(slow upbeat music) - Good evening and welcome to the Expressions Digital Director's Cut with Tony Villecco.

I'm Andy Pioch, the senior producer and director at WSKG.

And I am broadcasting live from television production control to talk about our latest Expressions episode.

If you missed Tony's episode, you could check it out by visiting wskg.org/expressions, and a link to the program will be posted in the chat box at the conclusion of this event.

And also please use this chat box to introduce yourself and to let us know where you are watching from.

Feel free to ask a question about the Expressions Program or to any of the guests we are talking with this evening, and we'll do our best to answer all those questions before the end of the hour.

Now we will be bringing Tony in shortly, but before that, I do wanna introduce everyone to our new host of Expressions.

One of the hardest working women in Southern Tier Show business, for sure.

Adara Alston.

- Hello.

- Adara, thank you so much for joining the Expressions team this year.

You really are...

I think you were our first host ever.

I know we've had a classical musical maven, Bill Snyder host some live classical stuff, but we have you introducing our musical guests and providing viewers with some background information and we figured with all your acting and musical endeavors, we felt like you were just a natural fit for the program.

So I'm just hoping you can give everyone watching tonight a little bit of background about yourself and how important the arts have been to you.

- Sure.

The arts have been a huge part of my life.

I have been acting in the area since about 2008.

I started doing a lot of improv and (clears throat) various forms of theater led from the improv and the sketch comedy route.

And I just expanded.

So I've gone from Binghamton to Ithaca to recently I've been doing Syracuse Theater and some film up that way.

And the arts are...

It's been nice to get to know the community by bringing the community different forms of art as an actor, as a musician.

And just as an artist in general.

- Well, it's really been a pleasure working with you.

And I have to admit, like avid viewers of Expressions will realize that your hosting ability was not actually the first time you appeared on Expressions.

I had to go back and do some research, but you actually appeared in a special Halloween episode of Expressions back in season seven, 2013, you appeared in a production of the classic horror tale, "The Monkeys Paw."

I don't know if you have any memories of that production.

I know we worked with the great Kate Murray and Southern Tier Actors Read, I think for the-- - [Adara] Yes.

- I mean, we could probably take a whole hour to go over that production.

So maybe that will be a another separate digital director's cut event.

But that was a lot of fun.

I don't know if you can recall any memories of that.

- Sure, it was a lot of fun to do.

I was Ms. Sampson.

And I'm the one who brings the letter just to kind of...

It included Bob Finley, Judy McMahon, who are staples of the area as far as acting who are very accomplished, Chris Nickerson, and Kate Murray who also directed it.

But if you were to find it on YouTube right now, with WSKG, "Monkeys Paw," you'll find that it has 324,000 views.

- You know, it actually baffles us here at the station why that particular program has...

So it has so many more views than any of our other local productions.

It's really crazy.

I do think professors maybe show it in classes or what, but yeah... You know, like we've really been beefing up our reporting staff here at the station.

We might have to assign one of them, the "Monkeys Paw" beat.

But that was a lot of fun.

And I do think Patrick, who's helping out on the back end, I think he's gonna post a link at some point to that Halloween Expressions episode.

If anyone wants to go back and take a look at it, it has "The Monkeys Paw" also has a segment with the great Bill Gorman and also the Twilight Zone Live.

The great live production of a couple of Rod Serling's great works are included in that Halloween production.

Adara why don't you just give us a quick background about, or what you're working on now?

I know you're working up in Syracuse with a director that probably some of our audience might remember.

- Right, I just finished a production of Fences.

We just closed a week ago.

And the director was Ted Lange, of "Love Boat."

He was Isaac the bartender from "The Love Boat" film.

So I just finished that and I also did some work on a film that people will be seeing in the next year that I can't disclose too much about, but there's just a lot going on in the area.

So you can't that you have to always go down to New York City to find arts, it's here.

You just have to, you know, keep your eyes open to it, to find it.

- That's great, and of course, I have to ask you, how do you think our Jets have done, Free Agency so far?

The NFL Free Agency has started?

Don't worry.

I know this isn't Expressions music podcast, but Adara and I are both diehard Jets fans, which... - They're gonna be a sleeper.

You just wait, I don't wanna say too much, but that's Jets are coming.

- I'm sure we could fill an entire hour on our shared misery of rooting for the New York Jets.

But I don't think that is what our audience is looking for tonight.

I think they want to see the star of our Expressions episode, the indomitable Titan from Tunnel, New York Tenor Tony Villecco.

Let's bring Tony in right now.

There he is.

- Wow, that's quite an introduction.

How, do I top that?

- Well, we do wanna thank you for just an amazing Expressions performance.

You put so much work into it.

You did a great job hooking up with St. Thomas Aquinas church in Binghamton, where we filmed your episode.

