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The Bennett Centre

Nov 23, 2024 @ 7:30pm

Earth to Sky - Domenic DeCicco, Candida Valentino, Michael Ormiston in concert
a special concert inspired by our connection to the Earth.
Domenic DeCicco, Candida Valentino & Michael Ormiston will ... more

Earth to Sky - Domenic DeCicco, Candida Valentino, Michael Ormiston in concert
a special concert inspired by our connection to the Earth.
Domenic DeCicco, Candida Valentino & Michael Ormiston will be performing music from a selection of their albums and join each other for various pieces. The evening will feature Native American Flutes Mongolian Khöömii Overtone Singing Morin Khuur Mantra Himalayan Singing Bowls gongs heartfelt songs acoustic guitar Indian Chakra Shlokas and much more. Book early as limited tickets available.

Domenic DeCicco is an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist vocalist and composer/producer who has travelled the world sharing his music as a solo artist and as co-founder/lead vocalist of the innovative acoustic roots band Praying for the Rain. He is a deeply soulful and compelling musician and storyteller who brings a rich uncluttered quality to his music that fills his songs with evocative imagery and lyrical narrative. He will be performing songs from his new album Earth to Sky as well as from his 2021 release Never Letting Go.

Michael Ormiston is the UK's most experienced Mongolian Khöömii (Overtone) Singer a multi-instrumentalist composer workshop leader and therapeutic sound practitioner. Michael's Khöömii and overtone/undertone singing can be heard on his many CDs Hollywood films television documentaries theatre and dance productions. Michael is a very skilful creative and experienced Tibetan/Himalayan Singing Bowl and Gong player using them in performance and meditation.

Candida Valentino is singer and instrumentalist specialising in Overtone & Undertone Singing Mantras Bowls gongs and is a Kirtan leader and sings Shlokas and Vedic Chants in Sanskrit. Originally trained in visual arts and theatre design. In her early 30’s she discovered the world of Sound Healing Mindfulness meditation movement through Qigong and Yoga.

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Helmuth Treichel

Helmuth Treichel became after Gift’s split a member of various bands (Route 66, Cor, Mephisto, Walrus) and paused his active career as musician in 1997. Since then he lived as successful scientist (microelectronics and photovoltaics) in California, USA. and now resides back in his hometown Augsburg, Germany.

Uwe Schrödersecker

Born in 1966 in a small town in the south of Germany called Nördlingen, Uwe enjoyed a carefree childhood and got his first guitar for Xmas at the age of 10. After a short phase of learning violin, he started playing the guitar more seriously at the age of 13-14 and finally got classical vocal- and guitar-lessons during his time at the university. After 20 months of civilian pubic service in Munich he moved to “Bavarian Liverpool” Augsburg. There he started a band called Zaphod, playing Rock/Blues/Psychedelic originals. The 4-piece band was pretty successful locally, but quit after 3 or so years, mainly because Uwe’s priorities changed towards his wife and founding a family. But music never really left him and he proceeded playing in his home studio and collaborating online with various musicians in the entire world. In the meantime, Uwe is back on stage with various groups: a Rock-cover formation called Sunday in Jail, the in 2018 re-founded band Zaphod, which in 2021 finally will be launching their first CD and last but not least as part of the pretty successful acoustic version of Helmuth Treichel’s Atomic Picnic Project. Uwe now lives near Augsburg with his wife Petra, works fulltime in a company and is trying to split his free time between family, his musical projects and the house and garden.

Tiago Vega

Great bass player,great musician,one of my sons by the way.Founder member of Ciruelo,a band from Argentina

As we approach the holiday season, I am pleased to report that GALLEON has reached 208,000 song plays and over 258,000 profile views. While this means we must be doing something right, the fact is that we couldn't have reached these figures without the help of you, our fellow musicians and music lovers. Thank you so much for your support, and I hope it continues. And now I return you to our regularly scheduled post: Attention musicians in the Stone Mountain/Pine Lake area of Georgia: Local band GALLEON is making necessary changes in order to attain our artistic and commercial goals. We need top-quality musicians: DRUMMER, BASS PLAYER, and either LEAD GUITARIST or SAXOPHONE/FLUTE PLAYER. Our music is all original, highest quality, and bridges the genres of rock, folk-rock and modern country. Ability to sing harmony is helpful but not essential. What is essential, however, are the ability to learn new material quickly and the willingness and ability to take directions. GALLEON is NOT a democracy. I strive for continual improvement and excellence in our sound and professionalism in our approach, as I plan to take the band into the studio as soon as we are ready to record as many of our original songs as possible. As for club/concert bookings, I hope to use this recording to help us in that department. Feel free to check out some of our music here on this web page and judge our merits for yourself. Then contact me ASAP if you are interested in being part of something special. G A L L E O N ! Elliott Michaels, bandleader Telephone (404) 552-2763 or (404) 374-0100 Email galleonmaster@yahoo.com

