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Roarin' Ramblers - Dixieland Jazz
Sunday, September 8th, at 3:00pm.
OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE (INDOORS IF RAIN)
The Roarin' Ramblers is a group of seasoned musicians who love to play Dixieland Jazz. The band has been playing together since 2020.
Roger Post - Drums
Alex Owen - Cornet
Charles Gim Burton - Banjo
Craig Grant - Trombone
Nick DeVito - Clarinet
Bill Crow - Tuba
Bill Crow
Berkshire Jazz Orchestra
Sunday, September 15th, at 3:00pm.
OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE (CANCELED IF RAIN)
The Berkshire Jazz Orchestra is a 17-piece ensemble based in Fairfield County, CT, whose history dates from 1987. The band includes many professional musicians and music educators with great skill and amazing creative solo abilities, who believe in keeping the big band genre fresh and alive.
The orchestra presents big band repertoire from classic swing bands such as Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, as well as music from more contemporary groups. Their vocalist, Jan Maki, performs classic songs from the American Song Book made popular by Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Bette Midler, Natalie Cole, and other artists.
The Berkshire Jazz Orchestra will bring a smile to your face and get your feet tapping with music to "knock your socks off!"
Roger Post Quartet
Sunday, September 22, at 3:00pm.
OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE (INDOORS IF RAIN)
Roger Post: Drummer, Band Leader Roger is a highly sought-after drummer / percussionist whose 52 years of experience have encompassed an incredible variety of styles and music. Big bands: New Haven Jazz Orchestra, Harold Zinno Big Band, Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Berkshire Big Band, Sonny Carroll Orchestra, Fairfield Counts, Rob Zappulla Orchestra, Bensen/Scott Big Band. Jazz Concerts with Bill Watrous, Marvin Stamm, Marshall McDonald, Houston Person, Bill Crow Broadway: 42nd St. (original), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (revival w/original cast), Cats, Saturday Night Fever, Falsettos, and Godspell revival.
Bob Kolb: Saxophone In 1966, Bob began working in jazz combos, big bands, and show bands. He has played in bands backing Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Natalie Cole, Sammy Davis, Jr., and many others. He has played in small groups with Dave Brubeck, Dave McKenna, Johnny Griffin, Sonny Stitt, JR Monterose, Sal Nistico, and other wonderful players. His style reflects the melodic inventions of the Masters such as Lester Young, Stan Getz, and Paul Desmond.
Bill Crow: Bassist During a long career as a bassist, Bill Crow has played with the big bands of Claude Thornhill, Ralph Flanagan, Louis Bellson, Gerry Mulligan, Benny Goodman, and even one concert with Duke Ellington. He was featured with many small jazz groups including the Stan Getz Quintet, the Terry Gibbs Quartet, the Marian McPartland Trio, the Gerry Mulligan Sextet and Quartets, the Ruby Braff Quintet, the Eddie Condon House Band, the Marty Napoleon Trio and Quartet, the Gene DiNovi Trio, Jay and Kai, the Al Cohn and Zoot Sims Quintet, the Bob Brookmeyer and Clark Terry Quintet, the Walter Norris Trio, the Carmen Leggio Quartet, and several small groups of his own. Crow also played many Broadway shows, doubling on bass and tuba, including the long runs "The King and I" and "42nd Street." He is currently a freelancer in the New York area jazz field. He is also the author of two books on jazz, “Jazz Anecdotes” and “From Birdland to Broadway,” both published by Oxford University Press.
Dave Childs: Piano Dave performs full-time in the tri-state region and has shared the stage with jazz greats Jimmy Heath, Eddie Bert, James Moody, Lionel Hampton, Larry Ridley, Roswell Rudd, Dick Oatts, Bill Watrous, and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, to name a few.
Dave’s performances span a variety of venues including New Haven Jazz Festival, Jazz on the Green, Long Wharf Theatre, Quick Center for the Performing Arts, Silvermine Tavern, Stamford Forum, Le Cirque, the Glass House NYC, Le Chateau, St. Peter’s Church NYC, Branford House on Avery Point, Bartlett Arboretum, Pequot Library, the Graduate Club, and many others.
