Ithaca College

Please join us for short presentations and performances at 5PM each day. The Zoom link is available in the Fine Artists at Five forum of the Keep Teaching Sakai site. Artists for the remainder of this week include:

Laura Amoriello, Wednesday, May 13

Laura Amoriello is a pianist, piano pedagogy specialist, and budding mindfulness instructor. In her teaching at IC, she guides music majors through the development of keyboard skills, mentors piano majors as they learn to teach, and promotes student mental health. She is faculty advisor for the Mental Health Awareness for Musicians Association and frequently presents on mindfulness and self-compassion and their impact on music teaching, learning, and performance. Laura began playing the piano at the age of seven in order to learn holiday songs; thankfully, that purpose evolved to champion the music of underrepresented composers. In Fall 2019, Laura presented "The Girl Gershwin: Music of Dana Suesse" at IC. Her current project is exploring the piano music of Florence Price, a rich heritage for students of all levels. The three pieces by Price in this program--"Memory Mist," "Song without Words," and "Meditation"--represent stages of coping with suffering and uncertainty. Price's gift for melody and harmonic color comforts us, and her legacy emboldens our spirit.

Sarah Sutton, Thursday, May 14

Sarah Sutton is a painter who is interested in visual perception, biology and speculative futures. She was born in the Appalachian coal - mining region of Northeastern Pennsylvania and lived there for the first 11 years of her life. The town that she grew up in rests over flooded anthracite coal mines. She then moved to a suburb of Cleveland, 10 miles from a very large power plant. The cooling towers overtook the landscape. Both places had a lurking environmental threat, yet life marched forward. These early visual landscapes had an impact on her paintings and ideas. In her paintings, the human realm is organized like rhizomatic mycelium, connecting things that aren’t supposed to go together to focus on symbiotic relationships that span time, species and place.  Her work has been shown in Europe and across the United States. She attended the Millay Colony artist residency, Santa Fe Art Institute residency funded by the Joan Mitchell Foundation and has an upcoming residency at Yaddo.

Aaron Witek, Friday May 15

Aaron Witek is a trumpeter who has performed throughout the United States, China, and Australia. He has played with the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra (LA), Monroe Symphony Orchestra (principal, LA), Sinfonia Gulf Coast Orchestra (FL), Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (FL), Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra (FL), Albany Symphony Orchestra (GA), and the Orchestra of Northern New York. He has performed as a soloist with the International Shanghai Symphonic Band, Monroe Symphony Orchestra, Florida State University Symphonic Band, University of Louisiana Monroe Wind Ensemble, and the University of Louisiana Monroe Symphonic Band. Witek has won awards for both his playing and teaching, has given recitals and master classes at many universities and conferences, and is in demand as a clinician with ensembles throughout the United States. 

Fine Artists at Five is hosted by the Center for Faculty Excellence.