Music of Leonardo Ciampa
A Concert in Memory of Dr. Sherrill A. "Ted" Conna
Presented by Mechanics Hall
Friday, June 16, 2023
7:30pm
FREE ADMISSION
FEATURING: Leonardo Ciampa, organ & piano
ASSISTING ARTISTS:
Letitia Stevens, soprano
Dianne Spoto, flute
Nino Ciampa, percussion
and The Henry Purcell Society of Boston (Jessica Cooper, director)
Registrants will have the option to make a tax-deductible donation at the time of reservation, which will support Mechanics Hall concert programming, and preservation and maintenance of
our historic building as well as the world-renowned
Worcester Organ (E. & G. G. Hook, Op 334).
ABOUT MR. CIAMPA
Born in Boston in 1971, composer/organist/pianist Leonardo Ciampa is a musician of international repute. Ciampa is Mechanics Hall Composer-in-Residence 2021-2023, Director of Music at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Worcester, MA (since 2019) and Maestro di Cappella Onorario of the Basilica in Gubbio, Italy (since 2015). He was artistic director of organ concerts at MIT (2009-2016) and founding director of Arts MetroWest (2012-2019). As an organ recitalist, Ciampa has made over a dozen European tours encompassing Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. He is particularly admired in Italy, where he has played in numerous international festivals (Festival Perosiano, Festival Biellese, Organi Storici della Valsesia, Le Voci della Città, Festival Organistico Lauretano, Organi Vespera, Reate Festival, etc.). He has given organ recitals at cathedrals in Vienna, New York City, Boston, Lucca, Altenberg, Brandenburg, Tortona and Biella; at basilicas in Rome, Turin, Loreto, Tortona, Gubbio, Absam, and Rieti; and at abbeys in Dürnstein and Camaiore.
ABOUT DR. CONNA
Dr. Sherrill A. "Ted" Conna (1931-2016) was a child psychiatrist, a teacher, a social activist, a passionate music lover and a talented amateur pianist. For more than 40 years he had a highly respected career as a psychiatrist and professor in the Worcester region and beyond. The son and grandson of professional musicians, Dr. Conna had an insatiable love of music, which he shared with his wife Mary Lou and his four children, Ted, David, Edward, and Sherilyn. His family is pleased to sponsor this concert in his honor.
LETITIA STEVENS, soprano
British soprano Letitia Stevens has been praised for her expressive performances, warm, rich tone and comic timing. Ms. Stevens recently returned to singing soprano, after many years singing mezzo-soprano: her first soprano role was Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte with Connecticut Lyric Opera, November 2017, a role she recently reprised with Opera51, "a wonderful Queen of the Night!... high Fs are amazing!" In October 2021 she premiered a set of songs, Les quatre éléments written for her by composer Leonardo Ciampa; at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts. Upcoming performances include a debut with Boston Bel Canto Opera, singing excerpts of Il Trovatore, Nella in Gianni Schicchi with Greater Worcester Opera, and recitals in Boston, at the Shaftesbury Fringe (Dorset, UK) and in France. Her first post-COVID production was with Cambridge Chamber Ensemble, covering Isabells in Wagner's Forbidden Love. Immediately pre-COVID she was fortunate to sing Madame Herz/Goldentrill in Der Schauspieldirektor with Rhode Island Opera on Tap, as well as excerpts of Queen of the Night and Countess. In July 2019 she gave return recitals at Rozet and Marthon in south-west France, about which Charente Libre wrote, "...she ignited the room with a majestic interpretation...". In early 2019 she appeared as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Lyric Opera Studio, Weimar and before that she sang Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare with The Connecticut Virtuosi & Connecticut Lyric Opera. In 2018-2020 she was a semi-finalist in: The American Prize, in both Opera and Art Song divisions; Talents of the World Competition and Harold Haugh Light Opera Competition.
DIANNE SPOTO, flute
Dianne Spoto has enjoyed an exciting career in the music industry for over 25 years, spanning a myriad of genres and styles. A classically trained flutist, Ms. Spoto has also succeeded as a pop singer-songwriter, music journalist, and recording industry executive.
A Syracuse, New York native, Ms. Spoto holds a Bachelor's Degree in Flute Performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston and a Master's Degree in Flute Performance and Mannes College of Music in New York City. Her teachers included Julius Baker, Paula Robison, Leone Buyse, and Judith Mendenhall.
Ms. Spoto performs regularly with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and Bach, Beethoven, & Brahms Society, among others. She has performed in concert halls around the country, including New York City's Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Boston's Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall. Ms. Spoto was a winner of the Syracuse Symphony Young Artist Competition, and a two-time finalist in the James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition in Boston.
She has appeared on MTV, VH1, CBS and NBC News both as a performer and music journalist, while she was Editor-in-Chief of Women Who Rock Magazine. Dianne wrote, sang, lead, and played electronic flute in various bands, including her live electronica project called Golden Age.
When not teaching and performing, Dianne enjoys living room karaoke and dance parties with her 10-year-old daughter and ginger rescue cat named Mama Petunia.
NINO CIAMPA, percussion
Antonino Salvatore "Nino" Ciampa (b.2004) is a composer, arranger, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist studying composition and percussion at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford. While attending high school in Acton, MA, he formed the group Nino Ciampa y su Orguesta which was the first ensemble for exclusively Latin music at the school. He has since started the Hartt Salsa All-Stars, with whom he performs his original compositions and arrangements.
THE HENRY PURCELL SOCIETY OF BOSTON
The Henry Purcell Society of Boston presents vibrant performances of the works of Henry Purcell and his English Baroque contemporaries. Using the texts, conventions, and styles of the period, HPSOB collaborates with other arts organizations to celebrate the rich repertoire of this era and to make it relevant for today's audiences. HPSOB incorporated in 2013, and was granted full 501(c)(3) non-profit status in 2014. In its first critical review, the Boston Musical Intelligencer hailed the Henry Purcell Society of Boston as having "presented a smash-bang debut" of Welcome to all the Pleasures to a "packed house." Since then, the HPSOB has successfully collaborated with local performing arts organizations, fulfilling its mission of performing the full breadth of Purcell's compositions.
Pictured: Jessica Cooper, director