Skidmore Faculty

Susan Loegering Daves played principal bassoon in the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans from 1993 to 2010. For many of those years she was on the orchestra board including serving as president of the musicians committee. While in New Orleans she taught bassoon and chamber music at Loyola and Tulane Universities. Mrs. Daves has also toured extensively with the Meliora Winds woodwind quintet including having management and being on Performance Today on NPR. Recently she moved back to the Capital District, got married and has twin boys. She is currently freelancing in the area playing and subbing with groups including Albany Symphony, Schenectady Symphony, Catskill Symphony and Glens Falls Symphony.

Randall Ellis attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he studied with Ronald Roseman. He is principal oboist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society, and is solo English horn in the New York Pops Orchestra. He is the oboist in Windscape Woodwind Quintet, artists in residence at the Manhattan School of Music. He was principal oboist of the New York Chamber Symphony and received two Grammy nominations, including one for his recording of Howard Hanson’s Pastorale. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Ellis has appeared as a guest artist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has concertized and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been a soloist with the New England Bach Festival, the International Bach Festival of Madeira, the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and Chamber Music at the 92nd Street Y. Mr. Ellis has freelanced with the Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Philomusica and the Orchestras of the Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, and the American Ballet Theatre dance companies. Mr. Ellis has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Sunday Morning, and many times on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. His performances have been heard on National Public Radio, European radio, and NHK Radio and TV in Japan. Mr. Ellis has recorded for EMI/Angel, Columbia, Sony, RCA, Vox, Nonesuch, CRI, Pro Arte, Delos, and Deutsche Grammophon. He has performed with Winton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center and on Broadway in the orchestra for the musical Wicked. He teaches oboe and chamber music at Skidmore College.

Clarinetist Paul Green began performing at an early age, and at age 13 he performed with Leonard Bernstein in a Young People’s Concert with the New York Philharmonic. In 1965 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, and was invited by composer Gian-Carlo Menotti to perform at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, where he played with Jacqueline DuPre, Richard Goode and Charles Wadsworth. Presently, he has an active musical career both in Western Massachusetts and South Florida. He is the first clarinetist of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, the Catskill Symphony Orchestra, and the Broad Street Orchestra. He is also an active participant in chamber music festivals and series throughout the world, having performed in the Middle East as an Artistic Ambassador for the U.S. Information Agency, in contemporary music festivals in Krakow, Poland, Lima, Peru, Cuernavaca, Mexico, and Kishiniev, Moldova, in the Yale School of Music Festival in Norfolk, CT, the Festival at Sandpoint, ID. the Colorado Music Festival, the Kneisel Hall Festival, and the Manchester Music Festival. He has performed regularly with such series’ as “Music and More” and “Close Encounters with Music” in Massachusetts, and the Tannery Pond and Leafpeepers series’ in New York. As co-director of “A Summer Celebration of Jewish Music,” he presents a wide variety of Jewish music throughout Berkshire County, Massachusetts. An avid jazz musician, his recent CD, “Music Coming Together,” a merger of jazz and klezmer music, reached #16 on the CMJ Top 40 Jazz Chart and received multiple rave reviews from jazz publications throughout the United States. He has been a faculty member at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton and Florida International University School of Music in Miami, and is presently a faculty member at Skidmore College, Williams College, Schenectady Community College and the Berkshire Music School.

Eric Latini has been playing the Trumpet professionally since the age of 15. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston MA where he received his BM in Trumpet performance. He has studied with
Principal players from various prestigious orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. He has given solo performances with the Albany Symphony and Berkshire symphony and can be heard on various recordings. On the Tel-Arc and Albany record labels. He currently performs with the Albany Symphony and Glimmerglass Opera. Eric has had the privilege to perform with some of today’s greatest artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Luciano Pavorotti and Yefim Bronfman to name a few. He is the Trumpet Professor at Skidmore College and the College of Saint Rose and maintains a busy schedule as a recitalist and chamber musician. He resides in Colonie, NY where he teaches privately.

Milton Lee completed his 24th year of teaching and is currently the band director and department chair at Saratoga Springs High School and the conductor for the Skidmore College Concert Band. Throughout his 19 years at Saratoga he taught band at every grade level. The last fourteen years have been at the high school where he currently conducts Symphonic Band and Concert Jazz Band. Mr. Lee also completed his second tour with American Music Abroad where he served as conductor for the AMA Symphonic Band. Over the three week tour they performed in France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. He recently served as conductor for the Eastern U.S Music Camp at Colgate University and has conducted numerous All-County festivals in the Up State New York area. He also taught in Corinth Central Schools and Schenectady City School District. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Crane School of Music where he studied conducting with Brock McElheran and Rebecca Covel. He earned his Master’s Degree in Music Composition and Ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland in 1992 where he studied composition with Stewart Smith. He has been an active freelance trumpet player since 1988 and has performed with Glens Falls Symphony, Capital Region Wind Ensemble, Hamilton St, Joey Thomas Big Band, and currently plays with the Adirondack Jazz Project. Studies in trumpet included Seymour Rosenfeld, George Coble, Bobby Shew, and Vince DeMartino.

