet
Dan Rosenberg is the author of Bassinet (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2022), cadabra (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2015), and The Crushing Organ (Dream Horse Press, 2012). He has also written two chapbooks, Thigh's Hollow (Omnidawn, 2015) and A Thread of Hands (Tilt Press, 2010), and he co-translated Miklavž Komelj's Hippodrome (Zephyr Press, 2016). His work has won the American Poetry Journal Book Prize and the Omnidawn Poetry Chapbook Contest. Rosenberg holds a BA from Tufts University, an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a PhD from The University of Georgia, where he was a Presidential Fellow. He is the chair of the English department at Wells College in Aurora, NY, where he teaches literature, creative writing, and translation theory. He also coordinates the Wells College Visiting Writers Series and edits the Wells College Press Chapbook Contest. Rosenberg lives in Ithaca, NY, with his wife, essayist and poet Alicia Rebecca Myers, and their son, Miles. Find more at DanRosenberg.us.
October 5 | Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet
The FLGQ presents exciting, eclectic programming spanning five centuries, including original arrangements, as well as works commissioned, and premiered by the FLGQ. The Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet is the assemblage of four accomplished guitar soloists, Joel Brown, Brett Grigsby, Sten Isachsen, and Paul Quigley whom have performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Past performances include, the Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College Guitar Festival, Skidmore College, and the Sandisfield Arts Center, Cleveland Guitar Society, Marietta College, Great Lakes Guitar Society, The Classical Guitar Society of Upstate New York, Keuka College, Utica University. FLGQ is endorsed by D'addario strings.
October 12 | Kathleen Wrinn, Musical Theatre Master Class
Kathleen Wrinn is an Assistant Professor of Musical Theater at Syracuse University, as well as a performer, lyricist, and book writer. As a faculty member at Syracuse, Wrinn has taught musical theater performance, collaborative musical theater writing, contemporary vocal technique, solo cabaret creation, and all levels of singing voice. Favorite roles include Miss Honey (MATILDA THE MUSICAL, Syracuse Stage); Eva Perón (EVITA, Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra); Rona Lisa Peretti (THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, Papermill Theatre); Edwin Drood (THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, Papermill Theatre); and Henriette Henriot (THE WOMAN IN THE BLUE DRESS, Syracuse Stage). As a bookwriter and lyricist, Wrinn’s full-length musicals include THE BRIDGE (Music by Peter Hodgson; NYTB’s New Works Series; two-time semi-finalist O’Neill NMTC; finalist SDSU New Musical Initiative; two-time recipient Catwalk Art Residency; workshop Syracuse University); THE FORGETTING OF SNOW (Music by Paulo K Tiról; reading NYU Tisch; concert Berklee College of Music; NAMT Songwriters Cabaret); and TEN: THE STORY OF GRACE AND JOE (Music by Wrinn, Brad Kemp, and Jessica Hunt; The Rev’s Pitch Series). Wrinn is currently developing OUR SOLILOQUY, a new musical with composer Jessica Hunt, adapted from dozens of interviews with women and gender diverse performers in the musical theater industry. Wrinn’s original songs have been featured at 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, Barrington Stage, The Kraine Theater, and NYMF’s Women of Note Concert three years in a row. Wrinn is passionate about amplifying the work of writers and composers whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented in the musical theater canon and launched the NEW WORKS, NEW VOICES developmental initiative at SU Drama in Spring 2022. Proud member AEA, Dramatists Guild, and Maestra (Directory Manager). MFA NYU Tisch; BFA Syracuse University. www.kathleenwrinn.com
October 19 | Richard Santos, fiction writer (via Zoom)
Richard Z. Santos’s debut novel Trust Me was published in March 2020 and was a finalist for The Writers League of Texas Novel prize and was named one of the best debuts of the year by Crime Reads. He is currently editing a collection of horror stories for Arte Público Press. He is the Executive Director of Austin Bat Cave, an organization that provides creative writing workshops to students in under-resourced areas. He is a former Board Member of The National Book Critics Circle and has judged contests for The Kirkus Prize, The NEA, The International Thriller Writers Association, The Texas Book Festival, and many more. Recent work can be found in Texas Monthly, Awst Press, Kirkus Reviews, CrimeReads, and Post Road. In a previous career, he worked for some of the nation's top political campaigns, consulting firms, and labor unions
October 26 | Steven Heyman, piano
Syracuse native and pianist Steven Heyman has appeared in solo recitals, chamber music concerts, and as concerto soloist throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has appeared in London, Paris, Prague, Munich, Strasbourg, Vienna, Salzburg, Oslo, Montreal, Quebec, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Washington, Salt Lake City, Juneau, Philadelphia, and New York, among others. In New York, he has appeared in Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, recitals on WQXR, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and as an invited artist for a Juilliard tribute to the late legendary artist/teacher Adele Marcus. He received his education at the Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Adele Marcus and at the Hochschule für Musikund darstellende Kunst in Vienna with Hans Graf. Mr. Heyman has won prizes in over a dozen national and international competitions. As a result of winning the Juilliard School’s Concerto Competition, he appeared with the Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center. An active performer, he can be heard on nine commercial CD recordings. Two of these received SAMMY Awards, a Central New York area music award for excellence in recorded music. The first, on the Innova label, includes works written for and dedicated to Mr. Heyman, and the most recent SAMMY was given for Echoes, a work on the Centaur label, is a CD of new works for viola and piano recorded with Laura Klugherz. In addition, another CD (all Corigliano on the Black Box label) was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Chamber Music Performance, and this recording was also listed in BBC Magazine as their North American record of the month. Very active in new music, he has been involved in dozens of premieres,including premieres throughout the U.S., and in Mexico, Europe and China. Several composers have written for and dedicated music to Mr. Heyman. He played with the Society for New Music for over 25 years and received a special tribute from this organization in 2008. In the Central New York area, he has an active performing career including being the soloist with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (Symphoria) 29 times over a 49 year period, most recently, in 2021, was featured in a performance of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. Mr. Heyman is an Associate Professor in Piano at Syracuse University and has been on the faculty for 34 years. At Syracuse University, among dozens of concerts in Setnor Auditorium, he has performed multiple concertos with the SUSO, including a Beethoven Concerto under the baton of Leon Fleisher. He is also the Artist-in-Residence at Colgate University, where he frequently performs in solo recital, chamber music, and has appeared as soloist with theColgate Orchestra 12 times. In the summer of 2007, Mr. Heyman gave concerts and classes in Beijing and Shenyang China. At the conclusion of a residency at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, he was appointed a Full Visiting Professor. As a teacher, his students have won numerous local, state, and national competitions. Mr. Heyman is a Steinway Artist.
October 27 | Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, poet | Special Thursday Evening event
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach (www.juliakolchinskydasbach.com) emigrated from Dnipro, Ukraine, as a Jewish refugee in 1993 when she was six years old. She is the author of three poetry collections: The Many Names for Mother, winner the Wick Poetry Prize (Kent State University Press, 2019) and finalist for the Jewish Book Award; Don't Touch the Bones (Lost Horse Press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Idaho Poetry Prize; and 40 WEEKS, forthcoming from YesYes Books in February 2023. Her poems have appeared in POETRY, Ploughshares, The Nation, and AGNI, among others. She holds an MFA from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation, Lyric Witness: Intergenerational (Re)collection of the Holocaust in Contemporary American Poetry, pays particular attention to the underrepresented atrocity in the former Soviet territories. Julia is the author of the model poem for "Dear Ukraine": A Global Community Poem (https://dearukrainepoem.com/). She is the Murphy Visiting Fellow and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Hendrix College and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with her family.
November 2 | Finger Lakes Trio
The Finger Lakes Trio, with Sonya Stith Williams (violin), Heidi Hoffman (cello), and Rob Auler (piano) was established in 2017 after they realized they could not stop at just one concert together. They have played concerts throughout the Central New York and the Syracuse area including soloing with Symphoria on Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. In addition to the concert hall, their performances have been broadcast on the radio as well. They are each orchestral players, soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers. Sonya Stith Williams studied at the Eastman School of Music and is the associate concertmaster of Symphoria. Heidi Hoffman studied at the Eastman School of Music as well as SUNY Stony Brook and is the principal cellist of Symphoria. Rob Auler studied at Northwestern University, University of Michigan, and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and is a Professor at SUNY Oswego.
November 16 | Utica University String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
Tina Oyer Ponce, violinist, earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
April 20 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.)
April 27 | Utica University Choir, Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Prior to her arrival at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators. In addition to teaching music classes and directing the choir at Utica University, Ms. Ferrara also serves as the vocal coach for musical theatre productions and as the coordinator of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series. She remains an active performer with her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is an alumna of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute and holds contemporary commercial music and musical theatre vocal pedagogy certifications from The LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ - The LoVetri Method. Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
Alane Varga, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, began her career at Utica University in 1983 as a counselor and advisor in the Academic Support Services Center. During her tenure, Alane co-founded the K. Della Ferguson Womyn's Resource Center, taught a variety of courses, advised student organizations, served as deputy Title IX coordinator, and chaired Utica’s Diversity Committee. In 2011, Alane was appointed Dean of Students, and served as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion from 2017 until her retirement in fall 2020. Her musical experiences include serving as accompanist in a variety of venues, such as community coffee houses, musicals performed at Utica University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Lunch Hour Series. In retirement, Alane stays connected to Utica University through her membership in local social justice organizations and her role as accompanist for the Utica University Choir
Spring 2022 Performers
January 26 | Sejal Shah, fiction writer
Sejal Shah is the author of the debut memoir in essays, This Is One Way to Dance (University of Georgia Press, 2020). Her essay collection explores race, place, belonging, and South Asian American identity. Her writings appear widely in print and online—including Brevity; Conjunctions; Kenyon Review; The Literary Review; The Margins; The Rumpus; Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America (Seal Press); and others. She is the recipient of a 2018 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Fiction; other awards include fellowships and residencies from Blue Mountain Center, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Kundiman, the Millay Colony for the Arts, New York University, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Sejal holds a BA in English from Wellesley College and an MFA in English / Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has taught creative writing at the University of Rochester, Mount Holyoke College, Marymount Manhattan College (New York City), and Luther College (Iowa). She teaches creative writing privately and in community-based workshops. The daughter of Gujarati parents who immigrated to the United States from India and Kenya, Sejal lives in her hometown of Rochester, New York.
February 9 | Society for New Music, featuring Gregory Sheppard, bass-baritone and Sar-Shalom Strong, pianist
Gregory Sheppard, bass, has taught at New York University for 8 years, providing private instruction in the area of voice performance and all sections of group voice. He has been at Columbia University in the Music Education department since Fall 2009. Mr. Sheppard has been heard in principal roles with opera companies throughout the U.S., including San Francisco, NYC Opera, Dayton Opera and countless others. His appearances abroad include Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Costa Rica and London. Mr. Sheppard's honors and awards include a Metropolitan Opera National Council Award and study grant, Friday Music Clubs Award, Syracuse Opera Artist of the Year, Syracuse University Faculty Award, Jan Peerce Scholarship, and a Sullivan Foundation Award. European credits include Savonlinna Opera, Munchener Bienalle Festspiel, I Solisti di Roma. His appearances abroad include Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Costa Rica and London.
Sar Shalom-Strong is well-known as both a collaborative pianist working with international artists as well as with multitudes of fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. He has been involved in the premiere of many new works, and appeared 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 and is a founding member of both the Jewell Piano Trio and the Southwick Trio. His recorded performances with Society for New Music on Innova Records and with soprano Janet Brown on Russetbush Records have met with considerable acclaim as has his 2016 Mark Records release of eight recordings he made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan. Sar is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College and was previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
February 16 | Emmanuel Sikora, composer and pianist
Emmanuel Sikora is a Peruvian-American composer and pianist who specializes in performing his own music. His most recent engagements include a piano recital where he played his “Concerto in E Minor” and “Concerto in E Major” in July 2021 with Ivan Ostapovich, associate music director conducting the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra at Lviv Organ Hall in Lviv, Ukraine at the L'viv Organ Hall in Ukraine, and the Bulgarian premiere of his 2018 E Minor Concerto with the Sofia Sinfonietta.Sikora is the organist and choir director at the St. Mary's, St. Cyril's and Holy Trinity churches in Binghamton. His performances and recordings are available on his YouTube channel (Emmanuel Sikora)
He is a 30-year-old, and 2008 Cortland High graduate, has a master’s degree from Binghamton University and before that, studied with Sam Adler in Berlin. “I taught myself to read music and write what I heard. I got to the point where I could compose concert works at 14,” he said. “I was on track to being a professor in my head, until I found that (St.Mary’s) position. I started playing the organ on the weekend, then the choir director, and then became in charge of everything.” He’s been the director since 2016 and playing there since 2013.
Emmanuel’s other works include has written two Christmas cantatas, one featuring a 24-voice choir, a piano, wind quartet and four soloists, and an Easter oratorio with a 46-member choir, a brass septet, percussionist and guest soloists. Emmanuel has been a regular at the Cazenovia Counterpoint music festival every summer. He said to Neva Pilgrim, an organizer, “‘I am a composer.’ She said, ‘Great. Write something for us.’” He’s been doing that since 2012.
March 2 | Hamilton College Saxophone Ensemble, Monk Rowe, director
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. The saxophone Ensemble was established in 2006 and over the years has varied in size from a quartet to a nine-member group. The ensemble prides itself on performing a wide variety of music, from Bach to the Beatles, and most of the selections have been arranged specifically for the group by Monk Rowe.
March 9 | Faylita Hicks, poet
Faylita Hicks, poet, (she/they) is the author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize, and the 2019 Julie Suk Award. The former Editor-in-Chief of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, they currently serve as the 2021 Poet-in-Residence for Civil Rights Corps and are the fall 2021 Shearing Fellow for Black Mountain Institute. In June 2021, they became a voting member of the Recording Academy/Grammys as a spoken word artist. Hicks is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The Dots Between, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and the Right of Return USA. They were a finalist for the 2021 Howard Foundation Fellowship, the 2021 Texas Poet Laureate, the 2021 and 2018 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, and the 2019 Creative Capital Award. Their work has been featured in or is forthcoming in Adroit, American Poetry Review, the Cincinnati Review, Ecotone, Kenyon Review, Longreads, Poetry Magazine, The Rumpus, Slate, Texas Observer, Yale Review, amongst others. Their poetry is anthologized in The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, What Tells You Ripeness: Black Writing on Nature, and When There Are Nine. Their personal account of their time in pretrial incarceration in Hays County is featured in the ITVS Independent Lens 2019 documentary, “45 Days in a Texas Jail,” and the Brave New Films 2021 documentary narrated by Mahershala Ali, “Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem.” Hicks received a BA in English from Texas State University-San Marcos and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sierra Nevada University.
