4720-120 Hargrove Road. Raleigh
NC 27616
About the Series
Developing the Total Musician – Teaching Essential Skills: Improvisation, Accompanying, and Sight Reading
We value the commitment of piano teachers to serve our students with professionalism and teaching expertise. Committed to education, we proudly present this complimentary three-part lecture series. To ensure the health and safety of our clinicians and participants, this year’s programs will be available to attend in-person and via live stream.
Students who are available to participate due to flexible remote learning schedules are also welcome to attend! The live stream link will be available on our website at ruggeropiano.com prior to each presentation. These workshops are complimentary – we invite you to join us in-person or via Live Stream!
About This Presentation
Developing the skills to teach Improvisation can seem mysterious. The necessary skills to encourage a love of improvisation can be enhanced with learning the scale and chord work to open up possibilities at the piano. Altering melodies with rhythm or re-phrasing the musical line will be demonstrated. Written harmonies can be embellished with scales! Teacher participation is encouraged for hands-on learning during the presentation.
About the Presenter
Pianist Ed Paolantonio has been described as an “all consuming musician…(whose) solo struck sparks all around the room.” — Owen Cardle (News & Observer, Raleigh, NC) “He’s outstanding, …talented and prolific”, said R. C. Smith (Durham Morning Herald). Joe Vanderford (Spectator, Raleigh, NC) wrote of “Paolantonio’s sound … full of arpeggios, utilizing every one of the eighty-eights”.
Paolantonio hails from New York City, but lives now in Durham, NC. Besides earning a BS in Music Ed. from Suny Potsdam, and an MM. in Performance from UNC Chapel Hill, he studied 3½ years with world famous jazz pianist, teacher, and composer Lennie Tristano. He has been composing, arranging and performing jazz professionally since 1971, and has accompanied many jazz giants, including Dizzy Gillespie, Slide Hampton, Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Heath, Claudio Roditi, Tom Harrell, Woody Shaw and Emily Remler.
Paolantonio has toured North Carolina with jazz drummer Max Roach. As an artist on the NC Touring Program, he performed with his much-acclaimed jazz vocal group, String of Pearls. He toured the Middle East for USIA with vibraphonist Jon Metzger, and has been the recipient of two North Carolina Jazz Fellowship Awards and the Durham Emerging Artist Grant.
An excellent clinician, Paolantonio has served in schools and colleges in and out of state. He was a NC Artist in Residence for three years, and has taught jazz improvisation and history at North Carolina Central University, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, North Carolina State University, and Elon College. As an accompanist, Paolantonio’s recording credits include Baron Tymas’s CD “Insight at Midnight”; A Benny Goodman CD recorded for Elon College “Airmail Special”; Mike Waddell’s CD “Defining Moments”; a Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington CD recorded with the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra; Scott Sawyer’s CD, “In the Stream”; Group Sax’s three recordings “A New Level”, “All’s Well” and “Prime Time”; Karen Love’s CD “I Believe in Little Things”; and Dan Axelrod’s L.P. “New Axe” distributed on the Phoenix Record label.
Dedications, Paolantonio’s first CD, showcases his superb talent as a composer and arranger, and demonstrates his outstanding ability as a jazz improviser.
“Dad’s Blues” is Paolantonio’s second recording as a leader and is available through Ed’s web site:
(paoloproductions.com)