And I know we've had a great positive response to your episode here at the station, wondering how the response has been for you as well.

Have you been able to walk the streets of Tunnel in peace or are you being chased around like The Beatles ever since your episode aired?

- Everyone can walk Tunnel.

Small, small Hamlet.

No, it was very, very rewarding, Andy.

You folks were fantastic to work with.

And of course the musicians and John Isenberg and everyone else, Marijane and Melanie, and Joanne just did a superlative job.

So yeah, I've had some really, really nice feedback.

It just sort of made it all worth the hard work.

- Well, that's really nice to hear.

I mean, you could tell how important the recording was for you.

That was evident, you know, during the day and working with you and during the editing process.

So I'm just glad that we put together a great program.

Now you two actually have worked together in the past.

Correct?

- We have done a couple things with S.T.A.R, Southern Tier Actors Read.

And this is kind of funny, Adara mentioned a film, which we can't talk a lot about.

I also do some film work on the side and I was in the same particular production recently with Adara in Syracuse.

So yeah, we sort of get around and I don't think either of us knew until we just were chatting the other day, that sort of came out, that we had both had the same basic experience up there, which was a very good experience actually.

So yeah.

Adara is a talented lady, for sure.

I hope to do more things with her, and that would be fun to perform again and do some more theater.

- Yeah, and what's interesting about this, the arts community in general is that we don't have a ton of interactions working together, but the theater community is very close here.

So I feel like I've known Tony for quite some time and we interact, but maybe just, not all always on the stage because of the theater community.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Well, I remember when we first brought you in over the summer, Adara, to go over like some of the scripts and like, as soon as you saw Tony's name, like your face kinda lit up and I'm like, you know Tony?

And you're like, I know Tony.

I know Tony so... - Who knows Tony.

- There you go.

- I don't know my reputation.

(laughing) - You're a bright light, that's your reputation.

- Well, Tony, you mentioned your extra work.

And during the process of your episode, when we were doing the biographical segment in the middle of the program, we were going over your history and your love of music and your Facebook feed.

We found some pictures that we didn't use, but one of them that we found that we really enjoyed was you and a very famous movie star Keanu Reeves.

- Yeah, that was fun.

That was actually...

I'm a SAG member, Screen Actors Guild member.

And I was going into New York City to do extra work.

I don't obviously go as much now.

It's just too much to get down there so early.

But yeah, we were doing a film or Mr. Reeves was in the film, the star of the film called "Generation UM" U-M, I don't think it ever made it obviously very big, but we met him afterwards.

They are pretty strict about not speaking to the actors.

So my friend Lynn and myself were getting ready to leave, and we ran into him at a pub on the street and I said, oh, do you remember us?

We were doing a shoot with you, would you mind if... Would you be so kindest to have a photo and just a lovely, lovely, generous kind man.

And he came right out and took photos and yeah, so that was sort of the start of that.

That was quite a while ago, but yeah, it's been fun.

It's just nice to know there's closer places that you don't have to go into Manhattan.

- Well, Tony, I have to admit the first time I think I saw you was probably almost two years to this time, WSKG, partnered with the Hoyt Foundation right when the pandemic first started and everyone was working from home and no one could go outside.

So we wanted to try to brighten the community.

So we had the idea of asking local musicians and instrumentalists to play the Mr. Rogers theme song.

And we packaged those, you know, with some graphics and ran them in between programs and online and through social media, just to try to brighten the community a little bit.

And Tony, we actually have your video and I think we're gonna play that right now.

Let's take a look at the Artist Neighborhood video, starring Tony Villecco.

- [Tony] Oh.

♪ It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ♪ ♪ A beautiful day in the neighborhood.

♪ ♪ Would you be mine?

♪ ♪ Could you be mine?

♪ ♪ It's a neighborly day in this beauty world ♪ ♪ A neighborly day for a beauty ♪ ♪ Would you be mine?

♪ ♪ Could you be mine?

♪ ♪ I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you ♪ ♪ I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you ♪ ♪ So let's make the most of this beautiful day ♪ ♪ Since we are together ♪ ♪ We might as well say, would you be mine ♪ ♪ Could you be mine?

♪ ♪ Won't you be my neighbor?

♪ ♪ Won't you please?

♪ ♪ Won't you please?

♪ ♪ Please, won't you be my neighbor?

♪ - Thank you to everyone who sent in a clip for that project.

It was truly heartwarming to see so many great musicians send in their videos and a link is being posted in the chat.

If anyone wants to go back and watch all the great area artists who participated in this project.

But Tony, I could immediately see with your video that you were a ham, you loved performing and singing.

Can you kind of just give the audience, you know, just a quick background about, you know, like how you got into singing and you know, your performing.

