We are thrilled to continue our partnership with ArtsWestchester, The City of White Plains, and the White Plains Business Improvement District on White Plains Jazz Fest 2017! Below is a clip from the People & Stories Oral History Project, Jazz Fest edition. Each of the clips we post between now and September will include stories and music from musicians who live locally, but have performed all over the world. Tom Van Buren, of ArtsWestchester, co-produced the interviews. Check out the Jazz Fest 2017 webpage for tickets and more information about all the great music happening September 13-17, 2017.
Pete Malinverni
A native of Niagara Falls, NY, Pete Malinverni began classical piano studies with local legend Laura Copia at the tender age of six, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the prestigious Crane School of Music in upstate New York, and took his Master of Music degree from the Purchase (NY) Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano and composition with Anthony Newman, the man Wynton Marsalis called the “high priest of Bach”. Subsequent studies include intensive work with the famed Sophia Rosoff. Remembering well the learning process, he is a teacher much in demand, having served as Professor on the Jazz faculties of New York University, William Paterson University, and, currently, the Purchase Conservatory, where he is Head of Jazz Studies. He has also taught Jazz Appreciation to non-music majors at NYU, and Classical Ear Training at Purchase. NYU’s Continuing Professional Studies Program honored him with the Marc Crawford Jazz Educator Award, and he received the “Community Service” and “Distinguished Faculty” awards at Purchase. For eighteen years, he served as church musician at the Devoe Street Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY, exposing him to the music of the African-American church, and his suites for gospel choir and jazz ensemble based on the Psalms of David demonstrate his abilities as a composer on a grander scale. “Joyful!”, a well-received CD/DVD recording of a live concert of Pete's music for Gospel Choir and Jazz Ensemble on ArtistShare spotlighted Malinverni’s Gospel/Jazz compositions. He is now Conductor/Pianist at the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY and is Music Director at the Community Church of Pound Ridge, NY, in both of which places he has written pieces using Hebrew and English texts. He also leads the Purchase College Soul Voices, a choir celebrates the diverse and talented student body of Purchase College. Comprised of young people of various backgrounds, interests and major study areas, the singers in the group come together to experience and express to their audience the unity possible via the great and universal gift of the human voice. (from PeteMalinverni.com)
Pete will be leading a jazz jam on Thursday, September 14, at ArtsWestchester at 9:30 PM, immediately after The Ray Blue Quintet, whose set starts at 7:30 PM at ArtsWestchester.
We will be posting new clips from oral histories with local musicians between now and September. Here’s a link to interviews from Jazz Fest 2016. The featured music is “Buffalo: City of No Illusions” from Malinverni's Emerging Markets. ***We recorded this oral history in the offices of the Music Conservatory at Purchase College, hence the background noise!***
