Alumni

Spotlight on Alumni

Jack Allocco, BS '72 is an award-winning composer, conductor, music producer and director whose career includes television, film and theater. Currently composer and music director for The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, he recently earned his second Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition For A Drama Series and his eighth American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) award. Allocco is a native of Rochester and attended Bishop Kearney High School, St. John Fisher College and Nazareth. His bachelor's degree in music theory from Nazareth College was awarded cum laude. He lives in Hollywood CA with his wife Stacie and daughter Catherine.

In the spirit of holiday giving, we share highlights of the inspirational message delivered with personal warmth and wit by Jack Allocco to the 2007 class of Nazareth graduates.

To read the Commencement Address, please click on the link.


Alumni News
2000s

Clare Arezina, MT-BC, BM '06 (music therapy), is a music therapist at Upstate Music Therapy Center in Penfield, New York.

Jessica Best, BM '06 (vocal performance) is has just finished a 10 day stint in NYC with her coach Sherrill Milnes from Northwestern University. He has taken her under his wing and is exposing her to some of the top Opera coaches in the world. She will be off to Tampa in April with him again, doing his program, Voice Experience. It will be another 10 day period of time where she will be coaching and performing with various opera singers. The most exciting news is that Jessica has been contracted to Santa Fe Opera beginning in May. She will be participating in the young artist apprentice program and is cast as Marchelina, from the Marriage of Figaro, in this upcoming summer opera season. In June, she will be graduating from Northwestern in June with her Masters.

Last year Jessica was given a full scholarship from the Bel Canto Foundation of Chicago to attend V.O.I.C.E. Experience: Sherrill Milnes and Friends - this August in Disney World. This past February, she appeared as Hata in the opera, The Bartered Bride in Cahn Auditorium. This summer she has been accepted to the Santa Fe Opera program t to cover Marcellina.

Nikki Bell, BM '07 (music education) is teaching General Music and Strings Grades4-6 full time at William Street School (Lancaster Central Schools) and she is working on a master degree in international studies at St. John Fisher College, Rochester.

Tony Bisbano, BA '06 has created an orchestral arrangement of Believe from the movie Polar Express which was performed in November by the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Marvin Hamlisch has hired him to orchestrate a medley of songs from the Barbra Streisand movie "Yentl", for him to conduct with the Nashville Symphony later in April, 2008.

Nicole Brooker, BM '06 (music education), is accepted into the master's degree program in music education at Nazareth College. She is teaching 5th grade band and lessons in the Honeoye Falls Central School District.

Adrian Catucci, BM '06 (music education), is teaching Elementary Vocal General in St. Monica Catholic School.

Melissa Cook, BM '05 (music therapy), is currently working on my Master's of Science in music therapy at SUNY New Paltz. She is also a Board Certified Music Therapist working full time in the pediatric unit of Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey.

Kattie Cordeiro, BM '05 (music therapy), has successfully completed her Board Certification for Music Therapists. Currently she is enrolled at the University of Rochester in their Master's in Mental Health Counseling Program.

Danielle Conner, BM (music education), is teaching fourth grade to eighth grade band at the Keshequa Central School District in Nunda.

Sarah Decker, BM '06 (music education), is accepted into the master's degree program in music education at Nazareth College. She is teaching at the DeSales High School in Geneva New, York.

Bethany Donovan, BM (music education) is teaching 7-12th grade general/vocal music at Dolgeville Central School.

Chris Edelman, BM '04 (music education), is teaching English in Japan.

Marissa Emple, BM ' 07 (music therapy) will be working for the Hebrew Home, a long-term care facility at Riverdale, Bronx.

Elliot Kirby, BA '06 has been hired as an audio and print production artist at EM2 Advertising in Rochester, New York. He is responsible for generating music and jingles for clients, recording and producing audio for TV, radio sports and designing print advertisements.

Mary Holzhauer, BM '06 (piano performance), is accepted for a teaching assistantship and master's program in piano performance at Ithaca College.

Jeff Hoffman, BM '05 (music education), is teaching at Eastridge High School.

Leticia Kalweit, BM '06 (piano performance), is a piano instructor at Mary Anne Bruce Studio and the organist of First Baptist Church in Newark, New York.

Cassandra Kennedy, BM '06 (music therapy), is accepted into the master's program at Kardon Institute of Creative Arts Therapy in Pennsylvania. She is also working as a part-time music therapist.

Kathryn Lent, BM '06 will be attending Bowling Green State University to pursue a masters degree in music history.

Michael McNeill, BM '04 (music theory), earned a Master of Music Degree in Modern American Music at the Longy School of Music on Boston.

Bethany Miller, BM '06 (music therapy), received internship opportunity at Bethany Children's Home in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania.

Melissa Miller is working as a long term substitute teacher at the Brighton Middle School.

Jason Mincer, BM '06 (music education), is teaching at Gates Chili High School and Gates Chili Middle School.

Aubri Ordway, BM '06 (music education), is teaching General Music and Choir K-12 in Belfast, New York.

Amanda Payne-Shamrock, BM '05 (music education), is teaching vocal/general music k-3 in the Lancaster School District. She is also the choral director for Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Lockport, NY. She is working on her master's in music education at the University at Buffalo.

Kim Potter, BM '06 (music education), is teaching Instrumental and Vocal General Grades 7-12 at Monroe High School, Rochester City School District.