- Sure, since I was a little boy, actually, I mean, I remember when I was in elementary school and we'd have music class and we'd learn a new song or something that day when the music teacher came in and I'd come home and I'd pull my mother into the bedroom and sing the song to her.

And of course she was so exhausted from working a job and trying to raise two little boys.

You know, the last thing she wanted to do was be pulled into another room, so I could sing this little song.

And then it just started from there.

And then of course, I started lessons at age 10 and with Harold Mason from the Tri-Cities Opera.

And did Amahl, in the "Night Visitors" and is one of my first big things and of course Vienna Chorus Kids.

My brother and I were chorus kids of the opera company.

And that was it.

I just got hooked on opera and started loving to singing more and more and wanted to take lessons.

And it just sort of pole vaulted from there.

And I've done, you know, pretty much a lot of venues, different varieties from show stuff to jazz standards in the city.

We went to Manhattan a couple times and did some jazz clubs and then...

But was trained as a classical tenor.

So that's really where my...

Probably the forte is, the Broadway and the classical stuff.

- Well, I wanna say that like, yeah, we connected through the Artist Neighbor Hood project.

And then I think like we were trading emails back and forth, and I think you actually reached out and were wondering if we were recording episodes, of course, you know, during the pandemic and you know...

So we were going back and forth.

I think you were talking about what you wanted to perform.

And I think you mentioned that you had a set of Baroque period songs.

And so I had to... Like I had your Artist Neighborhood as a guide, but I went to a WSKG Musical S.T.A.R wards, Greg Keeler and Bill Snyder.

Of course, Greg Keeler just recently retired from the station and Bill, of course, you still hear him every day on WSKG Classical spinning the hits from centuries past.

And as soon as I mentioned that you were planning a Baroque set, like they just lit up and were like, do it, like do it.

He's gonna put on a great show.

And so if those two guys said it was good, then you were in.

That's all it takes.

So if anyone's watching right now and they wanna know how they can get on Expressions, just make sure Bill Snyder and Greg Keeler give you a thumbs up and we'll put you on.

So what made you decide to go Baroque?

I've been using that horrible pun for the last month now.

I promise that's the last time I'll use it.

But what made you decide to go with a Baroque set of songs for the show?

- Well, thank you, Greg.

And thank you Bill for the plug.

It's just a music period that moves me deeply, that the music of the period has always had a real visceral move in my soul when I sing it and when I hear it, it's a very distinct period, obviously.

But it ideally, interestingly enough, it also fits well vocally for a light tenor, which is what I would be considered, a lyric tenor.

Obviously opera was always my first love and will be my first love, but I knew early on, as I had mentioned before that I didn't have a booming Pavarotti kind of voice that was going to fill up the Metropolitan Opera house.

So I knew that I would sing, but I think finding the Baroque music, that period of music of the 18th and 17th century music was just a divine order because it fits vocally well, I'm luckily able to have an agile voice, I'm able to do all the roulades and the runs and the trills and the ornamentation and stuff that's required for that period.

So it just was a natural fit, just a natural.

- Yeah, the performances were really, really strong.

And we decided to record this.

Usually we obviously record here right in our Vestal studios, but we decided to actually take this show on location.

And we hooked up with St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Binghamton.

And I have to thank you for that, Tony, you did a great job, you know, meeting up with them.

And I think you mainly wanted to record there because of the acoustics, correct?

That was the reason why we decided to go there?

- Yeah.

I mean, I certainly was not opposed to coming to your studio, but in talking to some other folks, some of the musicians that I worked with, it was kind of a toss up between possibly... Oh gosh, now I'm here drawing a blank with the other big Catholic church.

There's several in the area.

Anyway, we approached them or I approached both of these churches and asked them, would it be possible to come in and do a show that was being taped by WSKG?

And they were both very, you know, both churches were very agreeable and amiable to it.

So that led to that.

And the consensus was that possibly St Thomas Aquinas might have the better acoustics.

And so Father Putano was very generous, as well as his secretary Mickey and Kathy helped us to coordinate that.

And we were able to bring you guys in and bring all the other musicians in and do the show.

So it really kind of was a win-win.

And luckily, I think it really...

The sound really sounded so much more perhaps enhanced than it would've made maybe in a studio setting.

- Yeah, we really can't thank the church enough.

I mean, we probably got there like probably around 11 o'clock in the morning and we were there until probably 4:30, I think.

And, you know, hardly bothered like it was so nice of them to let us just take over their church probably to definitely the longest I've been in a church in a long time, that's for sure.

But yeah, we would like to thank, John Putano and Kathy Strong and, and Mickey Carbo for allowing us the use of the church.

And hopefully they liked how it looked in the show.

We are gonna go over more of the production particulars in a bit, and we are...

But we're gonna show you a performance from Tony that did not make the televised show.

But before we do that, we wanna thank Adara for joining us tonight and be on the lookout for more from her as season 15 of Expressions continues.

