Beacon, New York

Beacons of Music

2012

Once in a while we get the opportunity to celebrate, not only a great city we call home, but a group of amazing artists that confirm why Beacon, New York is a wonderful place to live, work and, play.

From its reception the BMW of The Hudson Valley’s Beacons of Music public art project brought together, not only a great project team, but a group of world class professional musicians that help put Beacon on the map.

Foreword

Spanning a wide breadth of musical genres, the images contained in this book represent a diverse group of creative musicians and performers highlighting again why Beacon is the coolest place to be.I couldn’t be more pleased with the final product in terms of quality and creative expression and I’m honored to have been able to play a role in making this exciting public arts project a reality and documenting its legacy.

Robert Rutigliano

PresidentThe Rutigliano Group

Joseph Bertolozzi, project originator and manager

ProjectTeam

Rob Penner, Photographer

Robert Rutigliano, fundraising, strategic planning, technical support

The Rutigliano Group, development partnerCabot Parsons, strategic planning and partnership development, marketing and communication design

Vanessa Rutigliano, Beacons of Music book design and production

Special thanks to, Bob McAlpine, Ed Vermehren, and Monster Visuals.

The Roundhouse at Beacon FallsPoughkeepsie JournalBeacon Arts CommunityLa Bella RosaMax’s on MainRoyal Carting Service CompanyElla’s BellasThe CostellosAntalek & MooreBack Room GalleryMcMillen BrothersManor House RealtyDr. Jane McElduffPleasant Ridge Italian ResturantFerreira’s AutomotiveGiannetta Salon & SpaPalisi Auto Body

Sponsors

of theHudson Valley

DavidGluck

No one swings like the man behind the drums, which is why former Yankee slugger Bernie Williams, another person known for his swing, co-authored Rhythms of the Game with David. As a Zildjian, Innovative Percussion and Yamaha performing artist, he’s been known to swing through Asia and back through the Americas, with stops at Weill Recital Hall, NPR, Jazz Player Magazine, Downbeat, and the New York Times.

Professor of Studio Composition at SUNY, Purchase

maderavox.org/david-gluck

Beacon’s up-and-coming musicians on the sceneL-R: Mark Pisanelli, Mimi Sun Longo, Brian Bernard Murnane, Benjamin Lawrence Fiege

YoungGunsThese young guns represent but a part of the vibrant new music scene shooting up in Beacon’s coffee houses and clubs. Drummer Mark marks time in the studio as well as in live gigs. Folksy, fun Mimi can usually be heard rockin’ her 3rd floor apartment on Main Street, while entrepreneur, and mixed media-experimental stadium-prog rock artist Brian pumps the beat when not pumping coffee in his shop; Ben’s a plucker, singer, songwriter & model.

Beacon’s

sonicbids.com/markpisanelli

Bosco

bandleader, keyboards, vocalist

Need a defibrillator? Bosco and the Storm pounds the beat back into your heart with old school funk, disco, rock & roll and the hot, young hip hop and R&B music of today. The Hudson Valley’s top dance party band throws down music everyone wants to party to.

and theStorm

boscoandthestormm.com

TheCostellos

roots rock & maverick pop

Do these guys look familiar? You’ve seen ‘em in town and on CNBC, Woodstock ’94 and opening for the likes of Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, The Crash Test Dummies and NRBQ. With major rotation on Triple A radio including WDST- Woodstock, NY, WKZE- Sharon, CT and WVKR, Vassar College, The Costellos uniquely blend roots rock with maverick pop and twang, fronted by an emotional female vocal.

facebook.com/pages/The-Costellos-Maverick-Pop-Music/164888363528673

KellyEllenwood

soprano, actor, co-founder of Solaris Voices

Slow down Kelly! First you’re singing on Broadway, then acting in Chicago and winning awards and then doing all those things here in Beacon while organizing community projects! Please give us a chance to catch up, we’re only human!

maderavox.org/kelly-ellenwood

ThomJoyce

acoustic vagabond

As a solo performer and multi-instrumentalist exploring acoustic panoramas and improvisation, Thom graces myriad local venues and festivals. His involvement in hosting two regular open-mics in Beacon provides invaluable support to area musicians looking for an informal forum to present their material to the public. It also conveys Thom’s love of life and the art of creating music.

bassist, songwriter, tradesman

KenFox

Testifying to Super Rock as bassist with The Fleshtones, anointing crowds small and large, Ken anchors the band’s revered sound with aplomb and spirit. Once spotted onstage lifting his hands from his bass and mouthing the words I don’t know what I’m doing, he’s nonetheless found the chops to write plenty of songs in his career, including “Better Days,” “Dreaming About Work,” “I Want The Answers,” and “New York City.”