March 21 | Jane Wong, poet | Special Evening Program
Jane Wong is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016). Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is forthcoming from Tin House in 2023. She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, American Poetry Review, POETRY, AGNI, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney's, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and This is the Place: Women Writing About Home. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room, 4Culture, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay, the Jentel Foundation, SAFTA, Mineral School, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Loghaven, and others.
March 23 | Society for New Music, featuring Gregory Wood, cellist, Noemi Miloradovic and Jonathan Hwang, violinists, William Ford Smith, violist, and Sar-Shalom Strong, pianist
Gregory Wood is Assistant Principle Cellist of Symphoria and was Assistant Principle Cellist of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He is currently a member of the Finger lakes Opera Orchestra and performed as substitute cellist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He was also Principle Cellist of the Cincinnati Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, and performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Wood performed with Josh Groban in Albany, Syracuse, and Buffalo, and with the Trans-Siberia Orchestra, including an appearance on Good Morning America. In September, 2016, at Yale University, he performed in “Grace Notes,” a collaboration of eight musicians, singers, and dancers, and photography/videography by Carrie Mae Weems. He is an instructor of cello and coaches chamber music at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University.
Violinist Noemi Miloradovic, born in Belgrade, Serbia, graduated with honors from the Longy School of Music in Boston. While pursuing her undergraduate diploma she won the honors and the concerto competition resulting in a solo performance with the Longy Chamber Orchestra. Noemi obtained a Masters of Music degree at the University of Kansas and Artist Diploma at Park University, studying with violinist Ben Sayevich. She is a former member of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and the Kansas City chamber orchestra. She was a featured soloist with the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, the Kansas University Orchestra and the Endless Mountain Festival Orchestra. Currently she is a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and serves as associate concertmaster of Binghamton Philharmonic and is a violin professor at Binghamton University.
Violinist Jonathan Hwang has been a tenured member of both the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra in Ithaca, NY and Symphoria; where he has been acting Assistant Principal Second Violin (’16-’19). Currently Jonathan is an Associate Violinist for the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic in Ohio and is a proud returning member of the violin section at Symphoria. He was hailed by The Oregonian as “Charming and poised, he had a commanding presence, intense focus and a bow arm that lent loads of nuance.” Jonathan has been invited to participate in prestigious festivals such as: the Brevard Music festival, Round Top Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Spoleto Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. He earned his MM degree with a full scholarship from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music studying with Timothy Lees, the Concertmaster Emeritus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
William Ford-Smith is a professional violist who grew up in Queens, NY. Mr. Ford-Smith received his B.M. from The Eastman School of Music in 2014. While at Eastman Mr. Ford-Smith won the Honors Chamber competition in 2011. He continued his education at the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University and received a Professional Performers Certificate in 2019 while studying with Ralph Fielding, Distinguished Artist in Residence of viola. Mr. Ford-Smith has had the opportunity to perform chamber, solo and orchestral repertoire in Europe while attending Assisi Summer Music Festival in 2014 and AIMS Graz in the summers of 2016 and 2017. During the summer of 2019 he participated at TMF in Houston, TX. He had a section position with The Symphony of Westchester and has been a recurring substitute for the Binghamton Philharmonic. Following a year contract with Symphoria in 2020 and finding a love for the city of Syracuse he is now going to participate in the full 2021 season.
Sar Shalom-Strong, pianist - see Sar's bio, above.
March 30 | John Krause, pianist, Heather Buchanan-Wise, violinist, and the Utica College String Ensemble, Tina Oyer Ponce, director
John Krause, pianist, is a native of the Mohawk Valley and has been following his interest in music and theater from a young age. At New York Mills Junior Senior High School Krause discovered his love of the stage while watching his older brother Charlie perform in a school play. From there, Krause set his sights on a career that brought him to Herkimer High School in 1996, where he teaches choral music, theater and drama. Krause has been recognized by area civic organizations, such as the Genesis Group at the organization’s 2015 Celebration of Education, as a Mohawk Valley educator who is making a positive impact on students. With a degree in music education from the State University of New York at Potsdam and a master’s degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, Krause has studied voice and piano, accompanying many All-County choruses and the Zone 4 Area All State Chorus. Outside of the classroom, Krause is an avid musical theater enthusiast, having performed in and directed productions with Stage Two, Players of Utica, Rome Community Theater, Ruckus Productions, Upstagers, The Earlville Opera House and more.
Tina Oyer Ponce, violinist, earned a B.M. in Music Education from the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia and was the recipient of the prestigious academic scholarship, Monbusho, to research music education in Japan at the Aichi University of Education where she earned a postgraduate research degree. Tina studied violin with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Suzuki Talent Education Research Institute. Tina also holds an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Utica University. She has directed student string ensembles in public and private schools in France and has been a guest violin teacher at Suzuki Institutes both in France and the U.S. In addition to directing the Utica University Concert String Ensemble, Tina teaches in the Utica University Department of World Languages. Tina and her violin students have actively performed at numerous local venues including festivals and nursing homes. Tina is an active musician performing in the White Dove Duo.
Heather Buchanan-Wise, violinist, is a tenth-grade student at Holland Patent High School. She has studied violin with Tina Oyer Ponce since she was five years old and recently joined the Utica College String Ensemble under Tina's directorship this fall. Heather also began studying violin with Sonya Stith-Williams last summer, and has studied piano with Tina Toglia for the past 6 years. Heather has been playing with the Symphoria Youth Orchestras for the last five years, most recently as a member of the Symphoria Young Artist’s Orchestra (Violin I). She also plays in her school orchestra and string ensemble. Heather has been Concertmaster for the Oneida All-County (Elementary and Junior High) Orchestras for the past six years, and was the Principal second violin for the NYSSMA Regional All-State Orchestra (Zone 4). She recently placed first for strings in the B Sharp Scholarship Competition. Heather has also played in a variety of venues, including a Utica mayoral inauguration and the Utica International Festival and has in the past enjoyed playing for seniors at both Sitrin Health Care Center and the Masonic Home. She is a member of Jr. B Sharp and the Tri-M Music Honor Society. When Heather is not studying for school or practicing music, Heather enjoys traveling and playing with her kitten, Pancake.
April 6 | The Nezhdanova-Placzek Duo (cello/piano)
The Nezhdanova-Placzek Duo (cello/piano) features pianist Elena Nezhdanovaand and cellist Roman Plazek. Professional engagements include the American East Coast, London U.K., Dresden and Chemnitz’s performances in Germany, and four prominent Czech cities, including Prague, where they performed Brahms’s Piano Trio, op. 114 with renowned Czech violist Vladimir Bukac. Pre Covid-19, the Duo was in the process of establishing Summer Cello Academy with the cooperation of Janacek Conservatory in Ostrava, CZ Republic. In September 2021, the Duo received “Gold” and “Best Chamber Ensemble” award at the 3rd World Piano Teachers Association – Singapore International Piano Competition. Covid-19 pandemic permitting, the ensemble is planning its first visit to Australia and other new, exciting performing and educational activities in Europe, including Italy and the Czech Republic.
Dr. Roman Placzek is a published composer, Czech-born, an internationally recognized soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and a sought-after cello teacher and music educator. He has performed for and with many distinguished artists such as cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Carlos Prieto, violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Ruggiero Ricci, Charles Treger, and James Buswell, pianist Konstantin Lifschitz, famous British actor Corin Redgrave, legendary singer Roberta Flack, and numerous ensembles and orchestras across Europe and the East Coast of the United States. Dr. Placzek received his musical education from Janáček State Conservatory in Ostrava of the Czech Republic, Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria, The Boston Conservatory, and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. In May 2014, the Doctor of Musical Arts in Cello Performance with a cognate in Music History and Literature degree was conferred by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is currently a Professor of Music at Wells College in Aurora, NY and on the faculty at Opus Ithaca School of Music.
Dr. Elena Nezhdanova, pianist, a native of Russia, enjoys multifaceted teaching and an active performing career. Her orchestral debut was at the age of eight in her native hometown in Russia. She has been a guest artist in the Civic Morning Musicals concert series in Syracuse, NY, and invited three times to perform as part of the Lives of the Piano concert series at Manhattan School of Music in NYC in concerts dedicated to their Centennial and Claude Debussy Centennial celebrations. In February 2022 she performed selected works from "Petites Esquisses d'oiseaux" by Olivier Messiaen. A passionate teacher, Elena has spent many years in the research of physiology of piano playing, and wrote a review of Irina Gorin's piano method "Tales of a Musical Journey” based on the Ukrainian/Russian/European School of piano. She is currently on the faculty at Opus Ithaca School of Music and teaching privately in Manlius, NY. Dr. Nezhdanova holds BM from Syracuse University, MM from Ithaca College, DMA from UNC Greensboro.
April 20 | Utica University Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
The Utica University 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. Band director Michael J. 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. In addition to directing the Utica University 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.)
April 27 | Utica University Choir, Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, accompanist
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Upon completing graduate school, Ms. Ferrara accepted a position as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and currently serves as the college’s music faculty liaison for their College Now Program where she mentors and oversees local high school music educators. In the fall of 2018, she joined the adjunct music faculty at Utica University. At her two teaching posts, Ms. Ferrara teaches coursework in music history, piano, and voice. In addition to teaching, she is an active performer in small ensemble and solo settings. Recently, Ms. Ferrara made her operatic debut in a concert collaboration project with Bronx Opera as Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
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 University 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 University. From 2011 to 2014 Alane served as Dean of Students at Utica University, later serving 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 University reflecting her love of Broadway, and the Jackson Lunch Hour Series.
Fall 2021 Performers
September 1 | Monk Rowe Quartet
The Monk Rowe Quartet will perform as part of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series featuring Series featuring Monk Rowe on saxophone and piano, John Hutson on guitar and vocals, Sean Peters on bass and Tom McGrath on percussion.
Monk Rowe is a 1972 graduate of SUNY Fredonia and played in the saxophone section of the Fredonia Jazz Ensemble for four years. During those years he composed original music for the FJE and he continues to write for jazz ensembles, chamber groups and orchestras. Monk has been the Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College since its inception in 1995. In this capacity, he has conducted videotaped interviews with over 325 jazz artists across the country. With his wife Romy, he has recently authored a book entitled Jazz Tales from Jazz Legends, drawing on the resources of this oral history collection. He works in the field of aesthetic education and served as the Artistic Director of the Utica Arts in Education Institute. Monk has recorded a CD of original music entitled Jazz Life and a solo keyboard CD, At the Piano.
John Hutson was born in Indiana and attended college in Boston. College graduation was followed by five years of constant musical performance in and around the Boston area. A visit to L.A. turned into a 19-year stay during which John further honed his musical skills by graduating with honors from The Guitar Institute of Technology. Following graduation, John racked up many hours in the studio working with the likes of George Benson and Freddie Hubbard. The years in southern California ended when John relocated to the Utica area and his musical progress continued. John is a skilled recording engineer and a guitar teacher, where he engages students in the “blues you can use” approach to playing. His versatility makes him an in-demand player throughout Central New York
Percussionist Tom McGrath has performed in a variety of musical settings, from theatrical stages, intimate music clubs and state-of-the-art performance spaces. Since the summer of 2005, he has taken up residence in Central NY State where he continues a busy performance schedule, playing with some of Central NY’s finest, including Monk Rowe, John Hutson, Tom Townsley, Don Goodness and the Do Good Big Band. Tom has also released two recordings of original music: Ten Shades of Blue and Pictures at the Family House. He has performed both live and/or in the studio with numerous songwriters and instrumentalists including the folk duo Minus Ted, Walter Egan, Carmin Turco, the Queen of Soul (Aretha Franklin), and the graceful and kind, Odetta.
September 15 | Leonarda Priore, mezzo soprano, and Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Leonarda Priore, a Utica native, is Co-Founder and President of Chelsea Opera, a professional opera company presenting fully staged operas with chamber orchestra now in its 18th season. It has received praise within the industry including favorable reviews by The New York Times and Opera News for its fully staged yet intimate productions with chamber orchestra. Productions are mounted on a shoestring budget while upholding the highest vocal and production values. Lee is proud to be expanding the vision and scope of Chelsea Opera by expanding its performances to Upstate New York. To date she has produced and performed in numerous concerts and avant garde events in both Syracuse and Utica, New York with many more on the horizon. Ms. Priore is a well-known and versatile artist that has appeared at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium and at the Vatican as a featured soloist as well as having performed opera, jazz, sacred, classical and popular genres with many companies and orchestras throughout the United States and in Europe. She continues to perform and present performances of opera, jazz and dramatic works honoring the memory of her brother Nicholas S. Priore, Esq. Funds raised by these concerts go to the Nicholas S. Priore New Possibilities Fund with Chelsea Opera. These funds help mount new musical ventures and to assist artists in these challenging financial times.
Sar-Shalom Strong is well-known as both a collaborative pianist working 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 with multitudes of fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. He has been involved in the premiere of many new works, and appeared 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 and is a founding member of both the Jewell Piano Trio and the Southwick Trio. His recorded performances with Society for New Music on Innova Records and with soprano Janet Brown on Russetbush Records have met with considerable acclaim as has his 2016, Mark Records release of eight recordings he made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan. Sar is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College and was previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
September 22 | Rachel McKibbens, poet
Poet, activist, playwright and essayist Rachel McKibbens is the author of the poetry collections Into the Dark and Emptying Field (2013) and Pink Elephant (2009). The Rumpus wrote of Pink Elephant, “McKibbens awakens and haunts with selfless honesty.” Her poems, short stories, essays and creative nonfiction have been featured in numerous journals and blogs, including Her Kind, The Los Angeles Review, The Best American Poetry Blog, The Nervous Breakdown, The Rumpus, The London Magazine, The Acentos Review, World Literature Today, Radius, and The American Poetry Journal. McKibbens is a well-known member of the poetry slam community: she is a nine-time National Poetry Slam team member, has appeared on eight NPS final stages, and coached the New York louderARTS poetry slam team to three consecutive final stage appearances, was the 2009 Women of the World Poetry Slam champion and the 2011 National Underground Poetry Slam individual champion. McKibbens appeared on two seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam and was featured in the poetry slam documentary Slam Planet in 2006 at SXSW. In 2011, McKibbens was commissioned by The Getty Center in Los Angeles to write and perform an ekphrastic poem for their multi-media poetry event Dark Blushing.