Over the years, Dave has been featured on a variety of recordings including three of his own full-length CDs. His most recent CD is a jazz trio with sax and bass recorded in 2013. Dave’s interest in a variety of musical genres has led him to various positions as a church musician, including at Hastings on the Hudson Lutheran and Rowayton Methodist Churches. For over 6 years, Dave has been the pianist for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Bridgeport where he combines jazz, classical, pop, folk, and world music for services and other events. In addition to performing, Dave teaches piano at Fairfield University and the Cider Mill Conservatory in Wilton, Connecticut.
Taekwon-Do - Korean Martial Arts
Sunday, September 29th at 3:00pm.
OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE (CANCELED IF RAIN)
The president of Taekwon-Do International, Grandmaster, Suk Jun Kim, will speak about the fundamentals of TKD. Black belt members of Taekwon-Do international will demonstrate self-defence techniques, board breaking and much more.
In 2011 9th Dan Grandmaster, Suk Jun Kim became a TKD hall of fame inductee.
In 2019 he was the recipient of the World Grandmaster Federation's highest medal of honor.
Sukjun Kim
Junwen Liang - Piano Solo
Sunday, October 6th, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Pianist Junwen Liang will perform the first Richter Arts concert on our new Steinway grand piano, a magnificent donation from Chris Tse.
Praised as "captivating" (Stroll Magazine) and “an extremely gifted and promising young artist” (New York Concert Review), Chinese pianist Junwen Liang has performed with the Central Texas Philharmonic, Penn State Philharmonic Orchestra, and Ithaca College Symphonic Orchestra, and at esteemed venues like Carnegie Hall and the Kimmel Center. His performances have been broadcast on WSKG in New York and Philadelphia's WRTI Classical Radio. In the 2024-2025 season, Junwen will perform across the United States, Canada, Europe, and China.
He has participated in festivals such as the Texas State International Piano Festival, Lunigiana International Music Festival, Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy, Orford Musique, Art of the Piano, and the Aspen Music Festival. Junwen has won major prizes in competitions including the Music International Grand Prix, WPTA Spain, The American Prize, Juliusz Zarębski International Piano Competition, and the Philadelphia International Piano Competition. In addition to solo performances, he teaches, collaborates with professional musicians in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City, and adjudicates state-level competitions in the D.C. area.
Junwen holds degrees from Penn State (DMA), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (MM), and Ithaca College (BM). He recently completed professional studies at the Peabody Institute under the tutelage of Richard Goode.
Junwen Liang
Blue River Jazz Band
Sunday, October 13th, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
The Blue River Jazz Band play America’s traditional, classic, “hot” jazz and swing music from the early 20th century.
The band features fabulous music from New Orleans, along with songs written and made famous by great jazz artists like Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lester Young, Fats Waller and much, much more.
The 20’s are here! Music of the “Roaring 20s” for “Great Gatsby” themed weddings, birthday parties and the like, as well as classic swing dances, are certainly a specialty of The Blue River Jazz Band.
Led by Chris Coulter, the band performs in several combinations of instrumentation (duo, trio, quartet, quintet, and classic sextet).
Billy Michael
Sunday, October 20th, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Voted Danbury's number 1 solo artist! Co-founder of the J&B Band and solo artist in his own right, Billy Michael has been marching to the beat of popular music from a very early age.
When he was just five years-old, Billy could be heard belting out Ray Charles’ hit “You Don’t Know Me,” which his mother, Dolores, had taught him. In the first grade he was known as “Little Elvis.” The nuns took him from classroom to classroom to sing Elvis’ 1956 hit song “Teddy Bear” for the other students. In high school, he started his first band, Downhill Tangerine, performing songs by Procol Harem and The Doors.
As a solo act, Billy performs a variety of popular music from all eras: The Beatles, The Kinks, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Nat King Cole, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Lovin' Spoonful – and many more. You can hear Billy Michael perform nightly at area venues, where he brings the concept of audience participation to a whole new level. Among the many themes are Open Mike, Beatnik Night, Mardi Gras, to name a few. Billy often regales enthusiastic vacationers at the exclusive Club Getaway in Kent, Connecticut.
In addition to fronting the J&B Band, Billy is the leader of several other groups - Jazz For Juniors/All That Jazz and the ever-popular Fiddlers’ Brawl. Both groups appear regularly in the Danbury area.