fleshtones.org

RachelEvans

violinist, violist, teacher, sound & movement artist

SERIOUS CREDS:SequentiaApollo’s FireThe New York CollegiumSanta Fe Opera

FUN CREDSViolin and Fun campHimalayan Helpers Violin Society of Beacon“Lady Shaped Like a Vase” video operaHowland Wolves

SERIOUS FUN = RACHEL EVANS

percussionist, vocalist, poet

RafaelFigueroa

Exploration, improvisation, contemplation,rhythm, roots, soul,space, poetry, resonance, singularity, integrity, consonance,

the intersection of music and passion…

one world

one love

peace

ScottBeall

guitarist, composer, educator

You see him walking in town with his little girl, and don’t suspect that he shared a stage with Huey Lewis, Billy Idol, Johnny Winter and others. Nor that he was the leader of Chain of Fools a premier San Francisco show band for 20 years. Nor that, as an educator, he instructs his published curriculum fusing math and music, even teaching it in Kazakhstan, where he learned to play the dombra. What a lucky little girl to have such a daddy.

scottbeall.com

Tony DeMarco drummer (center), with (L-R) Russ Saint George and Billy Tresnan

TonyDeMarco

Long on the scene beating the skins, Tony is a familiar face to every bar and club in town (musically speaking…what did you think we meant?). He’s shown here with his two best friends and the guys he enjoys playing with the most, Russ Saint George of Russ Saint George & Friends and Billy Tresnan of Dead Men Walking. His goal is to be sitting behind the drums at Joe’s Irish Pub in Beacon playing with all his friends when he turns 70.

BenNeill

composer, performer, inventor of the mutantrumpet

Whether spinning mixes or blowing his hybrid electro-acoustic invention from outer space the mutantrumpet, Ben draws audiences to Beacon’s happenings with the same verve he brings to his gigs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, Spoleto Festival Italy, Umbria Jazz Italy, Bang On A Can, ICA London, Istanbul Jazz Festival and the Edinburgh Festival to name just a few.

benneill.com/

TonyDePaolo

jazz/rock fusionist

Floating in the ether or rocking out, Tony is a guitarist’s guitarist. Influenced by Jimi, Django, and Jeff, this Beacon boy started out crushing school dances, worked his way up the ladder guest soloing at Eisenhower Hall with the musicians of West Point, opened for Stanley Jordan and Spyrogyra and now stars on lead guitar on Spirit Cruises’s Bateaux in NY Harbor, cruising Manhattan Island.

DePaolo

T

hip-hop artist

Elevate and motivate! Collapse the obstacles in your path! Fight for what you believe in! The Coolest Dude Under the Moon emerges to spit rhymes on the vistas of the Hudson Valley and the upstate NY college scene.

Music and video are the tools of this self-made prophet.

Awaken!

tswiffa.tumblr.com/

Swiffa

children’s performer, music teacher

MissVickie

A mother’s love started a child on the road to a musical calling. Now grown up and looking upon the children in her own studio, she gives back the love her mother gave to her.

youtube.com/user/missvickiemusic1

Educational

L-R: Stephen Pietrowski, Junus Sela, Adele Antalek.

Attention class: Music starts with its teachers, whether it’s self taught or conservatory trained. Beacon’s music educators bring experience from many facets of the biz. Mr. Pietrowski, Beacon HS’s band director informs his work with stints on Broadway, road tours and as a craftsman for Lang Percussion. Mentoring young’uns like Junus and Adele, both high scoring NYSSMA competitors, it’s no wonder we have students like this. Class dismissed.

Music

IrinaMozyleva

soprano, teacher, co-founder of Solaris Voices

All aboard! This is the train from Belarus to Beacon with stops at the Moscow Conservatory, Juilliard, the Curtis Institute and Tanglewood. If your passion is for recitals of Russian bel canto repertoire, don’t forget to visit Irina Mozyleva at Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Beacon’s own Howland Cultural Center.

BillyWassweiler

drummer

Hold on to your hat as Billy powers his way through your eardrums. With influences ranging from death metal to Simon & Garfunkel, this sensitive juggernaut mercilessly, and with overwhelming force, drives his band In Darkest Days to thermodynamic frenzy. Their amps go to 12 and Billy takes them to 13.