September 29 | Tina Toglia, piano
Pianist Tina Toglia received her Doctorate in Piano Performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied piano with Gilbert Kalish and harpsichord with Arthur Haas. Her Bachelor's and Master's degrees were earned from Temple University where she was a student of Alexander Fiorillo, a pupil of Vladimir Horowitz. She also has a diploma in collaborative piano from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a student of Dr. Vladimir Sokoloff. Dr. Toglia has been a pre-concert lecturer for the Great Artist Series at the Stanley Theatre in Utica and has lectured for the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement. She has taught piano, music history and theory at SUNY Stony Brook, State University College at Oneonta, SUNY Institute of Technology and Utica College and a Lecturer in Piano at Hamilton College. She currently maintains a private studio in Utica, NY.
October 6 | Octavio Quintanilla, poet & visual artist
Octavio Quintanilla Ph.D. was born in Harlingen, TX, and lived in Mexico till the age of nine. He has resided in San Antonio since the fall of 2013 when he began teaching in the MA/MFA program at Our Lady of the Lake University. Octavio is the author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014). His poetry, fiction, translations, and photography have appeared, or are forthcoming, in journals such as Salamander, RHINO, Alaska Quarterly Review, Pilgrimage, Green Mountains Review, Southwestern American Literature, The Texas Observer, Existere: A Journal of Art & Literature, and elsewhere. Reviews of his work can be found at CutBank Literary Journal, Concho River Review, San Antonio Express-News, American Microreviews & Interviews, Southwestern American Literature, Pleiades, and others. Octavio is the regional editor for Texas Books in Review and serves on the board of Southwestern American Literature. He is also the poetry editor for the journal Latina Critical Feminism, and poetry editor of San Antonio’s literature/art journal, Voices de la Luna. He serves as assistant editor to Empire Mongrel Press.
October 13 | Jennifer Pashley, fiction
Jennifer Pashley was raised, NY by an accordion virtuoso and a casket maker and still lives in Syracuse. Jennifer's stories have appeared in Mississippi Review, PANK, Smoke Long Quarterly, Los Angeles Review and others. She has been awarded the MR Prize for Fiction, the Red Hen Prize for Fiction, and the Carve Magazine Esoteric Award for LGBT writing. She is the author of the novels The Watcher (Crooked Lane Books, 2020); The Scamp (Tin House Books, 2015); and the short story collections The Conjurer (Standing Stone Books 2013); and States (Lewis-Clark Press 2007). The Watcher is the first in the Kateri Fisher series, based around the grim work of a hardscrabble detective in upstate New York. Pashley's seamless, yet meticulous writing pulls the reader into the bleak world of rural upstate New York. Her writing is atmospheric and dark, yet emotionally compelling, Pashley writes about the people on the fringes of society with clear-eyed compassion and grace. She likes her writing ambiguous, and I like endings that can open up into something else. Every time Jennifer Pashley writes a book, it’s an act of learning how to do it for the first time.
October 20 | Judy Marchione, bassoon; Colleen O'Neil, clarinet; Tina Toglia, piano
Judy Marchione, bassoon, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of George Goslee and Ronald Phillips and a Master of Music Performance degree from the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman she was a student of K. David van Hoesen and Philip Kolker. Currently Ms. Marchione performs with the Catskill Symphony, and Clinton Symphonies. She has performed over the years with such orchestras as the Tri-Cities Opera, Schenectady Symphony, Binghamton Philharmonic, Utica Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony, Ohio Ballet, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony, and the Evansville Philharmonic. She is a member of the Jewel Winds Woodwind Quintet (http://www.jewelwinds.yolasite.com), the Alliance Classical Players, and the Topaz trio. She is a performing member of the B Sharp Musical Club, and has a private bassoon studio.
Colleen O’Neil has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Performance from Ithaca College, and a Master of Music in Music Education from Syracuse University. A native of Rome NY, she has taught instrumental and general music in public and parochial schools in the Mohawk Valley area for eighteen years and has played previously as a sub/extra with the Utica and Catskill Symphony Orchestras. She is co-founder of the Rome Concert Band, Jewel Winds Quintet and Alliance Classical Players.
Pianist Tina Toglia received her Doctorate in Piano Performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied piano with Gilbert Kalish and harpsichord with Arthur Haas. Her Bachelor's and Master's degrees were earned from Temple University where she was a student of Alexander Fiorillo, a pupil of Vladimir Horowitz. She also has a diploma in collaborative piano from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a student of Dr. Vladimir Sokoloff. Dr. Toglia has been a pre-concert lecturer for the Great Artist Series at the Stanley Theatre in Utica and has lectured for the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement. She has taught piano, music history and theory at SUNY Stony Brook, State University College at Oneonta, SUNY Institute of Technology and Utica College and a Lecturer in Piano at Hamilton College. She currently maintains a private studio in Utica, NY.
November 3 | Dominic Fiacco, piano
Dominic Fiacco, 16-year old resident of the small Adirondack foothills village of Poland, NY, began studying music at age 4. His curiosity about the organ began when he attended an organ recital at age 8 at First Presbyterian in Utica, immediately after which he was invited to try the organ.
That fall, he began lessons with Stephen Best, organist at First Church. He has performed recitals at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and at the Cadet Chapel at West Point, location of the third largest organ in the world, as well as in Saratoga Springs and Syracuse. He participated in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 summer organ camps at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Alan Morrison and Peter Richard Conte. Dominic is also assistant organist at the Parish Community of St. Leo and St. Ann in Holland Patent, where he plays the 8:45 AM Mass every Sunday.
He continues to study piano with Hamilton College lecturer, Sar-Shalom Strong. He has won multiple prizes in several piano competitions, including the Central New York Music Teachers Association piano competitions, the Steinway Competition, and, most recently, the B-Sharp Scholarship Competition. He has performed multiple times on the Society for New Music’s Rising Stars programs. He has also performed solo recitals for the Jackson Lunch Hour Series at Utica College, the Unitarian Church of Barneveld, and the Remsen Performing & Visual Arts Center. Dominic’s favorite composers include Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, and Shostakovich. He has six younger siblings.
December 1 | Utica College Choir, Lynne Ferrara, director, Alane Varga, piano
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University.
Prior to her arrival at Utica College, Ms. Ferrara was an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and served as the college’s music faculty liaison for the College Now Program where she mentored and oversaw local high school music educators.
In addition to teaching, she is the music director for musical theatre productions at Utica College and remains an active performer. Her most memorable and favorite role being Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.
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 Womyn’s Resource Center at Utica College. From 2011 to 2014 Alane served as Dean of Students at Utica College. She then served as Dean of Diversity and Student Development until her retirement in fall 2020. 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. She still serves as accompanist for the Utica College Choir.
December 8 | Utica College Concert Band, Michael J. DiMeo, director
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. Band director Michael J. 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. 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.)
Spring 2021 Performers
February 3 | Jonathan English, tenor, and Sar-Shalom Strong, piano | Virtual performance
Jonathan English, tenor, is a native of Syracuse, NY and obtained his M.M., B.M. in voice at the Eastman School of Music. English has performed a wide range of musical styles, from opera, symphonic, and oratorio to art song, choral, Broadway, and modern vocal chamber music. He has been a soloist with Boston’s Cantata Singers under David Hoose; the Syracuse Opera Theatre under Christopher Keene and Steven White; Oswego Opera Theatre under Juan Francisco La Manna; Rochester Philharmonic under Isaiah Jackson; and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia under Alfred Mann. English is the founder of the American Song Project, created to promote awareness through performances and recordings of the depth and beauty of contemporary and historical American art song. Newport Classic released his first solo CD Over There! Songs From America’s Wars featuring music from the Revolutionary War to World War I. English has taught voice at the Commonwealth School in Boston, Roger Williams University, and Holy Cross College and given vocal and choral master classes throughout New England. As a choral conductor he has been music director at a number of churches in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island; conducted the Oneida All-County chorus; and was vocal coach and director of the Boys Chorus for the Boston City Singers. He currently teaches applied music and performance (voice) at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music.
Sar-Shalom Strong is well-known as both a collaborative pianist working 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 with multitudes of fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. He has been involved in the premiere of many new works, and appeared 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 and is a founding member of both the Jewell Piano Trio and the Southwick Trio. His recorded performances with Society for New Music on Innova Records and with soprano Janet Brown on Russetbush Records have met with considerable acclaim as has his 2016, Mark Records release of eight recordings he made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan. Sar is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College and was previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
February 10 | Carley Moore, prose | Virtual reading
Carley Moore is a Professor of Writing and Culture at NYU, and an Associate for Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. She is a poet, a novelist, and an essayist, and her love for writing in all forms. Her essays range from short, sharply focused vignettes revolving around a single memory or issue, to more broadly universal themes, drawing copiously from her life and her reading for inspiration. She selects passages from a wide scope of material, using quotes from Zadie Smith as well as more surprising sources, like an article about lice from Scientific American. She includes themes of illness, physical and mental health. The title of her book of essays, 16 Pills refers to the number of essays in the collection, wherein she delves into some dark places, but is ultimately a journey toward optimism and hope, a journey toward self-discovery and acceptance. If only we all could cast light into the dark corners of ourselves with such alacrity. and These are not the only themes Moore explores, but the early years of her life had a huge impact on her, and the far reach of this time is evident.
February 10 | Porochista Khakpour, novelist | Rebroadcast of a virtual reading
Porochista Khakpour is the author of the novels Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion, and the memoir Sick. Among her many fellowships is a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her nonfiction has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate, Salon, and Bookforum, among many others. She has been guest faculty at VCFA and Stonecoast’s MFA programs, as well as Contributing Editor at Evergreen Review. Brown Album is her first collection of essays, and just out from Vintage Books. Born in Tehran and raised in the Los Angeles area, Khakpour currently lives in New York City.
February 17 | Society for New Music celebrating Black History Month | Virtual performance
Gregory Sheppard, bass baritone; Rosee Head, violin; "Doc” Woods Quartet; Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Gregory Sheppard, bass, has been heard in principal roles with opera companies throughout the U.S., including San Francisco, NYC Opera, Dayton Opera and countless others. His appearances abroad include Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Costa Rica and London. Mr. Sheppard's honors and awards include a Metropolitan Opera National Council Award and study grant, Friday Music Clubs Award, Syracuse Opera Artist of the Year, Syracuse University Faculty Award, Jan Peerce Scholarship, and a Sullivan Foundation Award. European credits include Savonlinna Opera, Munchener Bienalle Festspiel, I Solisti di Roma. His appearances abroad include Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Costa Rica and London.
Rosee Head, violinist, is a senior at New Hartford High School who began playing the violin at the age of 3. She has performed as a Rising Star on two Society for New Music programs. She was honored to be selected to attend the Sphinx Performance Academy in the summers after seventh and eighth grades. Following her freshman year, she participated in the Carnegie Foundation’s NYO2 program and after her sophomore year, she won a full orchestral scholarship to the Interlochen Arts Camp and actively performs in the Utica area.
"Doctuh" Michael Woods is the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Music at Hamilton College. Woods has taught at the university level since 1980, and joined Hamilton College in 1993. He is the musical director and bassist for the Zoe' Jazz Band and the Omniverse Jazz Ensemble. Doc is the recipient of numerous prestigious grants and awards for performance, education, composition, scholarship and leadership. He has written more than 700 compositions in styles including choral, orchestral and chamber, jazz combo and big-band. Woods brought together some of the area’s best jazz and gospel artists for the annual Jazz Kick-Off event on Sept. 8 in the Fillius Events Barn. “Bop My Gospel Soul” offered several recently written modern jazz tunes by Woods, gospel numbers, and a few Michael Jackson tribute songs. Guest artists performing with Woods included drummer Jakubu Griffin; Chosen Generation, the gospel choir from St. Matthew’s Temple; COGIC, of Utica; and gospel soloist Astena Smith.
(For profile of pianist Sar-Shalom Strong, see above.)
February 24 | Noah Falck, poet | Virtual reading
Noah Falck is a poet and educator. He was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, and attended the University of Dayton. is the author of the poetry collections Exclusions (Tupelo Press, 2020) and SNOWMEN LOSING WEIGHT (BatCat Press, 2012). as well as several chapbooks including You Are In Nearly Every Future and Celebrity Dream Poems. He co-edited the anthology My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry, and has received fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, The Ohio State University, and Antioch Writers’ Workshop. His work has appeared in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, Conduit, Ploughshares, and Poets.org. His credits as editor include My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry (BlazeVOX[Books], 2017). and has been anthologized in Poem-A-Day 365 Poems for Every Occasion. He is the Education Director at Just Buffalo Literary Center, the premier center for the literary arts in the Buffalo/Niagara region. For ten years, he taught elementary school, and currently spends his summers mentoring young writers as a faculty member in the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop. and curates the Silo City Reading Series, a multimedia poetry series inside a 130-foot high abandoned grain elevator.
March 3 | Sar Strong, pianist, and Shem Guibbory, violinist | Virtual performance
Shem Guibbory started to play as a substitute in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at the age of 21, sitting on the last stand of the 1st violin section for a performance of Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten with Karl Böhm conducting. Since then, he has been privileged to be a part of hundreds of amazing performances. More recent memorable performances include Pélleas et Mélisande with Simon Rattle, Die Walküre with Donald Runnicles, Rodelinda with Harry Bicket, Tristan und Isolde with Daniel Barenboim and Parsifal with Daniele Gatti. With Director Margaret Booker and playwright Robert Schenkkan he has created a new music/theater work A Night at the Alhambra Café (2010) and is currently developing another work entitled Accidental Heroes. Mr. Guibbory’s personal recording credits include solo and chamber music on ECM, Gramavision, Opus 1, DG, Albany, Bridge, MSR Classics and CRI. He has performed as a soloist with a number of fine orchestras including the New York Philharmonic. For over three decades he has served as a faculty member of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, serving as their Music Director for nine consecutive seasons.
(For profile of pianist Sar-Shalom Strong, see above.)
March 17 | Sar Strong, pianist | Pre-recorded performance
Sar Strong's performance was recorded live at Hamilton College in November, 2020. For a profile of Sar Strong, please see above.
