Please join us for the second annual Alumni Live Concert, October 27, 2007, 1 to 4 pm in The Carroll Center Technology Center featuring blind and visually impaired musicians. A $5 donation would be greatly appreciated. RSVP: Annie Smith at 978-251-2968 or Email Annie at pvamsmith@comcast.net.
This year we have three groups performing:
Steve Giannaros and his group Organism
Steve Giannaros is alum of the Carroll Center who grew up in Brockton and now resides in Boston with his guide dog Dakota. Steve received his B.A. in Music Business in 1998 from the University of Massachusetts. He plays the Saxophone and with his group, Organism, creates a unique style that combines traditional jazz, funk, and elements of fusion. The web calls him a “Gentle Soul”. Steve has also studied with internationally recognized New England Conservatory professor Jerry Bergonzi.
In addition to Steve, the other members of Organism include:
- Brian Leccese – Guitar
- John Corda – Organ/Keyboards/Bass
- Pete MacLean – Drums
Steve Jeffery and his group East of West
Steve Jeffrey’s love of music started at a very early age and by age 11, he had finally convinced his parents to buy him his first electric bass guitar. After several years of countless hours of devoted practice and performing throughout central California with numerous rock bands, he discovered Jazz! Steve decided to broaden his studies of music and pursue further educational opportunities at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. With much resistance from family, he enrolled at Berklee, set off to Massachusetts with his new bride Shannyn, determined to fulfill one of his musical dreams.
Steve graduated from Berklee in 1995 with a major in Music Business Management; and it was at this time, he was told that he was gradually losing his eyesight and would eventually become blind.
During this difficult time of uncertainty in his life, Steve stayed focused by writing much of the music for the East of West debut CD, “Crossing Borders,” which he describes as a high-energy musical journey across the jazz-fusion landscape. He adds, “The music I wrote for this CD was a positive musical reaction to what was at the time becoming such a major negative change in my life.”
After completely losing all usable eyesight, Steve thought his ability to independently write and record his future musical ideas were gone forever. Things changed instantly when he was introduced to the screen-reading computer program JAWS for Windows and the powerful multi-track recording program Sonar. Using JAWS and Sonar, he is now once again able to write and record his musical ideas and keeps busy as a freelance bassist contributing to a wide variety of different musical projects.
Steve performs regularly in the New York/Long Island area and is composing music for a follow-up East of West CD to “Crossing Borders.” He lives with his wife, Shannyn and their two children, Skylar 8 and Scotty 6, in the central Massachusetts town of Rutland.
East of West: Two artists living at opposite sides of the continent came together to achieve one common goal, compose and perform their music. Steve Jeffrey, bassist, and John Cardoso, drummer, are the writers and producers of this inspiring compilation of contemporary jazz music.
- Steve Jeffrey on Bass guitar
- John Cardoso on Drums
- Bob Mazzio on Saxophone
- Mike Ernst on Guitar
- Gered Seabrook on Percussion
The Cydnie Breazeale-Davis Trio.
Cydnie Breazeale-Davis is, by her very nature, inspiring. Blind since birth and hearing impaired, Cydnie began studying music as a young child and entered Berklee College of Music in 1994. In 1996, she experienced an unexpected and complete loss of hearing, and her days of earning A’s in Berklee’s ear training classes were over. It seemed that music, Cydnie’s principal source of self-expression and personal pleasure, had ended too. For six months she lived in total deaf-blindness. Sometimes she played previously mastered pieces and enjoyed the vibrations through her hands and body. When she became depressed she read her Braille music and listened to it “inside her head.” Even after receiving a cochlear implant and achieving success in hearing speech, she mourned the loss of her old hearing, saying she could not enjoy music as she used to. Indeed, when she listened to recordings of well-known songs she could not recognize them, even though she could still play them beautifully.
Five years after her implant surgery Cydnie’s hearing somehow evolved. A piano began to sound like a piano to her again, and she began to hear music more fully. She must still rely upon her growing knowledge of theory and the feedback of her teachers to master new music and to add her own improvisations.
For people with all their senses intact, Cydnie’s daily accomplishments seem impossible. With self-discipline and hard work she learns new music through Braille notation and the help of her dedicated teacher Suzanna Sifter. She has never stopped taking lessons and this fall she is, again, taking a course at Berklee College of Music.
Her long-time coach, John Stein said, “Cydnie’s musicianship, which improves steadily each year, does not depend on flash and fireworks but instead glows with sincerity and the pleasure of self-expression. She is an inspiration to all who know her because of her nearly unfailing good humor and because of her dedication.”
Pingback: 2007 Alumni Concert » The Carroll Center for the Blind