JosephBertolozzi

composer, organist, percussionist

Think you know what new music is like? Think again. Gongs, orchestras, and even suspension bridges have been canvasses for Bertolozzi’s work. He’s visited his music upon concert halls and the Billboard charts, conservatories and the US Tennis Open. Even the Vatican rang to his tones. Next up? Ever wonder what the Eiffel Tower sounds like? You won’t have long to wait…

JosephBertolozzi.com

StephenClair

songwriter, guitarist, entrepreneur

Songwriter, performer, concert presenter, music school headmaster, community organizer…..is there no realm upon which Clair hath not wrought his influence? They say “it takes a Texan to wake up a Beacon.” Well, no one really says that, but that’s what happened. The force of Hurricane Clair swept Beaconites from their homes into the parks and streets for live music, lessons and civic pride.

stephenclair.com

JeffHaynes

percussionist, performer, educator

This Grammy® winning, first-call recording artist and performer grooves on over 100 albums. Harry Belafonte, Cassandra Wilson, and Pat Metheny are among the headliners who can’t do without him. When not on the road or in the studio, he brings his program D.R.U.M. (Discipline, Respect, Unity & Music) to communities. He’s now producing a spoken-word autobiography of and by Pete Seeger, with background music to Pete’s narration.

jeffhaynesmusic.com

TalkingMachine

acoustic power-duo

Brought into existence upon a landscape where no acoustic duo has gone before, Dianne Holzhammer and Chris Holub approach their instruments and arrangements as if part of a fully loaded, fully-manned rock group. The combined forces of these two veteran musicians with separate but equal talents generate a robust, modern take on the songs you thought you knew.

talkingmachine.imperfekt.com/home.html

world-pop-fusionL-R: Judith Tulloch, Stephen Franchino

TheJudith

BandShe looks at him and strums jazzy/classical/rock licks between his breaths. He looks at her and breathes jazzy/progressive/world lines between her strums. Commingling energies purr and roar… vibrations engaged, the world hears. The world feels. The world listens.

judithtulloch.com/

Tulloch

SacredMusic

L-R: Cantor Ellen Gersh, Beacon Hebrew Alliance; Jack Maldonado, Tabernacle of Christ Music Ministry; Amy Kulaga Sturomski, Saint Joachim-Saint John the Evangelist R.C. Church; Lisa Smith, Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Blessings rain down like the sweet balm of heaven as Jack, strumming, leads the Lord’s praises for his church. Ellen lifts the hearts of the faithful at a shul founded by her grandparents while Amy tears up Verplanck Avenue racing between six alternating Masses on either end of town. Lisa sends her community’s prayers skyward, filled with the spirit of the Lord. These leaders guide Beacon in its musical expression of faith.

MargaretMcDuffie

jazz vocalist

As the leaves melt from color to color on an autumnal Mt. Beacon, so do those hues describe M’s voice.

As the leaves float to earth in inevitable rhythmic descent, so does M’s delivery arc in expressive spirals toward an unpredictable yet certain repose.

As the leaves on the ground betray their past from once upon the branches above, so do the songs of days gone by rest in our psyche till M points to their former, and still current beauty.

margaretmcduffie.com

SumiTonooka

pianist, composer

Where do the New York Times, Oxford University Press and the Village Voice Jazz Critics converge?

On Sumi, whose fresh & fascinating take on standard and original tunes have garnered the attention and accolades of an international audience. Several highly regarded recordings and film scores attest to her talent and presence on the scene.

Where do the lucky listeners of Beacon and the jazz world converge? On Sumi.

sumitonooka.com/

GwenDamon

bassist/composer & violinist/composer/educator

Born & raised to bring the fire, Gwen Laster & Damon Banks pulsate our planet performing with Alicia Keys, Rhianna, Aretha Franklin, George Benson and The Neville Bros. to name only a few. Damon’s work for TV and the big screen compliments Gwen’s original symphonic and operatic works. From Damon’s original music on a Grammy® nominated album to Gwen’s innovative and recognized Creative Strings Workshop, there’s no place you can’t find them.

gwenlaster.com

allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=17892

&

JerryAntalek

guitarist, songwriter, recording artist

Known as “The Human Jukebox” for his ability to remember and play almost any song he’s ever heard, this hometown boy is at home swinging through rock, country, blues, pop and more. Not always a strummer, he touched his lips to a trumpet in 1st Grade and blew throughout High School. Picking up guitar at age 13, he never looked back and now blows audiences away with his cover band Chowderhead and acoustic act Crash & Byrne.

chowderhead.org

Hopesfor theFuture

Beacon Music Factory students, L-R: Esther Clair, Henry Quinn, Lila Quinn, Olivia Lapaz

Youth holds promise and excitement. We look forward to these young musicians enriching our lives, buoying our own aspirations and ambitions…making us think; and smile; and love.

This book is a celebration of the composers,singers, instrumentalists, teachers andother music makers who make Beacon,New York, sing.In the summer of 2012, 18 of these imageswere mounted on the side of an old factorybuilding being renovated into TheRoundhouse at Beacon Falls, a hotel,event and residential complex, for asummer of concerts and other eventsspotlighting local artists who keep Beacona noted destination for artists andinternational visitors. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit all of the wonderful music makers of Beacon on the wall or in this book. There are far too many talented people for one project to contain. We’re just that blessed here in Beacon. The project wasproduced by The Rutigliano Group.