March 24 | Zachary Slade and Dominic Fiacco, piano duo | Virtual performance
Zachary Slade, a Utica native, is 16 years old and a Junior at New Hartford High School. He has been playing piano for 12 years and performed in numerous competitions and recitals including an international piano competition in Krakow, Poland and CNYAMT piano competitions. He took part in the 24th International master Course for Pianists in Wroclaw, Poland in 2017. He was also the president of Junior B# Music Club for the 2019-2020 year. In addition to piano, he plays the tuba and performed in the school Symphonic and Jazz Bands. Adding to his formidable musical and academic abilities Zachary holds the rank of First Degree Black Belt in American eagle Style Karate. In his free time he enjoys hiking and video games.
Dominic Fiacco is a resident of Poland, NY and began studying piano at age 4. At age 8 he also became fascinated with organ after attending an organ recital and began lessons with organist Steven Best on that instrument. He quickly began pieces of significant complexity mastering them both technically and musically. He has performed recitals at the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York City and at the Cadet Chapel at West Point, location of the third largest organ in the world. Dominic continues his piano study with Sar-Shalom Strong at Hamilton College. He has received multiple awards in piano competitions, including the Central New York Music Teachers Association Piano Competitions and the Steinway Competition. Dominic’s favorite composer for piano is Beethoven, but he also admires Scostakovich, Prokofiev, Bach, and French Romantic composers, especially for organ.
March 31 | Lilly Dancyger, memoirist | Virtual reading
Lilly Dancyger, author, essayist, and memoirist, is a contributing editor at Catapult, and assistant editor at Barrelhouse Books. She's the editor of Burn It Down, a critically acclaimed anthology of essays on women's anger from Seal Press, named one of the "most recommended books of the season" by Literary Hub; and the author ofNegative Space, a reported and illustrated memoir selected by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the 2019 Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards, forthcoming in 2021. Lilly is the founder and host of Memoir Monday, a weekly newsletter and quarterly reading series co-curated by Narratively, The Rumpus, Guernica, Granta, Literary Hub, and Catapult, featuring the best memoir writers of today. Her writing has been published by Longreads, The Washington Post, Glamour, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and more. She lives in New York City, and she spends way too much time on twitter.
March 31 | Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, poet | Rebroadcast of a virtual reading
Ricardo Alberto Maldonado was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He is the translator ofDinapiera Di Donato’s Colaterales/Collateral (Akashic Press/National Poetry Series, 2013) and author of The Life Assignment, forthcoming from Four Way Books in 2020. He has received fellowships from CantoMundo, Queer|Arts|Mentorship and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is managing director at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center and cohosts the EMPIRE reading series with Hafizah Geter. He lives in New York City.
April 7 | Jason Denman, piano and discussion | Virtual performance
Jason Denman holds a doctorate from the University of California at Irvine. At Utica College he teaches in the department of English, and his scholarship focuses primarily on seventeenth-century English drama. He thinks of his recorded performance for the lunch hour series as an extremely belated musical debut. He grew up in a musical household, receiving initial instruction in trumpet from his father, and piano from his mother. The piano proved a better fit, and in his late teens he studied with Gregory Taboloff, a student of the late, great Leon Fleischer.
Working with Taboloff, Denman prepared major works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Shostakovich. Taboloff encouraged him to enter the U.S. Open Piano Competition in Berkeley, California, where Denman won one of the intermediate divisions with a performance of a Shostakovich prelude, but also experienced a memory lapse in another work by Liszt. He was struck by his stage fright, decided music needed to be an amateur interest, and aimed to focus on his education in literature.
Despite this, studying the piano and learning its repertoire has remained an ongoing priority. Multiple strong influences have shaped his current interests as a musician. With the flutist Amanda Heckman, he learned some of the discipline required for ensemble playing and explored new repertoire. He also sang bass in the Hamilton College Oratorio Society and later Masterworks Chorale for over a decade. From the groups’ director, G. Roberts Kolb, Denman learned how serious and accomplished amateur musical performances could be, as well as how to better balance textual fidelity and expression. Facing tendinitis problems, he returned to more systematic piano instruction in his forties, with Sar-Shalom Strong, who has rebuilt Denman’s technique, reducing tension in the elbows and shoulders, and producing a more balanced and healthy approach to the instrument. At home, he plays a Kawai GE-30, maintained by Doug Kraus of Center Stage Pianos in New Hartford.
April 21 | Utica College Concert Choir
Directed by Lynne Ferrara; accompanied by Alane Varga, piano
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Upon completing graduate school, Ms. Ferrara accepted a position as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and currently serves as the college’s music faculty liaison for their College Now Program where she mentors and oversees local high school music educators. In the fall of 2018, she joined the adjunct music faculty at Utica College. At her two teaching posts, Ms. Ferrara teaches coursework in music history, piano, and voice. In addition to teaching, she is an active performer in small ensemble and solo settings. Recently, Ms. Ferrara made her operatic debut in a concert collaboration project with Bronx Opera as Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
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. She then served as Dean of Diversity and Student Development until her retirement in fall 2020. 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. She still serves as accompanist for the Utica College Choir.
April 28 | Utica College Concert Band | Video rebroadcast (recorded Spring 2019)
Directed by Michael J. DiMeo
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. Band director Michael J. 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.).
The band has a well-balanced instrumentation and a membership which includes students, local music educators, as well as members of the Utica College staff and local community and can be taken by students as a liberal arts course for credit or just as an audit. The Band programs a wide range of 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 Mohawk Valley Community College Concert Band. The Band also performs programs for local events and at senior citizen communities such as the Masonic and Presbyterian Homes.
Fall 2020 Performers
Please Note: The live events listed below are open to Utica College students, faculty, and staff only. As a precautionary measure with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the general public will not be admitted. We apologize for any inconvenience.
August 26 | Monk Rowe Trio | Video Rebroadcast
Monk Rowe is a 1972 graduate of SUNY Fredonia and played in the saxophone section of the Fredonia Jazz Ensemble for four years. During those years he composed original music for the FJE and he continues to write for jazz ensembles, chamber groups and orchestras. Monk has been the Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College since its inception in 1995. In this capacity, he has conducted videotaped interviews with over 325 jazz artists across the country. With his wife Romy, he has recently authored a book entitled Jazz Tales from Jazz Legends, drawing on the resources of this oral history collection. He works in the field of aesthetic education and served as the Artistic Director of the Utica Arts in Education Institute. Monk has recorded a CD of original music entitled Jazz Life and a solo keyboard CD, At the Piano.
John Hutson was born in Indiana and attended college in Boston. College graduation was followed by five years of constant musical performance in and around the Boston area. A visit to L.A. turned into a 19-year stay during which John further honed his musical skills by graduating with honors from The Guitar Institute of Technology. Following graduation, John racked up many hours in the studio working with the likes of George Benson and Freddie Hubbard. The years in southern California ended when John relocated to the Utica area and his musical progress continued. John is a skilled recording engineer and a guitar teacher, where he engages students in the “blues you can use” approach to playing. His versatility makes him an in-demand player throughout Central New York
Percussionist Tom McGrath has performed in a variety of musical settings, from theatrical stages, intimate music clubs and state-of-the-art performance spaces. Since the summer of 2005, he has taken up residence in Central NY State where he continues a busy performance schedule, playing with some of Central NY’s finest, including Monk Rowe, John Hutson, Tom Townsley, Don Goodness and the Do Good Big Band. Tom has also released two recordings of original music: Ten Shades of Blue and Pictures at the Family House. He has performed both live and/or in the studio with numerous songwriters and instrumentalists including the folk duo Minus Ted, Walter Egan, Carmin Turco, the Queen of Soul (Aretha Franklin), and the graceful and kind, Odetta.
September 2 | Topaz | Video Rebroadcast
Judy Marchione holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of George Goslee and Ronald Phillips and a Master of Music Performance degree from the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman she was a student of K. David van Hoesen and Philip Kolker. She also served as K. David vanHoesn’s teaching assistant which included teaching through the Continuing Education Division as well as conducting wood-wind technique classes for University of Rochester Music Education Majors. Currently Ms. Marchione performs with the Utica Symphony, Catskill Symphony, and Binghamton Philharmonic. She has performed over the years with such orchestras as the Buffalo Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony, Ohio Ballet, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony, and the Evansville Philharmonic.
Colleen O’Neil has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Performance from Ithaca College, and a Master of Music in Music Education from Syracuse University. A native of Rome NY, she has taught instrumental and general music in public and parochial schools in the Mohawk Valley area for eighteen years and has played previously as a sub/extra with the Utica and Catskill Symphony Orchestras. She is co-founder of the Rome Concert Band, Jewel Winds Quintet and Alliance Classical Players.
Jo Ann Krant Geller, a native of Chester, Pa., while in high school studied piano with Jon Carlin at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. She then attended the University of Pennsylvania graduating with a degree in Musicology. While a student at Penn, Jo Ann studied piano under Vladimir Socoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music, and accompanied the choir under the direction of William Smith, assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Jo Ann continued her piano studies in Munich, Germany under Leonard Shure. Returning to the United States, she became a member of the performance faculty at the Wilmington School of Music, Wilmington, Delaware. Later, she worked for a time as an assistant editor at the Theodore Presser Music Publishing Company in Philadelphia. Formerly an adjunct professor at MVCC, Jo Ann has an extensive piano studio in Rome, and has appeared in numerous performances throughout New York State as soloist, accompanist, and in chamber ensembles.
September 9 | Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet | Video Rebroadcast
The Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet presents exciting, eclectic programming spanning five centuries, including original arrangements, as well as works commissioned, and premiered by the FLGQ. The Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet is the assemblage of four accomplished guitar soloists, Joel Brown, Brett Grigsby, Sten Isachsen, and Paul Quigley whom have performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Past performances include, the Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College Guitar Festival, (World Premiere, Holland), Skidmore College, and the Sandisfield Arts Center.
Joel Brown’s actively eclectic performances as a soloist and chamber musician have included appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood, the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, the Caramoor Festival, and the Killington Festival. Internationally, he has played at the Barbican in London with soprano Dawn Upshaw, in British Columbia at the Music in the Mountains Chamber Music Festival, in the Czech Republic at the Mikulov Guitar Festival as concerto soloist with the Martinu Chamber Orchestra. Notable appearances in the United States include Carnegie Hall with Dawn Upshaw, recitals on both coasts with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, and with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Brown has also performed on NBC’s Today, CNN’s Showbiz Today, on NPR, and on the BBC. He is a Senior-Artist-in-Residence in classical guitar at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York and is Chair of the Skidmore Music Department.
Sten Isachsen has appeared as concerto soloist with the University at Albany Orchestra and the Ithaca College String Quartet. Possessing a Bachelor and Master of Music in Guitar Performance from Ithaca College, he has studied guitar with Frederick Hand, Ed Flower and Joel Brown, and has participated in master classes with Manuel Barrueco, Sergio and Odair Assad and Benjamin Verdery. Isachsen is a founding member of the Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet, which has commissioned works from composer Anthony Holland. He is also a member of the Musicians of Ma’alwyck, a string trio in residence at the Schuyler Mansion, the Cohoes Music Hall, and Schenectady County Community College. Musicians of Ma’alwyck have steadily gained acclaim in the Classical world of music and the addition of classical guitar make them an unusual and in-demand string trio.
Brett Grigsby has performed as both soloist and chamber musician giving audiences heartfelt performances over the past 15 years. Notable performances include solo concerts at the 92nd St Y, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, an all Bach program at Steinway Hall, and at the esteemed concert series at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. As chamber musician, Brett has performed with both his guitar duo, A Piacere, and as a member of various guitar quartets performing at the International Festival Domaine Forget in conjunction with the National Jazz Ballet Company of Montreal. A 1992 Skidmore graduate, Grigsby received his Masters in Guitar Performance from the Mannes College of Music in New York City where he studied with Peter Segal, Pat O’Brien, Michael Newman, Ben Verdery, and Patrick Roux.
Paul Quigley has performed with the Glens Falls Symphony, the College of Saint Rose Camerata, and at the Saratoga Arts Center Theatre, Troy Music Hall,The Riverside Church Christ Chapel series, Bowdoin College Summer Chamber Music Festival, Lang Concert Hall at Hunter College, The Spanish Institute, Shakespeare & Company, and the Oberwald Concert Series in Basel, Switzerland. Additionally, Paul was a featured performer on the Queen Elizabeth II World Cruise as well as the Queen Mary II and Crystal Symphony ships. A graduate of Schenectady County Community College and the Manhattan School of Music, Paul earned the A.S., BM and MM degrees in guitar performance and recently completed coursework for the New York State Music Certification Program at the College of Saint Rose. Major Teachers include Joel Brown, Mark Delpriora, Norbert Kraft, and Tony Sano.
September 16 | Casandra Lopez, poet
Casandra Lopez is a Chicana, Cahuilla, Luiseño and Tongva writer raised in Southern California. She has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and has been selected for residencies with the Santa Fe Art Institute as well as the School of Advanced Research where she was the Indigenous writer in residence for 2013. She is the winner of the 2013 Native Writers Chapbook Award from the Sequoyah National Research Center. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in various literary journals such as Potomac Review, Hobart, Weber, CURA, McNeese Review and Unmanned Press. She is a CantoMundo Fellow and is a founding editor of As/Us: A Space For Women Of The World. Lopez's chapbook, Where Bullet Breaks was published by the Sequoyah National Research Center and her poetry collection, Brother Bullet is forthcoming from University of Arizona.
September 16 | Porochista Khakpour, novelist
Porochista Khakpour is the author of the novels Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion, and the memoir Sick. Among her many fellowships is a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her nonfiction has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate, Salon, and Bookforum, among many others. She has been guest faculty at VCFA and Stonecoast’s MFA programs, as well as Contributing Editor at Evergreen Review. Brown Album is her first collection of essays, and just out from Vintage Books. Born in Tehran and raised in the Los Angeles area, Khakpour currently lives in New York City.
September 23 | Steven Heyman, pianist
(Featuring music by Utica College Emeritus Professor Louis Angelini)
Syracuse native and pianist Steven Heyman has appeared in solo recitals, chamber music concerts, and as concerto soloist throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has appeared in London, Paris, Prague, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Oslo, Montreal, Quebec, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Washington, Salt Lake City, Juneau, Philadelphia, and New York, among others. In New York, he has appeared in Lincoln Center, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and as an invited artist for a Juilliard tribute to the late legendary artist/teacher Adele Marcus. He received his education at the Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Adele Marcus and at the Hochschule fur Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna with Hans Graf. Mr. Heyman has won prizes in over a dozen national and international competitions. As a result of winning the Juilliard School’s Concerto Competition, he appeared with the Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center.