Thank you, Adara have a great night.

J-E-T-S, Jets Jets, Jets.

- All right, thank you so much.

- [Tony] Bye bye.

- What a gem we're so fortunate to be able to work with Adara on these new episodes.

Tony, I really hope I don't mispronounce the title of this song.

We are about to play "Deposuit" from Bach.

Is that right?

Is that close enough?

- Yeah, "Deposuit" it's from his "Magnificat" and it's in Latin and J.S Bach, of course, a giant of the Baroque period.

And this piece is basically translated as, "He shall put down the mighty and exalt the lowly."

So that's that's from his "Magnificat."

- All right, perfect.

Well, Alyssa, why don't we play "Deposuit" (Tony Villecco singing Deposuit by Bach) - What a performance by Tony Villecco here on the Expressions Digital Directors Cut.

Now, if you wanna see more performances that didn't make the televised broadcast, please visit video.wskg.org and search for Expressions.

A link is being posted in the chat, If you wanna take a look.

And speaking of the chat, feel free to ask a question either about the program or to Tony, and we will do our best to answer it before the hour ends Tony, let's talk about the great work that John Isenberg put into this program for every song he was by your side, either rocking the harpsichord like he was on the last track we just saw or playing the organ on Ave Maria, which made the program, or even the violin on Amo Tirsi.

But I think it's time to hear from the man himself, John Isenberg.

Let's get him in the stream, welcome.

(Tony cheering loudly) - Hello, thank you for having me, it's great to be here.

- John, I love your shirt.

- Oh, thank you.

I think we were a little coordinated.

(Andy laughing) Just happened, yeah.

Just how we planned it.

- So, John, can you tell me how Tony roped you in on this Expressions project?

- Yes.

Well, actually Tony and I have known each other for quite a long time.

I'm guessing probably the better part of 20 years now.

We have performed together.

One time was over at Binghamton University.

We did kind of a Baroque program.

We put together another Broadway program years ago, we put together a little recording.

So we have a history.

So it was earlier last year, I think he called me up in and said, "John, I'm looking to do this concert of Baroque pieces.

"We're going to do it for the Expressions program for WSKG, "would you be interested?"

And I said, "Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun.

"Yes, count me in, let's give it a go."

- Well, at least you didn't say what's Expressions?

So I'm glad... - [John] Oh, no, no.

- I mean, we have worked with a few of the other musicians that appeared in the program.

I know we've worked with Marijane , the violinist in the past.

We worked with Melanie Valencia too, but somehow John, I don't think we we had worked with you on any past Expressions episodes, which is kind of surprising considering like, yeah... As, Tony mentioned, like how long you've been playing around here.

So I'm very happy we got to see you perform in this show.

- Oh, it was great to do it.

I think I've been involved in different little projects, just a couple, two, three years back before the pandemic.

And then after that, everything was a blur.

I did play with Marijane Wojtowitz and her group, Celtic Charm.

We did a little program at Christmas time.

- [Andy] Okay, I do... - Just a few years ago.

- [Andy] Yes, that was a lot of fun.

- Yeah, way back.

I think I did something with Jenni Bank.

- [Andy] Wow, okay.

- I think it was called Sound Fusion back then.

- That was season one.

That was actually the very first season of Expressions, John and the-- - [John] Oh, wow.

- Well, I feel bad that I've slighted you, like, so it's not your first appearance.

It's actually your third appearance on Expressions.

So I apologize for that, but yeah, Sound Fusion.

That was another grant project where we fused two artists of completely different genres together.

And I think we partnered Jenni Bank up with Driftwood, the great-- - That's right, I remember that.

No, that's fine.

- [Andy] The great acoustic band.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

I didn't actually realize those two were connected until you just told me so.

Oh yeah, okay.

- Wow, that's a blast from the...

I could see the cobwebs, you know, skirting out.

Well, Tony, can you talk about the other musicians that appeared in the show?

You've had clarinetist, Joanne Peters, Marijane Wojtowitz who played violin and Melanie.

Can you tell me like how you ended up partnering with them?

- Yeah, as I got looking through the music, tons of music, because I wanted to really try to showcase as many composers of the period.

It dawned on me that, you know, geez, there's so many wonderful eras and songs that require other instruments in addition to the keyboard.

I had known Melanie a while.

We had done actually some jazz there with her group, Blue Velvet.

And Joanne, and I do the NYYSMA, the adjudication for local high school students.

So I've known Joanne a long time.

Marijane , I had not known.

And when John mentioned some things that they had done together, I thought, oh, it would be wonderful to obviously have a violinist.

And I must credit Mr. Isenberg for writing, actually composing the violin, obligato piece that went with the "Ave Maria" John composed that specifically for Marijane.

And it's just, just gorgeous.