Billy also provides tasteful guitar accompaniment and background vocals for local singers such as Erin and Laura Volpintesta (Wild Honey) and jazz vocalist Cheryl Boyd.
With Billy Michael, there's always something for everybody! And, who knows? Some night he may just call you up onstage to sing a Dusty Springfield tune...
Billy Michael
“Americana: A Concert of American Music”, celebrating Danbury’s native son, Charles Ives.
Sunday, October 27th, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Gabriela Mikova Johnson - Soprano
Chris Cantu - Tenor
Susan Brown - Piano
Stephen Paul Johnson - Narration
GABRIELA MIKOVA JOHNSON is a professional vocalist (mezzo-soprano), holding a combined degree in vocal music and music education from the Janáček Conservatory in her native Czechia. She has studied in Manhattan with noted vocal coach Gerald Martin Moore (now at Yale School of Music).
Her Czech and European performance career includes several years as featured soloist at both the J.K. Tyl Theatre in Plzeň and the Municipal Theatre of Brno, concerts with both the Janáček and North Bohemian Philharmonic orchestras, and international tours through Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. Her New York career includes two consecutive years as soprano soloist in Gordon Stewart’s period-instrument production of Händel’s Messiah with the Philipstown Philharmonia in Cold Spring (recording available on Amazon); the lead role of Polly Peachum in Mr. Stewart’s World’s End Theatre production of The Beggars’ Opera in Garrison; as Mrs. Cratchit in a recent musical adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol performed in Yorktown Heights; and concerts at Boscobel Restoration in Garrison, The Chapel Restoration in Cold Spring, and the Richter Center in Danbury, Connecticut. (To see and hear samples of her work, please visit her fan page, Gabriela Mikova Johnson, or Bellissime, both on Instagram.)
In addition, Gabriela has many years’ experience as a teacher and coach of vocal music for students at all levels, and is currently an adjunct instructor of vocal music at The Storm King School in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York.
STEPHEN PAUL JOHNSON is an actor who has performed in regional theaters throughout this country and around the world. For 20 seasons he was a featured performer with New York’s Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, where favorite roles included King Lear, Prospero, Shylock, and Titus Andronicus. Other regional venues include The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco (where he earned his MFA),The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., the Denver Center Theatre Company, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as well as six years as Artist-in-Residence at California’s PCPA/Theatrefest, and two international tours of West Side Story. Television appearances
include Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order, and Law & Order: SVU.
CHRIS CANTU (Tenor) has worked most recently with opera companies around the Rockland county area in productions of La Boheme and Cavalleria Rusticana as well as participating in extensive operatic concerts throughout the years. Chris enjoys spending time with his two glorious children, Annabeth (10) and Michael (8) and is gladly showing them the “ropes” in opera and musical theatre in the hopes that one day, they will be inspired to perform on stage! Chris currently lives in Pearl River, NY with his girlfriend, Gwen, and their fish, Barry and Dart.
Collaborative Pianist and Coach SUSAN BROWN completed her third music degree in Vocal Accompanying from Manhattan School of Music in 2014 and has settled permanently in the Hudson Valley.
She performs a wide variety of music but Classical Art Song is her passion. Susan maintains a profound interest in different languages and vocal literature through her thirty-plus year career as a coach and collaborative artist. She has played collaborative recitals at a number of Universities including Alma College, Western Michigan University, Vanderbilt, Marist, Belmont, Indiana, Vassar College, Manhattan School of Music, and SUNY-New Paltz.
Her playing has been dubbed “versatile,” and “skillful and musical.” Further quotes are “she blends love of the art with the highest expectations…students benefit from her understanding of different musical styles and her strong belief in the integrity of the score.”
She has collaborated with notable artists in concert such as Ai Goldsmith, Kallen Esperian, Thomas Studebaker, Adam Frey, and Jeffrey Wells. Ms. Brown has also been an asset as a masterclass pianist with adjudicators - Blythe Walker, Shirley Emmons, Regina Resnik, André Thomas, David Willcocks, Martin Katz, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie and Graham Johnson to name a few.
Susan is on staff at SUNY-New Paltz and Vassar College where she coaches vocal students, collaborates with instrumentalists, plays recitals, and accompanies for choruses.
She is excited to be sharing the stage with Gabriela Johnson, a wonderful colleague and a gifted artist.
