BROOKLYN AND PATCHOGUE, NY – OCTOBER 12, 2005 -As part of its 2005-06 cultural performance series, the St Joseph’s College Council for the Arts presents the New York City-based Latin/Jazz collective, Orquesta Universal. Formed and co-led by trumpeter Richard Vitale and guitarist/dancer/choreographer Carlos Konig, this twelve-piece salsa band features twice Grammy nominated singer David Oquendo. The performance will take place at 3:00 PM on Sunday, October 23, 2005 in the D’Ecclesiis Auditorium located in O’Connor Hall on the College’s Suffolk Campus. The band will offer beginner salsa dance lessons just prior to the performance at 2:30 p.m. The event is open to the general public and a $5 minimum donation is suggested.
Richard Vitale has performed and recorded with Tony Bennett, James Taylor and Buddy Rich, and has toured through Europe, Japan and the U.S., from coast to coast, with his own quintet. His experience with big bands has been no less impressive, performing as jazz soloist with Frank Sinatra, and in the jazz chairs of the Buddy Rich Big Band, the Count Basie Orchestra, The Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band – now known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Richard’s first recording as a leader on the TCB label titled Dreamsville, featuring alto master Gary Bartz, was released to critical acclaim and was hailed in Jazz Journal magazine as “a veritable treat from start to finish.”
Born in Santiago de Chile, Carlos Konig trained as a classical guitarist, played professionally and taught music for almost twenty years. In 1994, he began teaching mambo and integrated his musical sensibility, discipline and teaching experience into his dance. His style is now known among New York City Latin dance aficionados and beyond as a uniquely musical, creative and energetic translation of mambo music into motion. His peers and his students acknowledge him as one of the top teachers of mambo in New York. In the past, Carlos has shared the stage with “Palladium Mambo Legend” Freddie Rios and Jimmy Anton in a performance tribute to mambo music.
The Council for the Arts at St. Joseph’s College, New York is a group of volunteers from the College and the surrounding communities who seek to foster and encourage an appreciation and enjoyment of the fine and performing arts. The ultimate goal of the group is to develop in the students of St. Joseph’s College and in the larger community an enduring love of the arts, which will encourage their active involvement, either as participants or as informed spectators.
For more information, please call (631) 447-3200 or visit www.sjcny.edu.
St. Joseph’s College is located at 155 W. Roe Blvd. in Patchogue, and is accessible via the South Service Road of Sunrise Highway, just east of Exit 52 (Waverly Ave.).
About St. Joseph's College
St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility, and service. With campuses located in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn and in Patchogue, Long Island, the College offers degrees in over 21 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs through its School of Arts and Sciences and its School of Adult and Professional Education. Graduate degrees are also offered including an Executive MBA, a Master of Science in Management, a Master of Science Degree with a Major in Nursing, a Master of Arts in Literacy/Cognition and a Master of Arts in Infant/Toddler Early Childhood Special Education. |