I've had a lot of people compliment me, compliment the show on that piece.

So that's kind of how I got to know them.

And as we found pieces, it just was nice that they all had something that we could plug into another musician to make it maybe a little more interesting instead of say, just keep board and voice, keyboard and voice through the whole program.

I think it kind of added a little extra flavor of the period.

- Yeah, well, I was happy that we were able to include all of the pieces with the other musicians in the actual half hour program and then the extra bits, the one that we just saw and there's, I think probably six more selections that didn't make the cut of just Tony and John.

So again, we're gonna post a link where you can view all those extra songs that didn't make the televised broadcast.

You kind of mentioned it a little bit, but how did you form the set list for this set?

I think you came in wanting to play 13 songs and I think we got through 12 of them, which isn't bad considering we only had about three or four hours to record them all.

And you kind of run the gamut from composers.

Did you wanna kind of get a mixture or like how hard was it for you to collate the set list?

- It was difficult initially.

I started poking around music.

Let's see, we did this in almost August.

We did it late July.

So I was working on this in March looking at different pieces for tenor or soprano that, you know, a gentleman could sing, obviously, during that period.

And finding different pieces that hopefully would show other composers because it was such a rich, rich era with many, many composers.

Of course, the masters probably being Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel would probably be the big two, but I just basically wanted to find enough pieces.

And I think we certainly did actually.

I don't know about John, but my voice was fine, It's funnier, 'cause we were... You figure, we sang and played at least five hours.

My body was tired toward the end of the day and my feet and legs were tired.

My voice was fine.

I could have kept singing, but by then I think I was thinking, yeah, I think we better wrap it up.

So yeah, it turned out good.

I mean, I can see where you obviously would've had cut, you know, some pieces, it would never have aired, but... - Yeah, I think by the end of it, we realized we were kind of running out of time.

It was like, okay, we have a choice between, we have a couple pieces left, which one do we wanna record?

Oh, well we have a few more slower pieces.

Let's record.

I think it was the, Magnificat one of the last ones, if not the last one that we did that we managed to record, Because we realized it was more upbeat and we thought let's do that one.

- Yeah, no you're right, it was.

'Cause we left out the Piango, Gemo, the Vivaldi which was a-- but it was another slow one.

So we decided to (clicks) nix that.

And just piggybacking, I mean, John is phenomenal obviously.

I mean, he's so great to work with and he was such a good coach to me.

I speak well, but I'm not an expert like John is.

So if I did have some Italian problems, John would always correct me and work with me on the language or the music and the rehearsals.

I'd say, "John, I really wanna... "I think we should have two rehearsals this week.

"Can you do two?"

And you know, it was never an issue.

You know, he was great about getting together.

He's wonderful to collaborate with.

- I've been lucky to have a lot of experiences.

I played for years with the Tri-Cities Operas and accompanist.

So I was around operatic singing and learned from some of the greatest with Duane Skrabalak and Peyton Hibbit when I was around TCO, when they were still are.

So I was very lucky to have that experience.

Now I work as a vocal coach and a pianist over at Bing University.

So I've kind of continued that kind of work.

And I'm lucky enough, my strongest language happens to be Italian that I studied for a long time.

I don't even have much Italian background so to speak, but I somehow I hooked onto to the Italian language and culture, which I really love.

So anytime I have anything to do with Italian or working on pieces (indistinct) oh yeah, bring it to me, let's work on it.

- Well you mentioned like how we were running out of time, you know how I knew we were running out time?

When we were in the middle of a song and the one poor guy who was left at the church to make sure all the doors were locked, decided just to walk... And he was like, I'm not gonna wait until they're done with the song, I'm just gonna walk into their shot and go to the doors to make sure they're locked.

That's what I knew our time was probably running short and yeah, we might need to make some cuts so that...

There's a little tidbit, but again, like the church was great and he-- - Oh they were great.

- He just had to make sure to... That all the doors were locked and probably wanted to make sure we were gonna be out of there before 6:30 or 7:00.

- I've known Monsignor Putano for a very long time.

He was at St. Anthony's for many years.

And I grew up at St. Anthony's, the Catholic church on Odell Avenue in Endicott.

Very supportive of my music studies.

He actually helped the church to sponsor me through a diocesan program for organ lessons.

A big lover of the arts.

He loves music and opera and art.

We've gone to Catholic church musicians conventions.

This was years ago, but always very supportive of music.

So I've known him a very long time and it was interesting that our paths crossed again.

And also for a very short time, I did play at St. Thomas for a short time, a number of years ago.

So it was great to be back in that space and how they've remodeled, it is just beautiful, beautiful.

- So you're going back to your home stadium almost.

- [John] Yeah, for sure.

- Well, we do have another clip that didn't make the show that we wanna show you tonight.