An active performer, he can be heard on nine commercial CD recordings. Two of these received SAMMY Awards, a Central New York area music award for excellence in recorded music. The most recent SAMMY was given for Echoes, a CD of new works for viola and piano, and is a collaboration with violist Laura Klugherz. In addition, another CD (all Corigliano on the Black Box label) was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Chamber Music Performance. Very active in new music, he has been involved in dozens of premieres, including premieres throughout the U.S., and in Mexico, Europe and Asia. Several composers have written and dedicated music for Mr. Heyman. He played with the Society for New Music for over 25 years and received a special tribute from this organization in 2008. In the Central New York area, he has an active performing career including being the soloist with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (Symphoria) 28 times over a 46 year period. Upcoming concerts include the complete Beethoven Piano and Violin Sonatas for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of his birth, a recital in Steinway Hall NYC, and concerts in Mexico, California, and throughout the Northeast.
Mr. Heyman is an Associate Professor in Piano at Syracuse University where he is also the Chair of the Department of Applied Music and Performance, and has been on the faculty for 30 years. At Syracuse University, among dozens of concerts in Setnor Auditorium, he has performed multiple concertos with the SUSO, including a Beethoven Concerto under the baton of Leon Fleisher. At SU, he has received the School of Music’s Most Outstanding Faculty Member Award. In the summer of 2007, Mr. Heyman gave concerts and classes in Beijing and Shenyang China. At the conclusion of a residency at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, he was appointed a Full Visiting Professor. He currently also serves as the Artist-in-Residence at Colgate University, where he frequently performs in solo recital, chamber music, and has appeared as soloist with the Colgate Orchestra 9 times. Mr. Heyman is a Steinway artist.
September 30 | Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, poet
Ricardo Alberto Maldonado was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He is the translator ofDinapiera Di Donato’s Colaterales/Collateral (Akashic Press/National Poetry Series, 2013) and author of The Life Assignment, forthcoming from Four Way Books in 2020. He has received fellowships from CantoMundo, Queer|Arts|Mentorship and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is managing director at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center and cohosts the EMPIRE reading series with Hafizah Geter. He lives in New York City.
October 7 | Dominic Fiacco, piano | Video Rebroadcast
Dominic Fiacco, 13 year old resident of the small Adirondack foothills village of Poland, New York, began studying music at the age of 4. His curiosity about the organ began after attending an organ recital at age 8 at First Presbyterian Church in Utica, immediately after which he was invited to try the organ and then began lessons. Although he could not at the time reach the pedals, his inherent musical sensitivity and remarkable determination resulted in rarely seen progress and during the following years of lessons with First Church organist Stephen Best, Dominic progressed to the point where he is eagerly seeking the most difficult challenges, choosing pieces of significant complexity.
Dominic has a special love for French romantic music, especially the works of Louis Vierne, and he is presently deciding which symphony he wants to learn in its entirety.
He recently performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and has been invited for a return visit. This season he will play at the Cadet Chapel at West Point, location of the third largest organ in the world, as well as presenting recitals in Ilion and Saratoga Springs. He is also assistant organist at St. Joseph and St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Utica. He and his five younger siblings are home schooled.
As a pianist, Dominic studies with Hamilton College lecturer Sar-Shalom Strong. His achievements are astounding on his second instrument as well, tackling repertoire rarely explored by pianists before college: currently, his passion is for Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue! He has twice been a winner in the Central New York Music Teachers piano competitions, and this summer was invited to perform for a second time on Society for New Music’s Rising Stars programs, premiering new pieces on both piano and organ. He also has performed for A Little Summermusic, Spring Farm Cares, and given a volunteer performance at the Presbyterian Home of Central New York.
October 14 | Ida Trebicka and Tina Toglia, 4-hand piano
Ida Tili-Trebicka is a part-time assistant professor of music at the Syracuse University Setnor School of Music. Albanian-born and raised pianist Ida Tili-Trebicka has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and China as orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist. Ms. Trebicka has been featured in National Radio-Television, Italian Broadcasting Corporation RAI 2, and on local radio stations WCNY/Syracuse and WBFO/Buffalo. She has performed chamber music concerts with members of Paris, Athens, Rome, Munich, and Bari-Italy Symphonic Orchestras, as well as regular chamber music appearances with the musicians of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. She made her New York City debut in January 2001 at Merkin Hall. In summer 2002, Ms. Trebicka was invited to perform as part of the summer series concert sponsored by the Italian Federation of Women of Arts, Professions, and Affairs (FIDAPA) and the University of Ancona, Italy. Other recent performances abroad include those in Florence, Italy at the Galleria Dell’Accademia in 2006 as well as in China with SU’s Hendricks Chapel Choir. She performs regularly at the Cazenovia Counterpoint concert series as part of the Society for New Music events, as well as at Civic Morning Musicals concert series.
Ms. Trebicka is a recipient of numerous prizes, awards, scholarships, and fellowships, including Albania’s most prestigious national piano competition, SUSO Concerto Competition, and the piano prize in the Civic Morning Musicals Competition. Trebicka holds her graduate degrees in piano performance from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania, where she served as assistant professor of piano from 1985-1992, and Syracuse University, where she currently serves on the piano faculty at the Setnor School of Music. Ida currently holds the position of music director at Saint Peters Episcopal Church in Cazenovia, N.Y., and resides in Manlius, N.Y.
Pianist Tina Toglia received her Doctorate in Piano Performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied piano with Gilbert Kalish and harpsichord with Arthur Haas. Her Bachelor's and Master's degrees were earned from Temple University where she was a student of Alexander Fiorillo, a pupil of Vladimir Horowitz. She also has a diploma in collaborative piano from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a student of Dr. Vladimir Sokoloff.
As an advocate for new music Dr. Toglia has given numerous premiere performances at Merkin Hall, the 92nd St. Y, Columbia University and Princeton University. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, the Bach Aria Festival and the Tanglewood Music Festival. She was a finalist in the J. S. Bach International Piano Competition and was the winner of concerto competitions at both Temple University and Stony Brook. Dr. Toglia was harpsichordist for the Stony Brook Early Music Ensemble and the Capital Chamber Players in Albany.
The compact disc Just-Spring: Art Songs of John Duke, recorded with soprano Lauralyn Kolb, was released in January 2002 by New World Records as part of their Recorded Anthology of American Music.
Dr. Toglia has been a pre-concert lecturer for the Great Artist Series at the Stanley Theatre in Utica and has lectured for the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement. She has taught piano, music history and theory at SUNY Stony Brook, State University College at Oneonta, SUNY Institute of Technology and Utica College. She currently maintains a private studio in New Hartford, NY.
October 21 | Benjamin Garcia, poet
Benjamin Garcia’s first collection, Thrown in the Throat, was selected by Kazim Ali for the 2019 National Poetry Series (Milkweed Editions, August 2020) and makes a stunning debut with a sex-positive incantation that retextures what it is to write a queer life amidst troubled times, Garcia writes boldly of citizenship, family, and Adam Rippon’s butt. Detailing a childhood spent undocumented, one speaker recalls nights when “because we cannot sleep / we dream with open eyes.” Garcia delves with both English and Spanish into how one survives a country’s long love affair with anti-immigrant cruelty. Rendering a family working to the very end to hold each other, he writes the kind of family you both survive and survive with. He had the honor of being the 2017 Latin@ Scholar at the Frost Place, the 2018 CantoMundo Fellow at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, and winner of the 2018 Puerto Del Sol Poetry Contest. He works as a Community Health Specialist who provides HIV/HCV/STD and opioid overdose prevention education to higher risk communities throughout New York’s Finger Lakes region.
October 28 | Ida Trebicka, piano and William Knuth, violin
Ida Tili-Trebicka is a part-time assistant professor of music at the Syracuse University Setnor School of Music. Albanian-born and raised pianist Ida Tili-Trebicka has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and China as orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist. Ms. Trebicka has been featured in National Radio-Television, Italian Broadcasting Corporation RAI 2, and on local radio stations WCNY/Syracuse and WBFO/Buffalo. She has performed chamber music concerts with members of Paris, Athens, Rome, Munich, and Bari-Italy Symphonic Orchestras, as well as regular chamber music appearances with the musicians of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. She made her New York City debut in January 2001 at Merkin Hall. In summer 2002, Ms. Trebicka was invited to perform as part of the summer series concert sponsored by the Italian Federation of Women of Arts, Professions, and Affairs (FIDAPA) and the University of Ancona, Italy.
Other recent performances abroad include those in Florence, Italy at the Galleria Dell’Accademia in 2006 as well as in China with SU’s Hendricks Chapel Choir. She performs regularly at the Cazenovia Counterpoint concert series as part of the Society for New Music events, as well as at Civic Morning Musicals concert series.
Ms. Trebicka is a recipient of numerous prizes, awards, scholarships, and fellowships, including Albania’s most prestigious national piano competition, SUSO Concerto Competition, and the piano prize in the Civic Morning Musicals Competition. Trebicka holds her graduate degrees in piano performance from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania, where she served as assistant professor of piano from 1985-1992, and Syracuse University, where she currently serves on the piano faculty at the Setnor School of Music. Ida currently holds the position of music director at Saint Peters Episcopal Church in Cazenovia, N.Y., and resides in Manlius, N.Y.
William Knuth, a violinist and Fulbright Scholar who has earned recognition for his artistry as a solo and chamber musician, teaches violin and viola and gives private lessons. As a current member of Duo Sonidos with guitarist Adam Levin, Knuth has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, and South America.
Knuth and Levin released their most recent album Duo Sonidos: Wild Dance on the NAXOS label, which immediately rose to no. 3 on the Billboard classical music charts. The duo was awarded First Prize at the 2010 Luys Milan International Chamber Music Competition in Valencia, Spain, and BBC Music Magazine chose the debut album Duo Sonidos as the “BBC Top Choice US Release Album.” Knuth is also a member of the esteemed New York City-based new music group Ensemble Signal and has a private teaching studio in the New York City metro area. He served as associate concertmaster of the vibrant Boston-based chamber orchestra Discovery Ensemble and held an ongoing residency with WGBH Boston Radio’s Fraser Performing Arts Studio. While in Boston, he was also a member of the Boston Philharmonic under the leadership of Benjamin Zander.
Knuth’s recent concerts in the U.S. have included a debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall; performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Fundacao Oscar Americano Sao Paulo, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Harvard Sanders Theater, Boston WGBH radio, Chicago WFMT radio, WCNY radio, NPR radio and Mayne Stage Chicago; guest solo appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and the Boston International Guitarfest; and ensemble work with Discovery Ensemble, Signal Ensemble, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Harvard Group for New Music, IMPULS Festival Austria, June in Buffalo Festival, Big Ears Festival and the Ojai Festival. Special projects have included collaborations with Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Salvador Brotons, Eduardo Morales-Caso, Jorge Muniz, Phillip Glass, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Lukas Foss, Norah Jones, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Goldfrapp, David Byrne, Jon Brion and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Knuth holds an M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied violin with Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo Quartet and chamber music with Eliot Fisk and Paul Biss; a Fulbright certificate for work with Ernst Kovacic at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts; and a B.M. from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student of Lynn Blakeslee.
November 4 | Karlinda Caldicott, harpist | Video Rebroadcast
Karlinda Caldicott, a resident of Saratoga Springs, New York, is Principal Harpist with the Catskill and Schenectady Symphony Orchestras, and appears periodically with Symphoria, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and Orchestra Pro Musica, as well as several pickup orchestras for various events throughout the Capital Region. In the chamber music arena, she is the leader of the North Country Harp Band (a trio of lever-harp players) has a long-time flute and harp duo, Iridescence, with Jan Vinci (Senior Artist-in-Residence at Skidmore College), and is a frequent guest artist with The Musicians of Ma’alwyck. Karlinda is adjunct harp instructor at SUNY Oneonta, Hartwick College, The College of Saint Rose, and RPI, with several private students as well (of all ages and interests). In addition to her very active schedule with classical performances, she also enjoys performing at lighter functions such as weddings and other private events (thelivingharp.com). When she isn't teaching, performing, or rehearsing, Karlinda enjoys relaxing at home with her family and their two lovable and slightly insane cats.
November 25 | Utica College Concert Band | Video Rebroadcast
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. Band director Michael J. 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. 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.)
January 29 | Ed Mabrey, poet, performer
An accomplished poet, spoken word artist, writer, life coach, motivational speaker, comedian and actor, Ed Mabrey is driven by an incredible passion for creating experiences with every performance. His performances are often noted for their unique blend of passion, grace, creativity and fire. Ed has created characters that are unforgettable and experiences that prove to be life changing. Ed Mabrey is the founder of Black Pearl Productions LLC. Black Pearl Poetry, an offspring of Black Pearl Productions, LLC, one of the most successful poetry shows in the nation, has hosted and produced over 1,000 poetry events and concerts, including shows featuring The Roots, Umar Bin Hasan, The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, Ursula Rucker, and Saul Williams, to name a few.
Utilizing his diversity of artistic skills, Ed has curated for the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center, been featured in the Whitney Museum (NY, NY), was founder of the first CUPSI/ Poetry organization for Arizona State University, mentored the first ever Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam team to come out of Phoenix, Arizona and Charlotte, North Carolina.
While currently residing in Charlotte, NC, Ed is currently touring nationally performing poetry and conducting workshops as a solo artist.
February 5 | Wendy Chin-Tanner, prose
Wendy Chin-Tanner is the author of the poetry collections Turn (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards and Anyone Will Tell You (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019), and co-author of the graphic novel American Terrorist (A Wave Blue World). She is a founding editor at Kin Poetry Journal, poetry editor at The Nervous Breakdown, and co-founder at A Wave Blue World. A trained sociologist specializing in race, identity, and culture, she continues to write and educate on these topics in addition to teaching writing workshops and guest lecturing at a variety of institutions. Born and raised in NYC and educated at Cambridge University, UK, Wendy is the mother of two daughters and the proud daughter of immigrants.
February 12 | The Five Families Ensemble, featuring Monk Rowe
The Five Families Ensemble presents an alternative to the traditional chamber ensemble by combining one instrument from each of the four instrument groups (brass, strings, percussion and woodwinds) and adding a fifth family, that of the human voice. Original compositions and arrangements that draw from jazz, blues and both traditional and contemporary classical music are scored for the ensemble by Monk Rowe.
The members of The Five Families Ensemble are well known throughout Central New York as versatile performers and music educators, and include Liz Simchick (violin and vocal), Nick Fields (trumpet, baritone horn and vocal), Kristen Kopf (cello), Tom McGrath (percussion and keyboard) and Monk Rowe (woodwinds and piano).
