By Staff
Special to The Star
November 3, 2004
The University of West Alabama Department of Fine Arts will present classical guitarist John De Chiaro, assisted by tenor John Brown, in recital on Monday in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church in Livingston.
The program begins at 7 p.m. A reception will follow in Chaney Hall.
De Chiaro made his New York debut in 1976 in a Carnegie Hall performance that brought a rave notice from The New York Times and launched a career of growing distinction.
He has performed throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe and has performed for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in Rome. He was invited to perform for President Clinton at a special Christmas function at the White House. He records for Centaur Records and has two discs of his own arrangements among his recordings.
De Chiaro has been featured on two nationally televised PBS programs, which received top honors at the International Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio; The Houston International Film Festival, and the International Film and Television Festival of New York.
His collection of Scott Joplin transcriptions are regularly featured on national Public Radio's program "Performance Today."
John De Chiaro is a member of the music faculty with the University of Southern Mississippi as well as a guitar instructor at UWA. Before going to Hattiesburg, he taught at the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, New Jersey, while pursuing his own graduate studies at New York University.
Assisting De Chiaro on the program is tenor John Brown.
Brown led an active professional life in opera, concert and musical theater around the country. Highlights include singing the Kodaly Psalmus Hungaricus in Budapest under the direction of Kodaly protg Arpad Daraz; working as a musical director with an award-winning production of "Big River"; and riding a broomstick and getting shoved into an oven for over 200 performances of the Witch in "Hansel and Gretel."
Brown is a co-founder of the Sumter Theatre Workshop which has provided training and performance opportunities for countless Sumter County youth and adults.
He serves on the board of The Coleman Center for Arts and Culture and has taught adjunct voice at UWA. This semester at UWA, he is directing the UWA Concert Choir and the UWA singers as well as teaching voice.
He recently opened his private studio in York, the Bel Canto Studio, in the same storefront that housed Brown's Jewelry, owned by his father for more than 40 years.