A group born of musical inspiration in the year 2004, “Windows To Eternity” is the culminating effort of driving factor, composer, and as of this writing almost unknown guitar virtuoso Kelly James McKee: "...for the virtuoso rock guitar lovers out there...a great amount of technique on display, from alternate-picked runs and smooth legato phrases to feel-infused melodic control..." - Andre Avanessian Built-in to the group's heritage is a continuation of great musical influences from a point forever in the past blended into a musical language constructed in the present for a set of modern instruments to play – the ‘rock band’. These musical influences are held as timeless and forever, and represent the deeper study of music as opposed to music constructed out of the mundane.  In modern times, since the late 1960’s, this mantle has served as the basis for heavy metal music explorations by its leading contributors. The timelessness of the music’s attributes is as solid as if written into marble: “The arts of flute and lyre playing and other such arts make use of melody and rhythm” –Aristotle. Even during times of the greatest height of monarchic dynasties; even in the Court at Versailles under King Louis XIV of France, times when manners were strict but morals were unfortunately loose; musicians plied the trade and often furthered the cause of music...  The music of Windows To Eternity via the worldwide web, and increasingly through live performance, carries the tradition forward with its increasing range of unexpected song entering the fray and at times resisting the direction, of today’s media hype and imagery. Founding member Kelly McKee was born in the outlying middle-class suburbs of Chicago during August of 1968, a year of social discontent, upheaval, and riots. But, overall he was raised in a good home of racial heritage -influenced adolescence.  However, even circumstances like these can produce many conflicts among the youth and Kelly would learn how to be fighting tough while growing up.  Musical learning and appreciation were also emphasized by Kelly’s father as well as extended family in Wisconsin, and he would spend time absorbing classical music theory by listening with a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven perched atop Bozak speakers, thus growing an interest in musical composing. Much later part of Kelly’s family would end up moving far out west to Reno, Nevada to live near the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At around age 19 he began picking up guitar, playing at night in a glass-enclosed auto service station where he worked, and where a fellow co-worker was a first guitar teacher. This experience had built upon earlier music lessons on recorder, piano, and violin. From there, self-teaching took over as he found the ultimate musical instrument for self-expression, and mastery soon started to develop thereafter. Musical inspiration was found in the great scenic mountains all around. After working in myriad labor jobs, including one in manufacturing in which he would come out covered in black soot at the end of swing shift, Kelly would return to college in 1995. Rather than letting music blend over into his college studies, he began majoring in math and science and would eventually earn an Engineering Physics diploma. He specialized in optical engineering, fulfilling a lifelong quest. After that, he was recruited to work in the defense industry in the area of high-energy lasers development. All-in-all, he would accumulate fifteen years engineering experience and remains interested in the field today. But musical inspiration remained constant throughout those years of efforts. In fact, the compositions "I'll Never Be Your Automaton" and "Statue Courtyard", in the form of basic guitar recordings and essays about the music, were turned in for creative final writing credit in a history course, to pass! One thing that demarcates Kelly and shows through in his songwriting centers around observation of his own cultural times. According to Kelly: "Rather than being divorced from the past, my generation didn't like being force-fed culture.." His music also displays good comprehension of the history of peoples from across the earth, and quite expertly has made use of culture -based tonality in composition. This is the case in the acoustic 'Centurion's Outpost', in which tonality matches an ancient Roman setting. This was accomplished through derivation of a new guitar open tuning, E-Ab-Db-G-Bb-D, that either was unknown before or more likely was extremely rarely ever used in guitar history; and required invention of new chord patterns in order to transpose progressions in the theoretical score to fit the neck of the instrument. Then there's 'Statue Courtyard', in which there are Prokofiev -influenced dissonance scenes artfully constructed to give a foreground-background sound between two guitars, for great depth and realism. The complexity of the recording is successful in representing a system in overthrow, almost in a film noir stylistic form. Stressed throughout is real instrument recorded in real time, with apparently much less dependency placed upon sequenced and sampled instruments. Although it is an emerging world unto itself, the work shows artificial instrument can never fully replace the immediacy, detailed sound, or self-disciplined impact of real instrument mastery and tone. Album one You're Lost has surpassed nearly all other entries in rock/metal music in poignancy and growing relevancy, with parallel themes and subjects that underlie the political science topics of the times. Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond; the music of Windows To Eternity will now have the support of fully developed and completed studio environs. Says Kelly: "They are being used to conclude Album No. 2: Dark Day Of The Arena in high fashion, and make the way for embarking on new musical journeys with great variety in recorded stereoscopic tone, never available before". Stay tuned-- Vive le Musique ! Copyright August 2024, KM Productions.

Ah, “Aja”—a classic gem by Steely Dan! Released in 1977 as the title track of their sixth studio album, it’s a jazz-infused masterpiece that showcases the band’s musical prowess. Now, let’s dive into the Billboard chart history, shall we? “Aja” reached an impressive number three on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart! That’s quite the achievement. And not just that—it also climbed to number five on the UK Albums Chart. Clearly, it struck a chord with listeners worldwide. Listen to the audio clip and watch the reaction video to learn more about this iconic Jazz fusion masterpiece. The songwriters, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, played guitar and synthesizer, respectively, on the track. However, they enlisted studio musicians for other parts. Fagen sang lead vocals, and production duties were handled by Gary Katz. Notably, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter and drummer Steve Gadd made their first appearances in this song. Gadd’s drum solo in the song’s tag was recorded in just two takes, making it the first drum solo in a Steely Dan track.