February 26 | Society for New Music
The Society for New Music, featuring Gregory Sheppard, bass, and Sar Strong, piano, will perform "A Tribute to Paul Robeson" as part of the Jackson Lunch Hour Series.
Gregory Sheppard, bass, has been heard in principal roles with opera companies throughout the U.S., including San Francisco, NYC Opera, Dayton Opera and countless others. His appearances abroad include Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Costa Rica and London. Mr. Sheppard is the winner of many prestigious awards including a Metropolitan Opera National Council Award and Study Grant. Upcoming appearances include Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage at Colgate University & Hamilton College with the Society for New Music, Threepenny Opera with Syracuse Opera, Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors for Anastasia Concerts, Verdi Requiem with Masterworks Chorus, concerts at the Hudson Opera House, Long Lake Music Festival and recitals in Syracuse and New York City.
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 performed orchestral keyboard with virtually all the orchestras in the area 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.
March 11 | Ronald Caravan, clarinet, and Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Ronald Caravan is a musician of considerable versatility and performer of equal accomplishment on clarinet and saxophone, the single-reed woodwinds. He has also gained wide recognition as a composer and arranger for the single reeds, as a teacher, and for his professional-grade clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces that carry his name. For most of his teaching career, he served as a member of the faculty of Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music of (1980-2015) where he taught clarinet and saxophone and conducted the Syracuse University Saxophone Ensemble. He earned the degrees Master of Arts in Music Theory in 1973 and the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Music Education in 1974 at the Eastman School of Music. He also earned the Performer's Certificate on clarinet from the Eastman School (1974). In addition to many years of solo and chamber-music performances on clarinet and saxophone, regionally and beyond, Dr. Caravan has performed regularly with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (more recently named Symphoria) on both instruments.
(For Sar-Shalom Strong's bio, see above)
March 25 | Poets Phil Memmer and Suzanne Cleary
Philip Memmer is the author of five books of poems, most recently Pantheon (Lost Horse Press 2019). His previous collections include The Storehouses of the Snow (Lost Horse Press 2012) and Lucifer: A Hagiography (Lost Horse Press 2009), winner of the Idaho Prize for Poetry. His work has appeared in such journals as Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and Poetry London, in many anthologies, and in the Library of Congress’s “Poetry 180” project. He is Executive Director of the Arts Branch of the YMCA of Greater Syracuse, where he founded the Downtown Writers Center in 2001. He is also Executive Editor of Stone Canoe, and Associate Editor for Tiger Bark Press.
Suzanne Cleary's Crude Angel, her fourth full-length poetry collection, was published in November 2018 by BkMk Press (U of Missouri-Kansas City). Beauty Mark (BkMk 2013) won the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry, and also received the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize and the Patterson Award for Literary Excellence. Keeping Time (2002) and Trick Pear (2007) were published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. Poets Marilyn Nelson and Robert Cording selected her collection Blue Cloth as winner of the 2004 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival chapbook competition.
April 1 | Jonathan English, tenor, and Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
PLEASE NOTE: Due to COVID-19 response measures, this event will be rescheduled for the 2020-21 season.
Jonathan English, tenor, is a native of Syracuse, NY and obtained his M.M., B.M. in voice at the Eastman School of Music. English has performed a wide range of musical styles, from opera, symphonic, and oratorio to art song, choral, Broadway, and modern vocal chamber music. He has been a soloist with Boston’s Cantata Singers under David Hoose; the Syracuse Opera Theatre under Christopher Keene and Steven White; Oswego Opera Theatre under Juan Francisco La Manna; Rochester Philharmonic under Isaiah Jackson; and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia under Alfred Mann. English is the founder of the American Song Project, created to promote awareness through performances and recordings of the depth and beauty of contemporary and historical American art song. Newport Classic released his first solo CD Over There! Songs From America’s Wars featuring music from the Revolutionary War to World War I. English has taught voice at the Commonwealth School in Boston, Roger Williams University, and Holy Cross College and given vocal and choral master classes throughout New England. As a choral conductor he has been music director at a number of churches in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island; conducted the Oneida All-County chorus; and was vocal coach and director of the Boys Chorus for the Boston City Singers. He currently teaches applied music and performance (voice) at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music.
(For Sar-Shalom Strong's bio, see above)
April 2 | Casandra Lopez, poet
(Note: Special event time and location. See listing for details.)
Casandra Lopez is a Chicana, Cahuilla, Luiseño and Tongva writer raised in Southern California. She has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and has been selected for residencies with the Santa Fe Art Institute as well as the School of Advanced Research where she was the Indigenous writer in residence for 2013. She is the winner of the 2013 Native Writers Chapbook Award from the Sequoyah National Research Center. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in various literary journals such as Potomac Review, Hobart, Weber, CURA, McNeese Review and Unmanned Press. She is a CantoMundo Fellow and is a founding editor of As/Us: A Space For Women Of The World. Lopez's chapbook, Where Bullet Breaks was published by the Sequoyah National Research Center and her poetry collection, Brother Bullet is forthcoming from University of Arizona.
April 22 | Utica College Concert Band
PLEASE NOTE: Due to COVID-19 response measures, this event has been canceled.
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. Band director Michael J. 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. 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.)
April 29 | Utica College Concert Choir
PLEASE NOTE: Due to COVID-19 response measures, this event has been canceled.
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Upon completing graduate school, Ms. Ferrara accepted a position as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and currently serves as the college’s music faculty liaison for their College Now Program where she mentors and oversees local high school music educators. In the fall of 2018, she joined the adjunct music faculty at Utica College. At her two teaching posts, Ms. Ferrara teaches coursework in music history, piano, and voice. In addition to teaching, she is an active performer in small ensemble and solo settings. Recently, Ms. Ferrara made her operatic debut in a concert collaboration project with Bronx Opera as Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
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 Womyn’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.
September 11 | Monk Rowe Jazz Trio
Monk Rowe is a 1972 graduate of SUNY Fredonia and played in the saxophone section of the Fredonia Jazz Ensemble for four years. During those years he composed original music for the FJE and he continues to write for jazz ensembles, chamber groups and orchestras. Monk has been the Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College since its inception in 1995. In this capacity, he has conducted videotaped interviews with over 325 jazz artists across the country. With his wife Romy, he has recently authored a book entitled Jazz Tales from Jazz Legends, drawing on the resources of this oral history collection. He works in the field of aesthetic education and served as the Artistic Director of the Utica Arts in Education Institute. Monk has recorded a CD of original music entitled Jazz Life and a solo keyboard CD, At the Piano.
John Hutson was born in Indiana and attended college in Boston. College graduation was followed by five years of constant musical performance in and around the Boston area. A visit to L.A. turned into a 19-year stay during which John further honed his musical skills by graduating with honors from The Guitar Institute of Technology. Following graduation, John racked up many hours in the studio working with the likes of George Benson and Freddie Hubbard. The years in southern California ended when John relocated to the Utica area and his musical progress continued. John is a skilled recording engineer and a guitar teacher, where he engages students in the “blues you can use” approach to playing. His versatility makes him an in-demand player throughout Central New York
Percussionist Tom McGrath has performed in a variety of musical settings, from theatrical stages, intimate music clubs and state-of-the-art performance spaces. Since the summer of 2005, he has taken up residence in Central NY State where he continues a busy performance schedule, playing with some of Central NY’s finest, including Monk Rowe, John Hutson, Tom Townsley, Don Goodness and the Do Good Big Band. Tom has also released two recordings of original music: Ten Shades of Blue and Pictures at the Family House. He has performed both live and/or in the studio with numerous songwriters and instrumentalists including the folk duo Minus Ted, Walter Egan, Carmin Turco, the Queen of Soul (Aretha Franklin), and the graceful and kind, Odetta.
September 25 | Karlinda Caldicott, harp
Karlinda Caldicott is Principal Harpist with the Catskill and Schenectady Symphony Orchestras, and appears periodically with Symphoria, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and Orchestra Pro Musica, as well as several pickup orchestras for various events throughout the Capital Region. In the chamber music arena, she is the leader of the North Country Harp Band (a trio of lever-harp players) has a long-time flute and harp duo, Iridescence, with Jan Vinci (Senior Artist-in-Residence at Skidmore College), and is a periodic guest artist with The Musicians of Ma’alwyck. Karlinda is adjunct harp instructor at SUNY Oneonta, Hartwick College, The College of Saint Rose, and RPI, with several private students as well (of all ages and interests).
Upcoming special performances in October include the Macabre Music series with the Musicians of Ma’alwyck at Hyde Hall in Cooperstown on October 6, as well as First Reformed Church in Schenectady on October 26, plus the 2nd movement of the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto (Elizabeth Chinery, flute) with Schenectady Symphony at the GE Theatre at Proctor’s on October 13th.
In addition to her very active schedule with classical performances, Karlinda also enjoys performing at lighter functions such as weddings and other private events (www.thelivingharp.com). She currently owns five harps of varying sizes and types, which are used for various purposes. Karlinda is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received a Bachelor’s of Music in Harp Performance as a student of legendary teacher Alice Chalifoux. Other teachers and coaches include Marilyn Costello, Lucile Lawrence and Corkey Christman. Karlinda and her family live in Saratoga Springs, NY; their household includes her husband, herself, her son (when he isn’t away at college), her 97-year old mother, and also their two slightly-insane cats, Koko and Widgit.
October 2 | Steven Alvarez, poet
Steven Alvarez is the author of The Codex Mojaodicus, winner of the 2016 Fence Modern Poets Prize. He has also authored the novels in verse The Pocho Codex (2011) and The Xicano Genome (2013), both published by Editorial Paroxismo, and the chapbooks, Tonalamatl, El Segundo’s Dream Notes (2017, Letter [r] Press), Un/documented, Kentucky (2016, winner of the Rusty Toque Chapbook Prize), and Six Poems from the Codex Mojaodicus (2014, winner of the Seven Kitchens Press Rane Arroyo Poetry Prize). His work has appeared in the Best Experimental Writing (BAX), Berkeley Poetry Review, Fence, Huizache, The Offing, and Waxwing. Follow Steven on Instagram @stevenpaulalvarez and Twitter @chastitellez
October 9 | Danan Tsan, mezzo soprano and Sar Strong, piano
Danan Tsan is the interim director of choral activities and directs the College Choir and College Hill Singers. Her past directing jobs include the associate conductor for the Syracuse Community Choir and the music director and arranger for the Dream Freedom Revival, a political action performance troupe in Syracuse. She studied conducting under Constantina Tsolainou (SMU) and William Weinert (Eastman), after which she spent five years as an alto in the U.S. Army Field Band Soldiers’ Chorus. Tsan’s performance career spans the genres of classical music, musical theater, and rock and roll. Her original songs have been played on radio stations since the late 1990s and have also been featured in independent films in the U.S. and Japan. She has been the featured soloist for Symphoria’s Holiday Pops and the alto/mezzo soprano soloist for many oratorio, including Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and Lily Boulanger’s Psalm 80 (with the Hamilton College and Community Masterworks Chorale). She also plays the title role in Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage, an opera about the life of women’s suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage.
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 fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York.
Sar 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. In 2016, Mark Records released eight recordings Mr. Strong made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan, recordings that are available through Naxos. 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.
October 23 | Brandon Courtney, poet
Brandon Courtney was born and raised in Iowa, served four years in the United States Navy (Operation Enduring Freedom), and is a graduate of the MFA program at Hollins University. His poetry is forthcoming or appears in Best New Poets (’09), The Journal, 32 Poems, and Boston Review, among many others. His book, The Grief Muscles, is forthcoming from Sheep Meadow Press. Thrush Press will published his chapbook, Improvised Devices. He is a graduate student at the University of Chicago.
“Brandon Courtney’s poems venture into humane and terrifying intimacies: masculinity, the familial, and war. A rural boyhood, a father’s death, and a stint in the navy are chiseled into lines that shimmer with intimacy and grace. The poems ‘lean tenderly/ into darkness’ but also into a restorative wonderment — ‘a rosary of rain’ falls from the sky and ‘a soldier traces/ his skull/ with ten fingers.’ Beautifully sculpted, lit by radiant music, these poems are soulful, necessary.”
— Eduardo C. Corral, author of Slow Lightning
(Yale Series of Younger Poets, 2012)
— Eduardo C. Corral, author of Slow Lightning
(Yale Series of Younger Poets, 2012)
October 30 | Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet
The Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet presents exciting, eclectic programming spanning five centuries, including original arrangements, as well as works commissioned, and premiered by the FLGQ. The Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet is the assemblage of four accomplished guitar soloists, Joel Brown, Brett Grigsby, Sten Isachsen, and Paul Quigley whom have performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Past performances include, the Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College Guitar Festival, (World Premiere, Holland), Skidmore College, and the Sandisfield Arts Center
Joel Brown’s actively eclectic performances as a soloist and chamber musician have included appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood, the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, the Caramoor Festival, and the Killington Festival. Internationally, he has played at the Barbican in London with soprano Dawn Upshaw, in British Columbia at the Music in the Mountains Chamber Music Festival, in the Czech Republic at the Mikulov Guitar Festival as concerto soloist with the Martinu Chamber Orchestra. Notable appearances in the United States include Carnegie Hall with Dawn Upshaw, recitals on both coasts with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, and with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Brown has also performed on NBC’s Today, CNN’s Showbiz Today, on NPR, and on the BBC. He is a Senior-Artist-in-Residence in classical guitar at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York and is Chair of the Skidmore Music Department.
Sten Isachsen has appeared as concerto soloist with the University at Albany Orchestra and the Ithaca College String Quartet. Possessing a Bachelor and Master of Music in Guitar Performance from Ithaca College, he has studied guitar with Frederick Hand, Ed Flower and Joel Brown, and has participated in master classes with Manuel Barrueco, Sergio and Odair Assad and Benjamin Verdery. Isachsen is a founding member of the Finger Lakes Guitar Quartet, which has commissioned works from composer Anthony Holland. He is also a member of the Musicians of Ma’alwyck, a string trio in residence at the Schuyler Mansion, the Cohoes Music Hall, and Schenectady County Community College. Musicians of Ma’alwyck have steadily gained acclaim in the Classical world of music and the addition of classical guitar make them an unusual and in-demand string trio.