Patrice Malatestinic has served as Horn Instructor & Brass Chamber Music Coach at Skidmore College since 1990. She is a free lance French Hornist in the capital region, and a member of the Glens Falls and Schenectady Symphonies. Her Masters degree in Performance and Pedagogy culminates from graduate work at Northern Illinois University, Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie  Detmold, Die Hochschüle fur Musik ‘Mozarteum’ Salzberg, and work at  the College of St Rose. Ms. Malatestinic directs the St Peter’s Horn Choir, and she has been a member of the North Winds Quintet, On Cor, and Saratoga Brass. Additionally, she is Adjunct Professor of French Horn at The College of St Rose, Albany, NY, and a member of the International Horn Society. After participating in IHS Symposia around the world, she hosted the regional Northeast Horn Workshop at Skidmore College (2008). An active horn teacher, she maintains private horn studios in downtown Albany and at her home in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Tubist Michael Silvagnoli holds a Bachelor’s of Music and a Master’s of Music in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. He has taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade bands and Middle School Jazz Ensemble in the Shenendehowa Central School District since 2003 and has been teaching tuba at Skidmore College since 2005. He also maintains a low brass studio and has conducted at various All County Festivals throughout the Capital Region. Michael has studied tuba with Dr. Peter Popiel and Dr. Charles Guy and has performed in a wide dynamic of performing groups such as the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, Schenectady Symphony Orchestra, Capital Region Wind Ensemble, Northern Symphonic Winds, and the Gazelle Tour of Lion King at Proctor’s Theater. He also a member of the brass quintet, Brass Abbey, which actively performs concerts throughout the Capital Region. He currently resides in Ballston Lake with his wife Leia and three daughters, Adelaide, Emelia, and Lucille.

First Prizewinner of England's International Electric Nusic Performance Competition, Jan Vinci has performed in Alice Tully, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall and Symphony Space and at events such as Blossom Festival, International Computer Music Conference in The Netherlands, Electric Music Festival in England, Killington Music Festival, Chamber Music Conference of the East at Bennington College, New York Flute Club concert series and several National Flute Association Conventions. She has also performed in Denmark and Ibiza, Spain, as well as at Stanford University, Ithaca College, Crane, University of West Florida, University of Central Oklahoma, and in return engagements at her alma maters. With a chamber music career spanning over 20 years. Ms. Vinci performs with Iridescence - Flute and Harp Duo, which has played venues such as Toledo Museum of Art, Troy Music Hall, Hyde Collection Museum and The Juilliard School. For 10 years with Tritonis, a flute, guitar and cello ensemble, Ms. Vinci performed throughout the USA, commissioned over 20 works, and recorded Five Premieres: Chamber Works With Guitar for Albany Records. Percussia, an ensemble with percussion, received numerous grants from NYSCA, Queens Council on the Arts and Chamber Music America for performance, educational and recording projects. Ms. Vinci has performed on the National Public Radio’s program Performance Today and, as an orchestral musician, she performed with the Albany Symphony, Cleveland Opera Theater and Heidelburg orchestras. Dr. Vinci is Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY and formerly served on the faculties of Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and Hofstra University. For more than a decade, Ms. Vinci has directed and taught master classes at the Skidmore Summer Flute Institute and has presented the Skidmore Flute Festival. She served as President of the New York Flute Club. Ms. Vinci holds a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School, an M.M. from Cleveland Institute of Music and a B.M. from Bowling Green State University. Her primary teachers include Julius Baker, Samuel Baron, Maurice Sharp, Judith Bentley and Martha Aarons.

Jazz saxophonist and composer Mark Vinci has performed at numerous festivals such as North Sea, Kool, Montreaux, Monterey and Nice. Often a featured soloist, a Copenhagen Politiken concert review states, “You have to go back to Thad Jones to have an adventure with the same infectious enthusiasm. …. Vinci’s playing was supported by exuberance and musical intelligence which brought our thinking back to Julian Cannonball Adderley.” The Berlingske Tidende comments, "The brilliant American saxophone player Mark Vinci has a rare ability to be instrumental in bringing about his art with an unbelievable charm and catching gusto." Vinci was a member of the following big bands: Woody Herman, Gerry Mulligan, John Fedchock, Maria Schneider, and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and has performed, toured, and/or recorded with artists including Joe Lovano, Stefon Harris, Rosemary Clooney, and Tony Bennett. A four-time Grammy nominee, Vinci recorded for Blue Note, Concord, Telarc, Sony and Albany Records, among others. His commissioned compositions were performed for the Empire State Youth Orchestra’s “New Music for a New Generation” festival, the United Nations, numerous jazz festivals and National Flute Association conventions. Mark Vinci's TINGsha Bom t-Bom ti-Bom for flute and orchestra is the latest addition to his list of compositions for flute. He also composed "Crow's Nest" for solo flute, "When I See You" for flute and alto saxophone (recorded on Albany Records) and "Dirge for Lost Souls" for 2 flutes… one that circular breathes! Vinci is a faculty member of Skidmore College and the jazz studies program at The Juilliard School. For more on Mark Vinci, please visit markvinci.com