4:30 – 6:00 pm – Gaetano Letizia
Guitarist / Song Writer / Vocalist
Gaetano Letizia
Gaetano, also known as Tom, was born in Cleveland where he began performing his own shows at the age of 16. One of his first stage appearances was with the James Gang, sitting in for Joe Walsh in 1970. Since then, he’s performed all over the U.S. along with Europe and Asia. Producer of ten blues and jazz guitar CD’s, Gaetano has received stellar reviews in Downbeat, Guitar Player, 20th Century Guitar, Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Cleveland Scene and many national/international publications. His music has been played on radio stations in every state as well as most foreign countries.
Discography: The Tom Letizia Album, Digital Dance,Chuckhole Blues, Gaetano’s Groove, Dreamclipse , All My Brothers, Christmas Jazz Jam,Voodoo Doll, Froggy & The Toads are available through CDBaby, Amazon, ITunes and all digital music services.
Musical Background: Guitar studies With Pat Martino, George Benson, Joe Pass, Richie Hart, Wolf Marshall, Bert Henry, John Stebal, Paul Weeden and Dan Wall. Graduate of Schillinger System of Music Composition. Berklee College PULSE Certification,
Performances & Recordings with: Mike Clark, Joe Beck, Mundell Lowe, Dan Wall, Greg Bandy, Kenny Davis. Former member of KSU Lab Band.
Gaetano Letizia will play with:
- Lenny Gray on electric bass
- John Stebal III on drums
- Tom First on saxophone
Contact Information: gaetano@gaetanoletizia.com
Website: www.gaetanoletizia.com (on-line original music samples)
6:20 – 7:50 pm – Barbra Lica
Vocalist / Song Writer
Juno-nominated artist Barbra Lica is a fast rising Canadian vocalist and songwriter and has been receiving accolades for a unique approach that stresses subtlety, grace and storytelling. Based in Toronto, Barbra’s live show captivates audiences all over North America with her genuine warmth and confident stage presence. A seasoned act on the Canadian and American club and festival circuits, Barbra Lica has performed everywhere from New York City’s legendary Birdland to Toronto’s prestigious Koerner Hall. She has also headlined at festivals across the continent including Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Vancouver International Jazz Festival and Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, and opened for the likes of Christian McBride, Pat Metheny, Bob Dorough, and Terence Blanchard.
Barbra’s debut album That’s What I Do (Triplet / Universal Jazz Japan) was released to widespread acclaim in 2012, ranking her in Canada’s Top 5 Jazz singers on the CBC, as well Top 5 up-and-coming Toronto jazz artists on blogTO. Her band made their Japanese debut live at the Tokyo International Jazz Festival in 2015 for over 1000 audience members. Her first album with Justin Time Records, I’m Still Learning, was released September 2016 and subsequently nominated for a 2017 Juno Award in the category of “Best Vocal Jazz Album”. Barbra is currently promoting her newest project entitled, You’re Fine (Justin Time Records, November 2018). This album is a collaborative effort between Toronto and Nashville-based musicians, seamlessly blending jazz, country and folk influences. It includes Barbra’s touring band of up-and-coming musicians from across Canada with special guests and country music legends, Paul Franklin (Vince Gill, Shania Twain, Toby Keith) on pedal steel guitar and mutli-instrumentalist Wanda Vick Burchfield (Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood, Jason Aldean). “You’re Fine” was recorded at Addiction Sound Studios in the heart of Nashville with award-winning Canadian engineer David Kalmusky (John Oates, Journey) and highly-respected Canadian producer/bassist Marc Rogers (The Philosopher Kings, Nikki Yanofsky). This is Barbra’s most ambitious and personal offering to date – it promises to break all the rules while searching for commonalities between musical genres, human experiences and two sides of one border.
8:10 – 9:40 pm – Nate Boff
Guitarist / Vocalist and Defiance native returns to his home town
Nate is now an Austin, Texas-based guitarist and singer that’s helping to uphold the musical tradition of blues/jazz. Upon graduation, he spent the next few years playing the bars and clubs in and around Defiance, and not long after, began breaking into the scenes of some of the bigger cities where he opened for acts like Joe Bonamassa, Ted Nugent, George Thorogood, Lonnie Brooks, Chris Duarte, and many more.
Since moving to Texas in 2008 Nate has been making his rounds performing and sitting in with some of the city’s, if not world’s best talents. He has performed alongside the likes of Anson Funderburgh, Gary Clark Jr, Alan Haynes, Lavelle White, Charley Crockett, Dale Watson, and numerous others. He’s also had the great pleasure of being a part of some fantastic bands out of the capital city including Michael Milligan and Texiana Bluez, The Black Owl Society, and is currently part of the local super-group, The Ruins with Jay Moeller, Roger Wallace, and Jason Crisp.
Nate has performed at many of the country’s most famous clubs including Antone’s, The Zoo Bar, Ginny’s Little Longhorn, The Blues City Deli, and BB’s Jazz Blues and Soups.
While his rhythm sections sometimes vary, Nate is always backed by tremendous talents that over the years have comprised of Wes Starr, Jason Corbiere, Alberto Telo, Charlie Jones, and Mike Buck on drums, and Jason Crisp, Jackie Newhouse, Preston Hubbard, and Ronnie James Weber on the bass.
Nate is currently working on songs for a debut release.
Beginning at 4:00 p.m. Host Performer – The Aaron Ziegler Quintet
Percussionist / Arranger / Composer
Dr. Aaron Ziegler is a percussionist, educator, and arranger based in Toledo, Ohio. He is currently the director of the University of Toledo Rocket Steel band and serves as Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Toledo and Owens Community College. He also maintains a private studio of concert percussion, marching percussion, and drum set students of all ages.
As a percussionist, drummer, and pannist, Ziegler has performed throughout the midwest including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Iowa and Ohio days of percussion. He has also performed internationally at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference 2011 and 2013, the Inaugural International Panorama Competition in Trinidad & Tobago in 2015, and served as the percussion adjudicator for the 69th annual Hong Kong Schools Music Festival in Hong Kong, China in 2017. Additionally, his article “Idiomatic Harmonic Arranging for Double Seconds & Triple Guitars” was published by the National Society of Steel Band Educators in September of 2018. Most recently, Ziegler traveled to Los Angeles, California to participate in Pan Rocks RUSH!, a recording project that included steel pannists from throughout North America playing the music of Rush and featuring internationally renowned drummer Mike Portnoy.
Aaron Ziegler is an active proponent of contemporary music and cofounder of PRIZM Voice and Percussion Duo, a collaboration with soprano, Janet Brehm Ziegler, dedicated to expanding the repertoire for voice and percussion through commissioning new works by young composers. To date, PRIZM has commissioned and premiered nine new works and has created a number of arrangements of existing pieces from jazz standards to traditional Argentinian folk songs. PRIZM also presents clinics on collaboration and contemporary music performance techniques.
In addition to his active performing and teaching schedule, Ziegler is also a steel pan arranger and composer with his pieces published through Alfred Music, MauMau Music, and Sheet Music Plus. His arrangements are frequently featured in steel band concerts throughout the United States. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance and Pedagogy with a secondary area in Ethnomusicology, as well as his Master of Arts from the University of Iowa, and his Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Toledo. Aaron Ziegler is a proud endorsor of Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets.