Archive: Arts & Entertainment

On February 5th the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra is planning a Valentine's Day treat.  The orchestra's Winter Pops Concert, Songs Of Love, will feature local baritone Steven Stull, Soprano Joanna Manring, jazz pianist John White, and will be conducted by the orchestra's new Music Director, Lanfranco Marcelletti.  The concert will feature love duets from popular classical music, jazz, and musical theater.

"I've sung almost all of the repertoire that we're doing, so it's really familiar," Stull says.  "And I love it.  I love both the classical side and the popular side.  And there are so many great players in the orchestra.  It's really a terrific orchestra.  I like that variety of orchestral sound.  With a chamber orchestra you get a tighter ensemble because each player has a little bit more responsibility."

The concert will be divided into three parts.  The first will feature popular classical pieces including the duet from Don Giovani, the Merry Widow Waltz, and other recognizable pieces.  The middle section features Ithaca College jazz pianist John White.  White will be joined by Stull, Manring, and bass player Josh Kerr to perform new arrangements of jazz standards including Gershwin tunes.  The third section features classic American Musical Theater songs from Camelot, On The Twentieth Century, The Fantasticks, and other musicals.

Stull has worked quite a bit with the orchestra, singing The Messiah, a Motzart mass, and a number of other pieces.  He sang the Wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood adaptation, The Boys in the Wood, and appears on the CD of that production.  This will be his first time working with Marcelletti.  Stull has also worked with Manring, who performed in his CRS Barn Studio production of Mozart's The Magic Flute last summer.

The concert is planned for February 5th at Lansing's  Lakewatch Inn.  It includes dinner, wine from Standing Stone Vineyars, and chocolate from Lucienne's Gourmet Biscotti.


Stull is a professional singer specializing in both classical and 'pops.'   He has appeared with Glimmerglass Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Artpark, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kyrgyz State Opera, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Oswego Opera, the Anchorage Festival of Music, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and the West Virginia Symphony.  In 1990 he and choreographer Jeanne Goddard co-founded the CRS Barn Studio.  His recordings include Opera Cowpokes, and The Pulse of an Irishman.

Manring has performed with Syracuse Opera, Oswego Opera, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, and has been featured as a soloist with Winsor Music in Boston, the Master Chorale of Washington at the Kennedy Center, and the New York Chorale at Weill Recital Hall.  She has recently performed "Pamina" in CRS Barn Studio's The Magic Flute, and "Kate" in Syracuse Opera's production of The Pirates of Penzance.  She teaches at her private voice studio in Skaneateles, and has served on the faculties of the Community School of Music & Arts, an independent contractor at Cornell University, and as the Director of Vocal Studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.

White is an Associate Professor of Music Theory, History, and Composition at Ithaca College. 
He collaborates with jazz vocalist Rhiannon, and has appearanced with jazz performers Wycliffe Gordon and Tony Baker, workshop accompaniment for Dr. Barbara Baker (choral director and scholar of Black Gospel music), and freelance appearances with numerous jazz musicians in the upstate New York region.  He is the Music Director and Organist for St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Ithaca, NY.

Marcelletti has conducted around the world with the Brazil Symphony Orchestra, the Chilean National Symphony, the National Theater Orchestra, Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro Communale, the Galicia Symphony Orchestra, the Haydn Chamber Orchestra, and the Eleazar de Carvalho Summer Arts Festival Orchestra.  He is the Director of Orchestra Activities at the University of Massachusetts, and has recently been appointed Music Director of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

Stull says he is looking forward to performing at the Lakewatch.  The performance space will be placed in front of the fireplace at the far end, with round dinner tables on the main floor and on the balcony.  One of the draws for Stull is that it is a smaller space than he often performs in.

"When you get into a big theater like the Syracuse Civic Center you can see the first few rows of people, but with 2,000 seats you can't tell who is in the audience," he says.  "At the Lake Watch Inn I can see everyone, so there is way more of an audience connection.  And I love that."

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