Brett Grigsby has performed as both soloist and chamber musician giving audiences heartfelt performances over the past 15 years. Notable performances include solo concerts at the 92nd St Y, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, an all Bach program at Steinway Hall, and at the esteemed concert series at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. As chamber musician, Brett has performed with both his guitar duo, A Piacere, and as a member of various guitar quartets performing at the International Festival Domaine Forget in conjunction with the National Jazz Ballet Company of Montreal. A 1992 Skidmore graduate, Grigsby received his Masters in Guitar Performance from the Mannes College of Music in New York City where he studied with Peter Segal, Pat O’Brien, Michael Newman, Ben Verdery, and Patrick Roux.
Paul Quigley has performed with the Glens Falls Symphony, the College of Saint Rose Camerata, and at the Saratoga Arts Center Theatre, Troy Music Hall,The Riverside Church Christ Chapel series, Bowdoin College Summer Chamber Music Festival, Lang Concert Hall at Hunter College, The Spanish Institute, Shakespeare & Company, and the Oberwald Concert Series in Basel, Switzerland. Additionally, Paul was a featured performer on the Queen Elizabeth II World Cruise as well as the Queen Mary II and Crystal Symphony ships. A graduate of Schenectady County Community College and the Manhattan School of Music, Paul earned the A.S., BM and MM degrees in guitar performance and recently completed coursework for the New York State Music Certification Program at the College of Saint Rose. Major Teachers include Joel Brown, Mark Delpriora, Norbert Kraft, and Tony Sano.
November 6 | Luisa Muradyan, poet
Luisa Muradyan is originally from the Ukraine and holds a Ph.D. in Poetry from the University of Houston where she was the recipient of an Inprint Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Fellowship and a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship. She is the author of American Radiance (University of Nebraska Press) and was the Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts from 2016-2018. She was also the recipient of the 2017 Prairie Schooner Book Prize and the 2016 Donald Barthelme Prize in Poetry. Additionally, Muradyan is a member of the Cheburashka Collective, a group of women and non binary writers from the former Soviet Union. Previous poems have appeared in Poetry International, the Los Angeles Review, West Branch, Blackbird, and Ninth Letter among others. You can also find her on Twitter at @LuisaMuradyan.
November 13 | Ida Tili-Trebicka, piano
Pianist Ida Tili-Trebicka has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has been featured on Italian Broadcasting Corporation RAI, Canadian National Broadcasting Radio, VOA, Voice of America, Albanian National Radio-Television Alba Live, Albanian Culture TV in Manhattan NY, NPR Radio and Television, WCNY in Syracuse, WBFO in Buffalo, WCCA TV 13 in Boston, and local station in Binghamton NY.
Ida has performed recitals in Ancona, Torino and Florence, Italy. She made her New York City debut in 2001 at the Merkin Hall and continues to play at the city regularly in venues such as the Tenri Cultural Center, the Victor Borge Hall, at the Scandinavian House and the Symphony Space. She has also performed with members of Tacas Quartet, Lark quartet, Cassat quartet, Jefferson Quartet and many more. Her solo career has taken her all over US from Massachusetts to California. Ida is also the co-founder of “Forty -Fingers” Piano Quartet, “Amida” Piano-Duo, and performs regularly with these groups in CNY area.
Ms. Trebicka is a recipient of numerous prizes, awards, scholarships, and fellowships, including Albania’s most prestigious national piano competition, SUSO Concerto Competition, and the piano prize in the Civic Morning Musicals Competition. In 2016 Ida accepted a SAMMY award on behalf of Society for New Music for the Inova label CD recording of “Music Here and Now’ where she was a performer.
She holds her graduate degrees in piano performance from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania, where she served as assistant professor of piano from 1985-1992, and Syracuse University, where she currently serves on the piano faculty at the Setnor School of Music. Ida is the Coordinator of the Keyboard Department, and serves as the Graduate Student Advisor, Advisor of the MTNA Chapter of Syracuse University and Advisor of SAI, International Music Fraternity. In 2018 she was honored with the Faculty Excellence Award by the College of the Visual Arts at Syracuse University. Presented with “Top Teacher Award” by the Steinway & Sons, this past February 2019, Ida has presented Masterclasses in Colleges in Europe, North America, and Judged International Competitions.
Ida currently holds the position of music director at Saint Peters Episcopal Church in Cazenovia, N.Y., and resides in Manlius, N.Y.
December 4 | Utica College Concert Choir
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Upon completing graduate school, Ms. Ferrara accepted a position as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and currently serves as the college’s music faculty liaison for their College Now Program where she mentors and oversees local high school music educators. In the fall of 2018, she joined the adjunct music faculty at Utica College. At her two teaching posts, Ms. Ferrara teaches coursework in music history, piano, and voice. In addition to teaching, she is an active performer in small ensemble and solo settings. Recently, Ms. Ferrara made her operatic debut in a concert collaboration project with Bronx Opera as Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
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.
December 11 | Utica College Concert Band
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.
★ 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON ★
January 23 | Jasmine Millner: Art As A Form Of Activism
Part of the commemoration of Dr. King and his legacy
Jasmine Millner, a native of Rome, NY, is a recent graduate of the University at Albany with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and Spanish. She is currently a full-time freelance Social Media & Digital Marketing Manager for both local and international businesses. When she's not working, Jasmine is teaching Zumba or Salsa dancing classes in Rome, Utica, Albany, or Syracuse. She is also a published poet, freelance model, actress, and volunteers the rest of her free time in any way she can.
January 30 | Steven Heyman, pianist
Syracuse native and pianist Steven Heyman has appeared in solo recitals, chamber music concerts, and as concerto soloist throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has appeared in London, Paris, Prague, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Oslo, Montreal, Quebec, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Washington, Salt Lake City, Juneau, Philadelphia, and New York, among others. In New York, he has appeared in Lincoln Center, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and as an invited artist for a Juilliard tribute to the late legendary artist/teacher Adele Marcus. He received his education at the Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Adele Marcus and at the Hochschule fur Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna with Hans Graf. Mr. Heyman has won prizes in over a dozen national and international competitions. As a result of winning the Juilliard School’s Concerto Competition, he appeared with the Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center.
An active performer, he can be heard on nine commercial CD recordings. Two of these received SAMMY Awards, a Central New York area music award for excellence in recorded music. The most recent SAMMY was given for Echoes, a CD of new works for viola and piano, and is a collaboration with violist Laura Klugherz. In addition, another CD (all Corigliano on the Black Box label) was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Chamber Music Performance. Very active in new music, he has been involved in dozens of premieres, including premieres throughout the U.S., and in Mexico, Europe and Asia. Several composers have written and dedicated music for Mr. Heyman. He played with the Society for New Music for over 25 years and received a special tribute from this organization in 2008. In the Central New York area, he has an active performing career including being the soloist with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (Symphoria) 28 times over a 46 year period. Upcoming concerts include the complete Beethoven Piano and Violin Sonatas for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of his birth, a recital in Steinway Hall NYC, and concerts in Mexico, California, and throughout the Northeast.
Mr. Heyman is an Associate Professor in Piano at Syracuse University where he is also the Chair of the Department of Applied Music and Performance, and has been on the faculty for 30 years. At Syracuse University, among dozens of concerts in Setnor Auditorium, he has performed multiple concertos with the SUSO, including a Beethoven Concerto under the baton of Leon Fleisher. At SU, he has received the School of Music’s Most Outstanding Faculty Member Award. In the summer of 2007, Mr. Heyman gave concerts and classes in Beijing and Shenyang China. At the conclusion of a residency at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, he was appointed a Full Visiting Professor. He currently also serves as the Artist-in-Residence at Colgate University, where he frequently performs in solo recital, chamber music, and has appeared as soloist with the Colgate Orchestra 9 times. Mr. Heyman is a Steinway artist.
February 13 | Society for New Music
Gregory Sheppard, bass, has been heard in principle roles with opera companies throughout the U.S., including San Francisco, NYC Opera, Dayton Opera and countless others. Recent appearances include Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin with Syracuse Opera, Commendatore in Don Giovanni with WNY Chamber Orchestra & a recital in St. Augustine, FL. In concert he has sung Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Metro Chamber Orchestra, Verdi's Messe di Requiem with Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and Mozart’s Requiem and Judas Maccabaeus with the New Haven Symphony. In addition, he has appeared as soloist with the Queens Symphony, Denver Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, American Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Illinois Symphony and The Little Orchestra Society. His appearances abroad include Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Costa Rica and London. Mr. Sheppard is the winner of many prestigious awards including a Metropolitan Opera National Council Award and Study Grant. Upcoming appearances include Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage at Colgate University & Hamilton College with the Society for New Music, Threepenny Opera with Syracuse Opera, Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors for Anastasia Concerts, Verdi's Requiem with Masterworks Chorus, concerts at the Hudson Opera House, Long Lake Music Festival and recitals in Syracuse and New York City.
Patricia Albright, the daughter of Julius and Keturah Albright and the oldest of five children, graduated from West Genesee High School. She enjoys writing, singing, and playing the saxophone. During high school she studied voice with Neva Pilgrim for two years. Trisha was a winner two years in a row at the CNYAMT high school vocal competition, and chosen as one of the CNYAMT scholarship winners in March of 2013. As a result, she was a Rising Star at Cazenovia Counterpoint in July 2013, was selected for All-State and for Kaleidoscope at West Genesee high school prior to graduation, one of only two singers selected. Trisha performed on the CNYAMT scholarship winners recital in June 2013, and on the CMM prize winners recital in June at the Everson Museum. She attended Ithaca College on scholarship before transferring to Syracuse University. In July 2014 she performed again during Cazenovia Counterpoint in a program featuring the music of Syracuse native George N. Gianopoulos.
Rosee Head is a 16 year old sophomore at New Hartford High School who has been playing the violin for 13 years. She first studied with Iryna Juravich and is now studying with Matteo Longhi. Violin is an integral part of Rosee’s life. She plays in the Symphoria Youth Orchestra, Hamilton College Orchestra, and New Hartford High School Orchestra during the school year. In the summers, she attends music camps - most recently the Sphinx Performance Academy and the Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra 2. She credits these experiences with increasing her awareness of different opportunities available to violinists and helping her grow as a violinist. In addition to playing the violin, Rosee enjoys singing and dancing. She is currently a member of the New Hartford Senior High School choir and is both singing and dancing in the school’s spring musical production, Cinderella. Rosee also enjoys being a member of the New Hartford track and field team.
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 fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. Sar 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. In 2016, Mark Records released eight recordings Mr. Strong made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan, which are available through Naxos. Sar is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College. He was previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
February 22 | Alena Graedon, novelist
Alena Graedon was born in Durham, North Carolina, and is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia’s MFA program. She has worked at Knopf and PEN and taught at Columbia. The Word Exchange, her first novel, was completed with the help of fellowships at several artist colonies. It has been translated into eight languages. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
February 27 | Martha Grener, flute; Greg Woods, cello; Sar Strong, piano
Martha Grener, Martha Grener is a freelance artist and music educator. As a freelance artist, she is most noted for solo recitals, chamber music, and as an extra in various upstate orchestras including Symphoria, Catskill Symphony Orchestra, and the Clinton Symphony Orchestra. Her flute/harp duo (Duo L'Adour) was nominated for a Syracuse Area Music Award (SAMMY) in both 2013 and 2014 and won a SAMMY award for her album "Dare to Dream: a series of reveries for flute & harp" in 2014. Ms. Grener has been a solo recitalist on many local concert series including Goldenberg Series, Liverpool Library, Joyful Noise, Motto Music Series at the Fayetteville library, Civic Morning Musicals, the Oaks at Menorah, Armory Square, Onondaga Community College Day of Percussion with flute & percussion. This past year, she has also performed outreach concerts for Civic Morning Musicals at the Nottingham, Upstate Hospital, and the Temple Concord. Ms. Grener was a featured soloist on the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music Series (SFCM) 2018 performing the Suite Modale by Ernest Bloch accompanied by chamber orchestra. She was also a performer on the SFCM 2016 series as principal flute in the Kuhlau flute quartet in e minor. Ms. Grener was a flutist with Dolce Flutes in Syracuse during its life of 2009-2015 (rip dolce flutes!) where performances were held at Hobart William Smith, Lemoyne College, Syracuse University, Onondaga Community College and other local venues.
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. Mr. Wood was also Principal Cellist of the Cincinnati Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, and performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He is adjunct instructor of violoncello and coaches chamber music at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. In addition to SU, he is also adjunct instructor of violoncello at Onondaga Community College, and has a private teaching studio with two former students as winners of the CMM concerto competition: Brian Gadbow and Lucas Button. Mr. Wood received his Bachelor of Music Degree in performance at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, studying with Lynn Harrell, Jack Kirstein, Zara Nelsova, and the LaSalle Quartet. 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, primarily with the Jewel Chamber Players, the Southwick Trio, the Society for New Music, the Skaneateles Festival, the Cassatt String Quartet, Civic Morning Musicals, and Syracuse Friends of Chamber 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 fine musicians who live and perform throughout upstate New York. Sar 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. In 2016, Mark Records released eight recordings Mr. Strong made with clarinetist and saxophonist Ronald Caravan, which are available through Naxos. Sar is currently Lecturer in Piano and Coordinator of Staff Pianists for Hamilton College. He was previously associated with Colgate and Syracuse Universities. He is also active as an adjudicator and vocal coach.
April 3 | Natalie Scenters-Zapico, poet
Natalie Scenters-Zapico is from the sister cities of El Paso, Texas, U.S.A. and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México. She is the author of The Verging. She earned a BA from University of Texas at El Paso and an MFA in poetry from the University of New Mexico. Cities, which won the 2016 Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Award, the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas FOCO Award, was featured as a top ten debut of 2015 by Poets and Writers, and named a Must-Read Debut by LitHub (Center For Literary Publishing, 2015). A CantoMundo fellow, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poets, The Believer, Prairie Schooner, West Branch, Tin House, Indiana Review, Best American Poetry 2015 and more. Zapico is the author of Lima :: Limón (Copper Canyon Press, forthcoming 2019). She has taught at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, Westminster College, the University of Texas at El Paso, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the PEN American/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, the Great Lakes Colleges Association Prize, the Utah Book Award, and the National Association of Chicano/a Studies Book Award. She has received a Lannan Literary Fellowship and has served as a CantoMundo Fellow. In 2018, Scenters-Zapico was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Natalie lives with her husband, border rhetorics scholar Jose Angel Maldonado, in Salt Lake City.