And you mentioned that a Bach and and Handel are two of the Titans of the Baroque period.

And this is gonna be a piece from Handel, "Waft Her Angels."

So let's take a look at that right now.

♪ Waft her, angels through the skies ♪ ♪ Waft her, angels through the skies ♪ ♪ Far above yon azure plain, far above yon azure plain ♪ ♪ Angels, waft her through the skies, ♪ ♪ Waft her through the skies ♪ ♪ Far above yon azure plain, ♪ ♪ Far above you azure plain, ♪ ♪ Glorious there like you to rise, ♪ ♪ There like you forever reign ♪ ♪ Glorious there like you to rise, ♪ ♪ There like you forever reign, ♪ ♪ Forever reign, ♪ ♪ There like you forever reign ♪ ♪ Waft her angels through the skies ♪ ♪ Waft her angels through the skies ♪ ♪ Far beyond yon azure plain, ♪ ♪ Far beyond yon azure plain ♪ ♪ Angels, waft her through the skies, ♪ ♪ Waft her through the skies ♪ ♪ Far above yon azure plain, ♪ ♪ Far above you azure plain, ♪ - Bravo Tony, Bravo, great performance, Handels, "Waft Her Angels."

Tony we have some questions from the audience.

We have one from Randy Jill, and she remembers you all the way back to the "Man of La Mancha" in Binghamton University.

Do you remember that performance, Tony?

- Oh, yeah, oh definitely.

Hi, hello, hello, hello.

That was probably, I think the best musical production I was ever in professionally, community college.

It was a phenomenal production.

Yes, amazing.

When I was working in and going to school at BU, 1991, yeah.

- Well, you might have just answered this, but she asked if you have a past performance that you remember as a highlight of your career.

And also this might be the most important question, how do you look just as fabulous now, as you did back in the 1990's.

- (laughs) Mary Kay.

(laughing) - I gotta put a plugin for LimeLife.

My wife would wanna hear that, so...

So, you know, go for LimeLife.

- All right, I'll check it out, I'll give it a shot.

Gosh, I don't know.

There have been many wonderful experiences, I think.

"La Mancha" is right up there.

It was an incredible camaraderie.

It's the time when a show and a group of people just clicked.

And I mean, we're talking the concert theater at BU which I can't remember, it's like 1500 or more.

It's this huge theater.

We sold out every performance.

I mean, it was just an amazing, an amazing experience.

And I met some wonderful folks.

Fred Weiss who's left the area.

Fred did a lot here also, not only with the university but with the opera company.

And that was right up there.

I'm sure others too, but that comes to mind now that that you've mentioned it was... "Sweeney Todd" was another great show we did the following year.

- John, what about you any past performances that really speak to you?

- Oh, I have been very lucky to have so many different kinds of experiences.

Quite a few productions at the opera, at TCO, which were amazing to be a part of.

I got to do many things.

I accompanied rehearsals, but there were some shows where I got to perform with the orchestra as a pianist.

For a couple productions of the "The Magic Flute" I got to play the glockenspiel part for Papageno.

That was a lot of fun.

I remember we did a production of Menotti's "The Medium" that we double build with something else, I can't remember.

But that had a piano part in the orchestra.

So whenever I had a chance to do that, that was really something fun to do.

'Cause these are all amazing professional musicians.

For many years, I played for the Binghamton Downtown Singers.

We did a lot of big choral works and I worked with Alan Crabb for many years.

A lot of those performances I also got to play organ for or some kind of keyboard part.

And whenever I got to do something like that, that was very exciting.

In many different genres.

And I've done some musical theater shows.

I could spend the whole evening talking about some really great experiences I've had.

I've been very lucky to have many diverse experiences.

- Well, and hopefully many more to come.

Tony, we have another question.

This is more of like an inside baseball singer question 'cause I hardly even understand it.

But the question is, your vocal runs are so clean and effortless and singers know how difficult that can be.

Can you say a word about how you work on your runs and ornaments?

- You know, I can and I can't.

I mean, it's something that it has always been natural since my voice changed and I became a tenor.

I've always had the agility, the flexibility, which every singer really needs to work on.

You have to have flexibility.

But I've been very, very, very lucky in terms of being able to retain as I've gotten older, the agility, the coloratura the fast roulades.

And I love ornamentation.

I make up my own ornamentation.

So I think it's more of an innate thing than something that you can learn.

I mean, you have to work on, I mean, every singer has vocal exercises, et cetera.

And depending on the teacher, they can give you huge tips.

But for me, it was a natural thing, I was able to do this kind of music.

I think that's, again, why I sort of favor it because I don't have an issue doing all the, the fancy work, the filigree stuff that just kind of comes natural.

So I'm not sure I've answered the question, but I don't know how else to explain it.

I'm not even sure it's a technical thing with me, It's something that I can do.