Ashley Poulin, BM '06 is accepted into the master's program of library sciences at SUNY Albany.

Lindsay Rock, BM '06 is will be an instrumental band teacher for Grades 4 - 12 at the Maple Hill Middle School and Maple Hill High School in Schodack. She will also be starting her M.S. in Music Education at St. Rose in Albany in the fall.

Shelby Rosenblum, BM '06 (music therapy), is offered position as music therapy intern at River Oaks Psychiatric Hospital in New Orleans.

Michael Shamrock, BM '05 (music education), is teaching vocal/general music k-3 in the Lancaster School District. He is also the music director for The Church at Shawnee Landing, in Wheatfield, NY. He is working on his master's in music education at the University at Buffalo.

Michael Sapienza, BM '06 (music education), is teaching East Irondequoit Middle School Band.

Dave Savine, BM '05 (music education), is working for Em2 Advertising/Warehouse Studios.

Nicole Siniscarco, BM '06 (music education) has been accepted into the master's program in music education at SUNY Fredonia. She is now teaching at Holland Patent Middle School. She teaches Jazz Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Concert Band, 4th and 5th grade band lessons and 5th grade band.

Jennifer Stocki, BA '06, is currently the Music Director at St. Lawrence Church, Old Forge, PA.


Kayoko Takahashi, BM 04' (music therapy), earned the Masters of Music Degree in Music Therapy at Florida State University, December 2007.

Heather Taylor, BM '08 (music education) received the 2008 Outstanding Instrumental Student Teaching Award.  She is going to be a long term substitue teacher at Calkins Road Middle School in Pittsford New York for the month of May to June.

Ryan Thomas, BM '06 (music education), is teaching Vocal General Music at the Aquinas Institute in Rochester.

Jaclyn Urban, will be undertaking the role of Francisca in a performance featuring songs from West Side Story,
with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestraon October 20, 2007.

Joy Walcek, BM '06 (music therapy), is a music therapist at Upstate Music Therapy Center in Penfield, New York.

Jesse Whitney have been awarded a Teaching Assistantship at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and will be attending there in the fall for work on my Masters of Music in Music Theory.

 

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Maria Russo, dramatic soprano of international renown, sang all the Brunnhildes in the history-making, four-year project culminating this spring in the very first "Ring of the Nibelungen" ever produced in Brazil. It took place in the famous theater in Manaus, Teatro Amazonas which garnered a large international audience and world-wide press in the exotic location.

The conductor, Luis Mahhiero, was the driving force behind producing the "Ring, beginning with "Die Walkure" in 2002, "Siegfried" in 2003, "Gotterdammerung" in 2004 and all four of the operas this year. The direction was done by British team of director, Aidan Lang, and and set/costume designer, Ashley Martin-Davis.

Most of the singers were Brazilian but some exceptions, aside from Brunnhilde of Maria Russo, were the Canadian "Siegfried," Alan Woodrow, and the American bass, Stephen Bronk as "Fasolt," "Hunding," and "Hagen." Maria Russo will continue to sing Brunnhilde as the production moves to Sao Paulo over the next four years.

 

Congratulations to Michelle Murphy, BME 96 who was recently named to a position as visiting professor at Columbus State University in Georgia where she will teach studio voice, diction, and vocal pedagogy.

 

 

 

 

Entertainer Christopher Johnson, BM' 94 recently accepted a contract with Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster, PA for the upcoming world premier musical "Psalms of David" running June 16 through December 30, 2006. He also has launched a new website www.christopherjohnsonentertainment.com where you can view his credentials, see pictures, and view some clips of his performances. Recently he spent a year literally singing all over the world as the lead male vocalist aboard both the Oceania Regatta and Radisson Seven Seas Voyager.

A lover of Opera, Christopher has performed extensively with Rochester Opera and New Jersey Opera in productions of "Pagliacci", "Cavaleria Rusticana", "Rigoletto", "Tosca", and "Il Trovatore". He has performed leading roles in "The Marriage of Figaro", "The Telephone", "The Mikado", "Pygmalion", "Gypsy", "Kiss Me Kate", "The Stonewater Rapture", "The Spoonriver Anthology", and "Little Red Riding Hood". For many summers, he was the baritone soloist at the "Camp-of-the-Woods" summer resort in upstate NY.

Christopher is also grateful for the opportunity he had to sing at Carnegie Hall in a performance of Mozart's "Requiem". Before deciding to give his full attention to performing, he was the Upper School Choral Director and Dean of Students for the prestigious Warldaw-Hartridge School in New Jersey where he developed an award winning choir and was musical director for "The Fantastics", "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown", and "Annie".

 

From the Chairman

Welcome to the newest addition to the Nazareth College Department of Music
web page! The Department is fortunate to have a strong alumni body
representing our tradition of excellence throughout the world in a variety
of musical vocations. We hope to utilize this space to keep your informed
concerning the progress and changes within the Department. Additionally,
we'd like to use this space to publicize and share your career
accomplishments and activities.

If you have news you would like to share with your fellow Nazareth
Department of Music Alumni, please email the information to our web coordinator Bonnie Choi at bchoi6@naz.edu.


We look forward to hearing your news and sharing our news with you!
Sincerely,

Dr. James Douthit, Chair
Department of Music

 

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