Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Fine Arts Booster Group (FABG), an affiliate of IPEI, announces a special free concert at Ithaca High School Performing Arts Center, on Friday, January 12, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. Funded by a FABG mini-grant, Ithaca City School District (ICSD) former student Cristina Cutts Dougherty will return to teach ICSD students and perform a special tuba recital concert. Cutts Dougherty will also be a soloist at the free Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. Boynton Middle School concert also held at the Performing Arts Center. As a part of her residency, DeWitt and Boynton Middle School bands and Ithaca High band members will meet with her. Students at Boynton and Ithaca High will also have in-school lessons.

Cutts Dougherty began playing tuba when she was nine years-old in Ithaca, NY and has been inspired by the constant encouragement she received, even after moving away, from her 6th-grade band teacher, Michael Allen. She notes that she would not be where she is today without the support she received from her mentors, and the deep interest in brass pedagogue and music education she developed. 

Cutts Dougherty is a Teaching Artist for the Colburn School's Jumpstart program - a comprehensive, scholarship-supported music program that provides pathways for personal and artistic excellence to low-income students in the Los Angeles area. She teaches euphonium, trombone, and tuba in group lessons, and also has a private studio. She states it is an incredible honor to now be returning to her roots in Ithaca as a guest artist.

"It is a thrill to welcome Cristina Cutts Dougherty back to Ithaca to work with the students in the music program and to perform a recital at Ithaca High School.  Her positive example and inspiring rise to national prominence as a performer will provide students with an enriching experience of lasting value.  We are hopeful that all student musicians, parents and community members will be able to attend Cristina's Friday night recital." notes Boynton Band Director Michael Allen.

Cutts Dougherty graduated with honors from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 2015, where she was a finalist in the concerto competition and a pupil of trombonist Thomas Riccobono for two years. She is now a Bachelor of Music candidate at the Colburn School, studying with Norman Pearson of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

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