So I don't know.

- Well, it sounds like it's more at field, and I mean, you could tell, your performances were so emotional for throughout the day.

I think you could just tell that the music is inside you and it was fantastic to see.

Tony, we do have to talk about the music note vest that we saw on the last performance.

It is rare for us to have a wardrobe change during an Expressions' performance.

Can you talk about what led into you deciding to you know, doff the tuxedo and just go with a little more casual music note vest.

- I'm just a-- - [Andy] Sparkly.

- I'm a wild man.

I actually had gone out years ago.

This would've been a friend of mine had got married and moved to of all places, Branson, Missouri.

And I had gone out to see her and they took me to a couple shops.

I remember going into this one clothing shop and they had these incredible... 'Cause Branson's a show town.

They do a lot of music stuff.

They had these amazing sequin vest.

And I said, wow, this is like something I would wear in a show.

And I actually used the multicolored one, two years ago when I did the Broadway review, at Ti-Ahwaga, I used that multicolored one.

I didn't use the silver one that you just saw, but yeah, I just thought they would be fun.

And you know, I don't know if they're appropriate or not, but you know what the heck, it added a little razzle-dazzle.

- Well, yeah, once again, you can go to the WSKG video page.

There'll be a link for that in the chat.

And you can see all of Tony's music note set, his music note, sequin sparkly vest set.

Well, so this has brought... well, John, I know you've worked with Expressions here in the studio, but like as far as the television production aspect of the day, like, did it meet your guys' expectations?

Were you expecting more lights, more people?

Like what were your thoughts like heading in and what were your thoughts heading out?

- Oh, I mean, absolutely.

It was a really fun experience.

You were very supportive and very accommodating and it was just easy.

We kind of did our thing.

You had our backs, you had the sound mix, the lights, what you're gonna get in a church.

Sometimes churches can be hard to get good lighting in, but whatever setup we had, was was great.

I was really happy seeing the final product of the videos that came out.

It was, yeah, a great experience.

It was definitely, yeah, very, very enjoyable.

Expectations going in, I don't know.

Before every performance, you gotta go with it.

And what happens, happens.

As a musician, you gotta be very flexible.

We've all had stories of things that have gone horrific wrong or amazingly great.

And you just gotta be there in the moment for whatever it brings.

And you guys were great.

It made it very easy.

- I would second that.

I thought, you folks were so professional and pleasant, just lovely, lovely, nice people.

And you know, it exceeded, I think, probably exceeded my expectations and then to see the final product when it came out last week, I thought, wow.

I mean, I love the way the scroll comes out and the decorations and the graphics.

And I mean, it was just so beautifully done.

The photography of the music and the instruments.

I don't know, it was just like Hollywood, man.

(laughing) - Yeah, some great camera angles.

Yeah, really, really nice work.

- Oh, well, geez, okay.

Wow, I should have asked this question at the start of the hour.

Like God, yes.

- Now you should ask for a raise.

(laughing) - There you go, does this help?

- I will put this on my year end review for sure.

Well, you guys were great to work with.

It's not easy to perform that many songs when you know you only have a short amount of time.

I mean, we knew we only had three or four hours to get all these songs in.

And of course, you know, it's not perfect.

It's not like every...

I mean, during the final TV product, it looks perfect, but we all know there was, starts and stops.

John, you mentioned that Marijane, the violinist used to be your teacher.

I have to admit going through some of the footage, like some of the takes that didn't quite make it all the way through, she looked at you like a teacher looking at a student.

- Oh, yeah.

- A couple of times.

(laughing) - It happened to everybody.

I think we all took our turns, like making our fair share of like, oh, that's not gonna come out well.

Let's do this again.

But yeah, I studied with her for quite a few years.

Violin is my second instrument.

- That's Marijane right now.

(indistinct) - Yeah, the violin you see, that is an octave violin, actually that I acquired just a few years ago from a maker in Wales.

It's strung up like a regular violin.

G-string is the lowest then D, A, E. Except it's an octave down.

And I was introduced to one of these actually by this maker.

I was at some Scottish fiddling workshops in North Carolina.

And another lady had one of these instruments from this maker and I thought, oh, this is really nice.

She let me play it and it's like, oh, I gotta have one of these.

So that's how I was able to get some of the base notes.

So the way it's pitched, it's actually somewhere between a cello and a viola.

The lowest string is G. So it's a fourth, a perfect fourth for people that understand the pitch intervals, below a viola.

So yeah, I can play some cello parts, which is actually what I did.

I took a cello part and played it on that instrument, which made a nice blend.

- Well, yeah, it sounded amazing, but unfortunately not everything was amazing during production.

And I think this might be an Expressions first.

I was actually able to put together a quick Expressions blooper reel that we're gonna give everyone a chance to see just this one time.

