Dan Gordon
Dan Gordon, a member of the music faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh since 1994, is an active performer on the saxophone both in this region and abroad. Regionally, he performs regular faculty recitals at SUNY in addition to his frequent performances as baritone saxophonist with the Frontier Saxophone Quartet, which he founded with performers from the Plattsburgh region and Montreal. Gordon also performs regularly as director of the SUNY Plattsburgh saxophone ensemble, which he founded in connection with his responsibilities as saxophone instructor at SUNY. Abroad, Gordon was a part of the saxophone teaching corps at the Domaine Forget International Music Festival in northern Quebec for summer residencies from 1997-99, and has taught and performed in residency at the Suomen Tyoevaeen Musiikkiliitto International Summer Music Festival in Teisko, Finland since 2004.

Equally active as a conductor, Gordon directs the Symphonic Band at SUNY Plattsburgh, has served as director of the McGill University Wind Symphony and the Adirondack Youth Orchestra, and is founder, President, and Director of the Adirondack Wind Ensemble (AWE), a professional group consisting primarily of music educators from around the North Country. AWE performs annual winter concerts in Giltz Auditorium at SUNY Plattsburgh, and will expand its concert schedule this year by performing at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.

Gordon's other performing credits include appearances at Alice Tully Hall and Bruno Walter Auditorium at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Embassy in Paris, the Circle of Fine Arts in Madrid, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Hall (Finland), Pollack and Redpath Halls in Montreal, and several smaller venues in Canada, Italy, Finland, Spain, France, and the U.S.

Gordon writes frequently about his musical pursuits. His articles on various aspects of conducting and the saxophone, as well as on non-musical topics as diverse as food, travel, and puzzles, have been published in over a dozen periodicals. He has also authored a full-length book entitled Sax on the Streets: Confessions of an American Street Musician in Europe, which chronicles his (mis)adventures performing saxophone duets with a friend across thirteen European countries in the late 1980s. It is available online through writeronlinebooks.com.

Rose Chancler
Rose Chancler Feinbloom is a frequent performer throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, making appearances equally as soloist, collaborative artist, and teacher. She has played concertos and solo recitals in Alaska, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Oklahoma, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Recent concerts have included solo piano recitals in Port Henry, Elizabethtown and Essex, New York, and several concerts on harpsichord with the Summer Baroque Ensemble. Recent recitals with Volkan Orhon include the Friends of Chamber music series in Tucson, in Pittsburgh, and the International String Bass convention in Oklahoma City. She thoroughly enjoys collaborating with other musicians, and has played chamber music performances with notable artists including Paul Rosenthal, Jeffrey Solow, Harvey Pittel, Carol Wincenc, Joseph Wytko, and others. She has been an invited guest artist and teacher at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and at Magisterra- the University of Iowa International Chamber Music Festival and Academy. Rose's collaboration with double-bassist Volkan Orhon has resulted in a highly-acclaimed release of a CD of violin and cello masterworks on the Centaur label.

Rose has held teaching positions at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, the Baylor University School of Music, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and the University of Iowa School of Music. She has been a faculty accompanist and coach at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, and the Meadowmount School of Music in Lewis, New York. She was most recently a faculty member at Plattsburgh State University of New York, and currently runs a private studio in her home in Wadhams.

Rose holds a bachelor's degree in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin, and master's and doctoral degrees in piano performance and literature from the Eastman School in Rochester, N.Y.

Ben Model
Ben Model has been accompanying silent films on piano and theatre organ for MoMA for a quarter of a century. Earlier this year he co-curated MoMA's "Cruel and Unusual Comedy" slapstick film series, and in 2006 he co-curated their 2-month Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle retrospective. Ben's passion for silent film was fostered by a trifecta of classic cinema godfathers: he grew up watching silents at the home of Walter Kerr, then accompanied silent films for William K. Everson's classes while attending NYU, all the while learning his craft from master film organist Lee Erwin. Ben is a regular accompanist at the annual "Silent Film Days" festival in Norway, "Slapsticon" in Arlington, VA, the "Fall Cinesation" in Massillon, OH, and an ongoing silent film series at the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island. Ben also travels around the U.S. presenting silent films at universities, churches, museums and historic theaters.

Ben is the producer/accompanist for the popular NYC-based "Silent Clowns Film Series", which he co-founded with Bruce Lawton now in its 13th year of programming.

Ben's recorded scores can be heard on on Kino's John Barrymore, Edison, Reel Baseball and Houdini DVD sets, AllDayEntertainment's "American Slapstick" and "Becoming Charley Chase" DVD sets, as well as several DVDs from UnknownVideo and ReelClassic DVD. He has had orchestral scores commissioned by the Boise Philharmonic and the New York Ragtime Orchestra for films by Chaplin, Keaton and Nell Shipman, and he has recently rearranged two of these scores for high school band. Last year year Ben launched www.altscore.com, the first online service to download alternate musical scores for silent films on DVD. For more information about Ben Model, visit www.silentfilmmusic.com

Jill Dawe
Combining a career of performing and teaching pianist Jill Dawe plays a wide range of chamber music, solo, and concerto repertoire. She has a particular affinity for new music and interdisciplinary collaboration that has led to some unusual performances including those that combine piano music with dance, film and other arts. Recent performances include concerto engagements with the Heartland Symphony and St. Paul Jewish Community Orchestra, and a guest recital at the Chautauqua Institution, NY. Upcoming are performances with 2 pianos and percussion, a violin and piano concert in South Dakota and a John Cage presentation at Macalester College in Minneapolis.

Jill is a native of Newfoundland, Canada and a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. She is currently an associate professor of music at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and she has also taught on the faculties of Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina; Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio; and at the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to meet and play for the Piano By Nature community and to visit the north country in winter!

Lori Salimando-Porter & Destino Brass
Destino Brass is a group of seasoned musicians who have performed with many ensembles, to include the Vermont Symphony, Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra as well as on Broadway.

Trombonist, Lori Salimando-Porter returned home to Chazy, NY in 2006 after retiring from the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, NY. What she found was the everlasting beauty of the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain, as well as some old and new friends who now make up Destino Brass.

Their audiences enjoy the lush sonority and regal elegance of brass instruments while enjoying a repertoire of classical masterpieces, sacred music and popular hits from Broadway. The ensemble can be heard at concerts, recitals, educational outreach, and sacred ceremonies.

Please join us for a concert of diverse brass music performed by Destino Brass, an ensemble dedicated to musical excellence while living in one of the most beautiful areas of our country.