April 10 | Jon Chopan, fiction
Jon Chopan is a writer, teacher, and editor. He is assistant professor of creative writing at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. His first collection, Pulled from the River, was published in 2011, and his work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Hotel Amerika, Post Road, Epiphany, and The Southampton Review, among other outlets. He received his BA and MA in American History from SUNY Oswego and his MFA from The Ohio State University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Glimmer Train, Hotel Amerika, The Southampton Review, Post Road, and elsewhere. Professor Chopan has worked as an editor and reader for Sweet, Prime Number Magazine, and Epiphany. His first book, a memoir in stories, Pulled from the River was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2012. His second, a collection of linked short stories about the war in Iraq, was the winner of The 2017 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction and was published by The University of Massachusetts Press. Professor Chopan teaches courses in fiction and nonfiction as well as study abroad courses that explore travel writing, and editing and publishing through The Gower Street Press
April 17 | Utica College Concert Band
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.
April 24 | Utica College Concert Choir
Lynne Ferrara, a native of Central New York, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education (vocal concentration) from The College of Saint Rose and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from New Jersey City University. Upon completing graduate school, Ms. Ferrara accepted a position as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Herkimer College and currently serves as the college’s music faculty liaison for their College Now Program where she mentors and oversees local high school music educators. In the fall of 2018, she joined the adjunct music faculty at Utica College. At her two teaching posts, Ms. Ferrara teaches coursework in music history, piano, and voice. In addition to teaching, she is an active performer in small ensemble and solo settings. Recently, Ms. Ferrara made her operatic debut in a concert collaboration project with Bronx Opera as Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The music of Mozart has always been an interest of hers and led to the writing of her graduate thesis entitled “Mozart’s Muse: Examining the Feminine Influence in Mozart’s Life and Music.” Ms. Ferrara is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
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 Womyn’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.
April 24 | Cassandra Lopez, poet
Casandra Lopez is a Chicana, Cahuilla, Luiseño and Tongva writer raised in Southern California. She has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and has been selected for residencies with the Santa Fe Art Institute as well as the School of Advanced Research where she was the Indigenous writer in residence for 2013. She is the winner of the 2013 Native Writers Chapbook Award from the Sequoyah National Research Center. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in various literary journals such as Potomac Review, Hobart, Weber, CURA, McNeese Review and Unmanned Press. She is a CantoMundo Fellow and is a founding editor of As/Us: A Space For Women Of The World.
★ 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON ★
August 29 | Monk Rowe Trio
Monk Rowe is a 1972 graduate of SUNY Fredonia and played in the saxophone section of the Fredonia Jazz Ensemble for four years. During those years he composed original music for the FJE and he continues to write for jazz ensembles, chamber groups and orchestras. Monk has been the Joe Williams Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College since its inception in 1995. In this capacity, he has conducted videotaped interviews with over 325 jazz artists across the country. With his wife Romy, he has recently authored a book entitled Jazz Tales from Jazz Legends, drawing on the resources of this oral history collection. He works in the field of aesthetic education and served as the Artistic Director of the Utica Arts in Education Institute. Monk has recorded a CD of original music entitled Jazz Life and a solo keyboard CD, At the Piano.
John Hutson was born in Indiana and attended college in Boston. College graduation was followed by five years of constant musical performance in and around the Boston area. A visit to L.A. turned into a 19-year stay during which John further honed his musical skills by graduating with honors from The Guitar Institute of Technology. Following graduation, John racked up many hours in the studio working with the likes of George Benson and Freddie Hubbard. The years in southern California ended when John relocated to the Utica area and his musical progress continued. John is a skilled recording engineer and a guitar teacher, where he engages students in the “blues you can use” approach to playing. His versatility makes him an in-demand player throughout Central New York
Percussionist Tom McGrath has performed in a variety of musical settings, from theatrical stages, intimate music clubs and state-of-the-art performance spaces. Since the summer of 2005, he has taken up residence in Central NY State where he continues a busy performance schedule, playing with some of Central NY’s finest, including Monk Rowe, John Hutson, Tom Townsley, Don Goodness and the Do Good Big Band. Tom has also released two recordings of original music: Ten Shades of Blue and Pictures at the Family House. He has performed both live and/or in the studio with numerous songwriters and instrumentalists including the folk duo Minus Ted, Walter Egan, Carmin Turco, the Queen of Soul (Aretha Franklin), and the graceful and kind, Odetta.
September 12 | Dominic Fiacco, organist, pianist
Dominic Fiacco, 13 year old resident of the small Adirondack foothills village of Poland, New York, began studying music at the age of 4. His curiosity about the organ began after attending an organ recital at age 8 at First Presbyterian Church in Utica, immediately after which he was invited to try the organ and then began lessons. Although he could not at the time reach the pedals, his inherent musical sensitivity and remarkable determination resulted in rarely seen progress and during the following years of lessons with First Church organist Stephen Best, Dominic progressed to the point where he is eagerly seeking the most difficult challenges, choosing pieces of significant complexity.
Dominic has a special love for French romantic music, especially the works of Louis Vierne, and he is presently deciding which symphony he wants to learn in its entirety.
He recently performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and has been invited for a return visit. This season he will play at the Cadet Chapel at West Point, location of the third largest organ in the world, as well as presenting recitals in Ilion and Saratoga Springs. He is also assistant organist at St. Joseph and St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Utica. He and his five younger siblings are home schooled.
As a pianist, Dominic studies with Hamilton College lecturer Sar-Shalom Strong. His achievements are astounding on his second instrument as well, tackling repertoire rarely explored by pianists before college: currently, his passion is for Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue! He has twice been a winner in the Central New York Music Teachers piano competitions, and this summer was invited to perform for a second time on Society for New Music’s Rising Stars programs, premiering new pieces on both piano and organ. He also has performed for A Little Summermusic, Spring Farm Cares, and given a volunteer performance at the Presbyterian Home of Central New York.
September 26 | Reeds and Keys
Judy Marchione, bassoon, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of George Goslee and Ronald Phillips and a Master of Music Performance degree from the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman she was a student of K. David van Hoesen and Philip Kolker. She also served as K. David van Hoesn’s teaching assistant which included teaching through the Continuing Education Division as well as conducting wood-wind technique classes for University of Rochester Music Education Majors. Currently Ms. Marchione performs with the Utica Symphony, Catskill Symphony, and Binghamton Philharmonic. She has performed over the years with such orchestras as the Buffalo Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony, Ohio Ballet, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony, and the Evansville Philharmonic.
Colleen O’Neil has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Performance from Ithaca College, and a Master of Music in Music Education from Syracuse University. A native of Rome NY, she has taught instrumental and general music in public and parochial schools in the Mohawk Valley area for eighteen years and has played previously as a sub/extra with the Utica and Catskill Symphony Orchestras. She is co-founder of the Rome Concert Band, Jewel Winds Quintet and Alliance Classical Players.
Jo Ann Krant Geller, a native of Chester, Pennsylvania, while in high school studied piano with Jon Carlin at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. She then attended the University of Pennsylvania graduating with a degree in Musicology. As a student at Penn, she studied piano under Vladimir Socoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music, and accompanied the choir under the direction of William Smith, assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Jo Ann continued her piano studies in Munich, Germany under Leonard Shure. Returning to the United States, she became a member of the performance faculty at the Wilmington School of Music, Wilmington, Delaware. Later, she worked for a time as an assistant editor at the Theodore Presser Music Publishing Company in Philadelphia. Formerly an adjunct professor at MVCC, Jo Ann has an extensive piano studio in Rome, and has appeared in numerous performances throughout New York State as soloist, accompanist, and in chamber ensembles.
October 3 | Christine Kitano, poet
Christine Kitano is the author of the poetry collections Sky Country and Birds of Paradise. She is an assistant professor at Ithaca College where she teaches creative writing, poetry, and Asian American literature. Recent work appears in The Portland Review, A Women's Thing, and Wildness. She received her Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from Texas Tech University (2015); her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University (2010); her B.A. in Creative Writing from University of California, Riverside (2007).
From an interview on Writers Recommend: “When I’m managing to write regularly, I always have a collection of poems in translation on my desk. I’ll usually begin a writing session by reading a few poems from the collection and copying out the lines that speak to me. Then, I’ll re-organize those lines into a new poem, editing the lines or improvising my own language. During this process, I usually stumble upon a new phrase or image, which I’ll then use as the starter for a new draft. I often sense distance in a translated poem, and it is precisely this distance that frees me to experiment with the language.”
October 17 | Sar Strong, piano and Shem Guibbory, violin
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.
Shem Guibbory started to play as a substitute in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at the age of 21, sitting on the last stand of the 1st violin section for a performance of Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten with Karl Böhm conducting. Since then, he has been privileged to be a part of hundreds of amazing performances. Throughout his career, Mr. Guibbory has explored ways in which music combines with other disciplines. This exploration is influenced by opera, no doubt, as well as by his early training at CalArts where the intrinsic unity between all the arts is viewed as a fundamental. With Director Margaret Booker and playwright Robert Schenkkan he has created a new music/theater work A Night at the Alhambra Café (2010) and is currently developing another work entitled Accidental Heroes. Mr. Guibbory’s personal recording credits include solo and chamber music on ECM, Gramavision, Opus 1, DG, Albany, Bridge, MSR Classics and CRI. He has performed as a soloist with a number of fine orchestras including the New York Philharmonic. For over three decades he has served as a faculty member of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, serving as their Music Director for nine consecutive seasons.
November 7 | “Doctuh” Woods Jazz Ensemble
"Doctuh" Michael Woods is a bassist, educator, composer, lecturer and clinician. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious grants and awards for performance, education, composition, scholarship and leadership. Doc has written more than 700 compositions in styles including choral, orchestral and chamber, jazz combo and big-band. His works have been performed by the Albany Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Ensemble, Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, Midland Symphony Orchestra, Utica Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra, Little Rock Symphony, Anderson Symphony, North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Lafayette Symphony, Central New York Jazz Orchestra, Tulsa Philharmonic, Pro Musica Orchestra, Salt City Jazz Collective and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. "Doc" Woods is the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Music at Hamilton College. Woods has taught at the university level since 1980, and joined Hamilton College in 1993. He is the musical director and bassist for the Zoe' Jazz Band and the Omniverse Jazz Ensemble.
The six piece Jazz Ensemble will be playing mostly original compositions that are catchy and clever but not distant or aloof with plenty of high energy solo improvisations: Jeff Stockham on trumpet, Bob Cesari on saxes, Joe Handy on guitar, Tom Witkowski on piano, Rick Compton on drums, and “Doctuh” Michael Woods writes the charts and plays bass. The selections will make up a suite of about eight movements as a “blend of fun meets social statement.”
November 14 | Shira Dentz, poet
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and before earning her Ph.D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Utah, Shira Dentz worked as a graphic artist, typesetter, and Assistant Art Director in NYC, mainly in the music industry. She was Drunken Boat‘s Reviews Editor and curated DB blog’s feature, “What I’m Reading Now…” from 2011-2016, and now curates this feature Tarpaulin Sky where she is currently Special Features Editor. Shira Dentz is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently how do i net thee (Salmon Poetry) and the sun a blazing zero (forthcoming, Lavender Ink/Diálogos). She is also the author of the full-length collections door of thin skins (CavanKerry, 2013) and black seeds on a white dish (Shearsman, 2010), and the chapbooks FLOUNDERS (Essay Press, 2016) and Leaf Weather (Shearsman, 2012). She teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and lives in New York.
November 28 | Utica College Concert Choir
Debora Holling, Adjunct Lecturer of Music, begins as the Utica College Concert choir director this semester, Debora is a veteran teacher of 38 years, having graduated from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY with concentrations in music education, choir directing and musical theater. She began her career at the Schenectady Light Opera Company in Schenectady, NY. Since then she has directed, music directed, stage managed, as well as worked as a light/sound board technician at a variety of Upstate New York theaters. Debora spent four years at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in directorial and technical positions and most recently works with Rome Community Theater and Utica College's musical production of Jekyll and Hyde last spring. The bulk of her teaching experience has been spent in directing school choirs. She served a two year period as the Director of the Adirondack Children's Chorus in Saranac Lake, NY.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.
November 29 | Levis Keltner, novelist
Levis Keltner is an author, editor, educator, and musician from Chicago living in Austin, Texas. He is the editor-in-chief at Newfound, an online publication devoted to literary, visual, and artistic perspectives and interpretations of the physical world. Using fiction, essays, poetry, and visual art Newfound explores how place shapes identity, imagination, and understanding. Mr. Keltner teaches writing at Texas State University.
December 5 | Utica College Concert Band
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.
2017-18 Season
Fall 2017
Monk Rowe Trio
CNY Watercolor Society - Gallery Talk
Janet McNally, young adult fiction
Karlinda Kaldicott, harp
Sassafras Lowrey, fiction
Finger Lake Guitar Quartet
Donika Kelly, poetry
Sar Strong, piano and Shem Guibbory, violin
Eduardo C. Corral, poet
Society for New Music
Utica College Concert Choir
Utica College Concert Band
Spring 2018
Alden "Max" Smith, speaker
Sungmin Kim, pianist and Edgar Tumajyan, violin
Rick Compton and Friends Smooth Jazz Trio
Chosen Generation Gospel Choir
Rob Mango, artist
Bronwen Dickey, nonfiction
Chen Chen, poet
Sarah Rose Nordgren, poet
Jewel Trio
Utica College Concert Choir
Lucia Cherciu, poet, winner 2017 Nassar Poetry Prize
Utica College Concert Band
2016-17 Season
Fall 2016
Carmen Caramanica Jazz Trio
Jewel Trio
Dasan Ahanu, poet
Karin Lin-Greenberg, author
Elizabeth Carville Evans, flute and Valeri Ludlum Wright, piano
Jake Wolff, writer
B Sharp Musical Club
Paul Lisicky, writer, memoirist
Utica College Concert Choir
Utica College Concert Band
Spring 2017
Tuskegee Airman Herbert Thorpe
Susan Fox Rogers, nonfiction/memoirist
Hamilton College Saxophone Ensemble
Society for New Music
Sarah Yaw, fiction/novelist
Julie Shigekuni, fiction
Danan Tsan, mezzo-soprano and Sar Strong, piano
Junior B Sharp Musical Club
Adam LeFevre, poet, winner 2016 Nassar Poetry Prize
Utica College Concert Band
Benjamin Garcia, poet
Utica College Concert Choir
Contact Us
Jackson Lunch Hour Series
Jackson Lunch Hour Series
School of Arts and Sciences
(315) 792-3391
Series Sponsors
The Professor Harry F. and Mary Ruth Jackson Lunch Hour Series is sponsored by the Utica University Social Cultural Committee and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
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