DCC Concerts Feature Voice and Instruments, Jazz and Classical, Wolves and Whales

Release Date April 25, 2007

Poughkeepsie, N.Y. – Dutchess Community College students will perform a broad spectrum of music over the next two weeks in end-of-semester concerts that include works for voice and instruments, classical music and jazz selections, and even some harmonizing with the recorded melodies of wolves and whales. All programs are free and will be held in the James and Betty Hall Theatre, Dutchess Hall, at the main campus in Poughkeepsie. For information on the concerts and the DCC music program, contact Dr. Laura Ramsey Russell at (845) 431-8625 or email lrussell@sunydutchess.edu.

The College’s Spring Instrumental Concert will be held Tuesday, May 1, at 7:00 p.m. and features the Guitar Consort under the direction of Jeff Armstrong and the Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Lou Pappas. The Guitar Consort will play Pachelbel’s “Canon” and other Baroque favorites as well as blues, jazz and rock classics. Jazz Ensemble selections will include Cole Porter’s   “I Love You” featuring tenor sax player George Trejo and guitarist Benjamin Fink; “Wake Up,” which was composed and arranged for the DCC Jazz Ensemble by retired dean Matt Finley; Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce,” which was transcribed and arranged by trombonist Don Chisamore; and “Make Me a Memory” composed by Grover Washington, Jr. and featuring alto sax player Scott Farmer. Soloists Farmer and Fink have recently been accepted to the Berklee College of Music, the world's largest independent music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music.

The DCC choral ensembles under the direction of Dr. Laura Ramsey Russell will perform on Thursday, May 3 at 12:30 p.m. The Madrigal Singers will sing spring madrigals and songs by Samuel Barber. The DCC Chorus will perform several African American spirituals, and also perform Paul Winter’s Earth Mass/Missa Gaia, a work that interweaves the voices of wolves, whales, harp seals, and other animals with the chorus and a with a jazz chamber orchestra that includes soprano saxophonist Lois Hicks-Wozniak, guitarist Jeff Armstrong, oboe/English horn player Ann Churukian, double bassist Lou Pappas, pianist Jimrae Lenser, and percussionists Charles Barbour and William Ruyle. DCC Technical Director Jeff Baker provides audio engineering.

Russell also conducts the Mid-Hudson Community Orchestra on Friday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. The orchestra, a collaborative college-community ensemble, will present a varied program including Beethoven’s “Egmont Overture,” “Jupiter” from The Planets by Gustav Holst, “Finale” from Stravinsky’s Firebird,  and selections from Phantom of the Opera and Sound of Music.

About the conductors:

Jeff Armstrong is an adjunct lecturer at Dutchess Community College and director of DCC’s Guitar Consort, an associate professor of guitar at Marist College, and a professional guitar, bass, piano, and composition instructor. Known throughout the community as a classical, flamenco, and previously as a heavy metal guitarist, he was named Best Local Musician of 2006 by Hudson Valley Magazine. Armstrong has studied composition with Meyer Kupfermann, Joan Tower, and Richard Teitelbaum. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in music theory and composition from Bard College, a Bachelor of Science in music theory and composition from SUNY New Paltz – where he also holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration and Marketing – and an Associate in Science in business administration from Dutchess Community College.

Lou Pappas earned his Master’s degree in double bass performance from Colorado State University and began his career with the Colorado Springs Symphony. He performed with the Oklahoma City Symphony before moving to New York to become bassist with the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, N.Y. As a member of West Point’s Jazz Knights, he performed at jazz festivals throughout the United States. He also performed regularly with the West Point Chamber Winds. He retired from the Army in 2006. Pappas conducts workshops and master classes, and has performed with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, the Chappaqua Chamber Orchestra and the Newburgh Symphony Orchestra. In addition to directing the Jazz Ensemble at DCC, he is instructor of double bass at Vassar College.

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