So let's roll that.

And then we'll come back and wrap this up.

- We're seeing it right along with you.

- [Andy] I said we're not live, it's not like we interrupted the children's programming for this.

So we're all set, we're good we're good.

(beep) (Tony singing opera music) - Sorry, we need to stop.

This is too close to me.

My bow keeps hitting it.

- Yeah, I keep hitting mine too.

- [Andy] Not a problem.

(beep) And then five, four, three, two.

- [Man] Sorry, bow tie.

- Bow tie fix.

- I'm sorry I don't know what to-- - [Andy] It's okay, you can't see yourself.

You don't have a mirror, that's our job.

- I have another one (indistinct) - There you go.

- How's that?

(indistinct chatter) - Just slide in the middle now?

(laughing) (beep) (indistinct chatter) (beep) ( John harpsichord playing) (beep) (John harpsichord playing) (Tony singing "Deposuit" by Bach) (indistinct chatter) (beep) - You're right, I'm sorry, John.

- It's okay.

- Sorry, sorry guys.

- [Andy] No, you're fine.

- This is a short one though-- - [Andy] You're fine.

No, take a deep breath.

(breathing in and out loudly) (beep) - [I hope this has met your expectations for a high quality television production.

- Oh my gosh (indistinct) (clapping) (beep) - Well, I hope that didn't give you guys any bad flashbacks, Tony and John.

- Very good, that was very funny.

- No, that was good.

- There was probably a lot more I could have put together, but you know, we'll save that just for the three of us.

I have to admit, thank goodness I received my mass communication degree from Plattsburgh State for adjusting your bow tie.

I have to owe that to my degree for sure.

And I do wanna thank Stephen Schweitzer, Mike Micha and Alyssa Micha for their help that day.

Just tremendous, tremendous work to be able to get all that work done.

Yeah, there was only four of us here and of course Mike was our audio engineer and he did just a fantastic job.

So anyway, we're coming to a close, but what's next for you guys?

Do you have any upcoming performances that the audience can check you guys out?

Are you dipping your toe back into live productions or?

- I hope so.

I'm not positive about this yet.

And then I'll let John plug some stuff he's doing.

I asked Mr. Isenberg, if he would consider doing a Broadway review with me at Cider Mill, he's expressed interest, Kate Murray.

And so hopefully we're gonna do that at some point.

I'm not sure when.

John, how about you?

- Oh yeah, I mean, I'm forever the working musician at Bings University, we have kind of like a opera art song cabaret coming up on April 1st.

I have some senior recital coming up at the university you can check out the music department website.

They have lots of concerts listed there.

I'm involved in some of those.

With another project that I'm involved in, the Claude Bolling experience with some musicians that I've worked with, we used to be part of the Binghamton Baroque Orchestra.

We were going to do a concert right before the pandemic hit.

And unfortunately we weren't able to do that.

Since then, a couple of musicians have graduated, moved on.

But some of us have gotten together to play some music of Claude Bolling, a French jazz composer.

Like you do a natural transition from Baroque music to Claude Bolling, to jazz, why not?

- That's what I was thinking.

That's what I figured you were gonna be doing John.

- Yeah, and we have a couple of concerts coming up the weekend... Let's see, Saturday, April 23rd.

We have a concert in Courtland that evening.

And then the following weekend, April 29th and 30th, we have back to back concerts at the Clemens Center in Elmira theater.

In their smaller theater.

We also have couple shows in Syracuse, at the Westcott Theater in June.

And all kinds of school things.

I accompany students for the NYSSMA competition, all kinds of things.

Never, a moments rest for the wicked, you know.

But I enjoy it, this is what I do, this is what I do.

- It's hard to get a hold of him.

But when I can snake him down, I grab onto him.

- Hey, yeah, let's do it.

- Well, I'm thankful that he was able to carve out an hour of his time to join us tonight.

And I do think that's gonna wrap up tonight's Expressions Digital Directors Cut.

We thank Tony, John, and Adara for joining us this evening.

A reminder that you can watch Tony's entire Expressions performance on our video page.

And a link is being pasted to that in the chat, whichever you prefer.

If you do listen to podcasts, then check out the Expressions Director's Cut Podcast.

This month's episode feature is all 12 of the songs we recorded with Tony at St. Thomas Aquinas Church.

And you can find this podcast on many of your favorite platforms or at yourpublicradio.org.

And again, Patrick's gonna post a link to that in the chat.

And I do wanna thank Patrick and Alyssa for their help tonight.

And this event will be archived and available to be viewed on WSKG's YouTube channel.

I'm sure many of you are gonna wanna re-watch this or share it with people who might have missed the original.

But thank you so much for checking out the Expressions Digital Directors Cut, and we will see you again soon.

until then, this is Andy Pioch, goodnight.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

(soft music)