The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and WVIA Radio are celebrating our respective 50th anniversaries by presenting Palma, an original composition with narrator, high school musicians and chorus, and, of course, orchestra! Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the production. Keystone Edition Arts – The Story of Palma – A Musical Fable
Guests
Paul Salerni’s music “pulses with life, witty musical ideas and instrumental color” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), and has been described by the New York Times as “impressive” and “playful”. Henry Fogel (Fanfare) has said “It is…music that sings and dances.”
Salerni’s one-act opera Tony Caruso’s Final Broadcast, with a libretto by Dana Gioia, won the National Opera Association’s Chamber Opera Competition. A definitive recording was released on Naxos in 2010. His second one-act, The Life and Love of Joe Coogan, is adapted from a Dick Van Dyke TV Show episode. In March 2019, Salerni and Gioia saw the premiere of a one-act dance opera entitled Haunted. Salerni’s chamber music and songs appear on the Albany, Bridge, and New Focus labels. He is presently the Composer in Residence for Brooklyn’s Concerts on the Slope chamber music series. His several orchestral commissions include works for the New Haven Symphony, the Allentown Symphony, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra. He is published by Presser, Alfred, Fischer, and North Star.
Salerni is the NEH Distinguished Chair in the Humanities at Lehigh University. Salerni received a Ph.D. in composition from Harvard University, where he studied with Earl Kim. As the leading expert on Kim’s music, Salerni has a long history of collaboration as guest pianist and lecturer with the Sejong Soloists. He has performed Kim’s music with the ensemble at the Seoul Arts Center, the Great Mountains Festival (Korea), at the Kennedy Center, the 92nd St. Y, and the Aspen Music Festival.
A dedicated educator, Salerni is the recipient of the Stabler Award, Lehigh University’s most valued acknowledgement of excellence in teaching. His service to the larger community includes seven years’ service on the Board of Directors of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. For two of those years, he served as Chair. Salerni is married to opera and stage director Laura Johnson, and often writes for, and performs with, their two sons, violinist Domenic (Attacca Quartet) and percussionist Miles (Philadelphia Ballet).
Nancy Sanderson currently serves as the Executive Director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. She formerly served as the Director of The Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary, an international program for students with exceptional talent in music, music theatre and dance. Prior to this position, she was an Adjunct Instructor of flute, woodwind methods, music education methods, and faculty advisor to the collegiate chapter of MENC in the Wilkes University Department of Music.
As a professional flutist, she frequently performed with regional orchestras and chamber groups. In addition, she maintains a flute studio from which many students have been accepted for professional studies in prestigious schools such as Eastman, University of Michigan, Northwestern, Oberlin and Manhattan. Her flute teachers included Lois Schaefer, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Professor at New England Conservatory, and John Oberbrunner, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and Professor at Syracuse University. She is active with several arts organizations within NEPA that are dedicated to enriching the cultural life of our region.
French conductor Mélisse Brunet, from Hispanic and Italian descent, is currently living in Philadelphia, PA. She is quickly gaining attention on both sides of the Atlantic as a “skilled and polished conductor with panache” (ClevelandClassical.com). In July 2022, she became the fifth Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic, KY, and the first woman to hold the position, she is also in her third season as the Music Director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, PA.
Brunet is one of the five conductors featured in the documentary “Maestra” by the Director Maggie Contreras and produced by David Letterman and Melanie Miller (“Navalny”), among others. The world premiere was on June 9 at the Tribeca Festival, in NYC, and won the 2nd place to the 2023 Tribeca Audience Award – Documentary. It has received rave reviews in the press, including two articles in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Hollywood Reporter.
During the 2023-24 season, besides her two orchestras, she will be conducting the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Eugene Symphony, the West Virginia Symphony, the Orchestre d’Avignon (France), the University of Illinois orchestra, and promoting “Maestra” in various festivals.
A protégée of Pierre Boulez, Brunet was one of the 14 finalists selected over 200 applicants for the second edition of the International Competition La Maestra in 2022 in Paris. She was one of six conductors selected for the 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview (Nashville Symphony Orchestra), chosen for their “experience, talent, leadership potential, and commitment to a career in service to American orchestras.” In 2017 she was one of six conductors chosen for the international Hart Institute for Women Conductors at the Dallas Opera, selected out of 161 applicants from 33 countries.
Brunet is a respected educator in both France and the USA. Most recently, she served as the first woman Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Iowa-School of Music, where she conducted symphonic concerts, operas, and musical theater. In addition, she headed the orchestral conducting program at the Master’s and Doctoral levels, from which her students won major positions.
A native of Paris, Brunet began her studies on the cello, and learned to play the trumpet, French horn, and piano. She holds six diplomas from the Paris Conservatory (Analysis, Harmony, Counterpoint, Renaissance Counterpoint, Orchestration, and a Masters in Orchestral Conducting), a bachelor’s in music from the Université la Sorbonne, a Professional Studies diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Doctorate in conducting from the University of Michigan. Aside from Pierre Boulez, her mentors have included Kenneth Kiesler, Lawrence Loh, Carl Topilow, Zsolt Nagy, and Joel Smirnoff. Brunet also took part in international workshops where she studied with Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, David Stern, Peter Eötvös, and Jorge Mester. She has studied French, English, German, and Italian lyric diction, and speaks English, French, Italian, Chinese, and a rusty Spanish, Hebrew, and German.
Dana Cerminaro Boylan
Dana is the choir director at Abington Heights High School where she conducts the choir concerts, teaches a music theory course, and directs the annual high school musical. She received both her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and her Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Duquesne University, her Master of Music degree in Vocal Studies from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, her K-12 Principal Certificate from Wilkes University, and is currently finishing her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Wilkes University.
In addition to her teaching career, Dana has also been in numerous music director positions at churches locally and in the United Kingdom and performed in various opera productions and concerts in the United States and abroad. In her free time, Dana loves spending time with her husband Michael and her one-year-old son, Michael.
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