May: Jeanette Ferguson, Mixed Media

Tioga State Bank
1135 State Route 17C
Owego, New York
Open Monday – Friday
10:00am – 3:30pm

May: Jim Malone, Photography

Performing Arts

A Musical Kaleidoscope

Saturday May 17th, 2008
7:00 to 9:00 PM
Owego United Methodist Church, Main Street

On Saturday May 17th, 2008 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, a concert entitled "A Musical Kaleidoscope", to honor and pay tribute to Bob O’Gara and Margery Clark.

John P. Cashwell, tenor and composer
In the upcoming Owego performance I plan to perform some opera arias and perhaps one of my own compositions. Opera arias will include Nessun Dorma from Turandot, Una Furtiva Lagrima from L’elisir d’amore, and Che Gelida Manina from La Bohème.

John Cashwell grew up in Owego, NY. He earned his BFA in Opera Performance at SUNY Purchase. He now lives in Cary NC where he works as a computer programmer and church musician. Over the past several years he has performed in many operas. Recently he appeared as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi for Capitol Opera Company, Tom in the international debut of Strange Fruit for Long Leaf Opera Company, the Caliph in Kismet for Long Leaf Opera Company, Silvio in Dr. Miracle, Raoul de St Brioche in The Merry Widow for the Opera Company of North Carolina, Goro in Madam Butterfly for Capitol Opera Company, and Harlequin in Der Kaiser Von Atlantis directed by Grammy award winner Michael Haas. John is also an amateur composer. He will soon be releasing a long awaited CD of Christian pop songs regarding the Gospel of Luke. One of the songs on the CD won an international amateur songwriting competition in Nashville, TN.

David M. Berry, bass
A native of the Owego (Lounsberry) area, David M. Berry is a graduate of Owego Free Academy where he was active in Band, Orchestra, Concert Choir, Top 20, and Area All State Chorus. He has participated in various and many church choirs and ensembles throughout the area as vocalist, soloist, and director. He is currently choir director at First Baptist Church of Owego and of the Nichols Area Ecumenical Choir's Advent and Lenten presentations. As a charter member of the Owego Chamber Ensemble, David sang "Melchior" in their 1985 presentation of "Amahl and the Night Visitors". He was honored to join the 1988 and 1989 European Tours of the United Methodist Festival Choir as vocalist and soloist. David was featured soloist with the Choice Voices of Elmira when they participated in the "Advent Sing" in Vienna, Austria in December 1994. He was part of the Ti-Ahwaga Community Players' production of "River Island Bound" and the Waverly Summer Theatre's "Fiddler on the Roof". For this program, David will offer a medley of Broadway show tunes from "South Pacific", "Oklahoma", "My Fair Lady", "Man of LaMancha", "Showboat", and others.

Cathy O'Gara 
Cathy graduated in 1990 from Mercyhurst Co9llege's D'Angelo Conservatory where she studied Bel Canto under Maestro Chiarelli.  She  has also studied with Ethel Maxwell (NYC Opera) and Peter Siciliano (Tricities Opera) as well as Carmen Villa Alta (Pagnini Conservatory, Genoa, Italy) 

While living in America, she concentrated mainly on her musical theatre skills.  Some of her favourite roles include: Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense and Nunsense II, Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods, and Frankie Frayne in On Your Toes.

Since moving to Italy, however, in 1995, she has branched out in the exploration of various musical styles.  She performed Handel's Messiah, Schubert Mass in A flat minor and Bach's St. Matthew's Passion under the direction of Marco Berrini of ARS Cantica in Milan in 2003 and 2004.  In 2005 and 2006 she was a soloist in the Capella MacKenzie Choir under the direction of Vera Marenco.  They performed at the Spoletto festival of "Due Mondi" in both the "Ora Mistica" as well as "Umbria Segreto" for the last two summers to rave reviews.

She has written and starred in her own one woman show entitled "100 years of Broadway".
And enjoys performing in the T-Bone Blues Band in popular music pubs all over Italy.

She is honored to return to Owego and sing for her home town once again on this very special and meaningful occasion.

Richard Parkinson, guitarist, folksinger and storyteller
Richard grew up in Australia where he was trained as an aeronautical engineer. While living and working in Sydney, he began acting with the Anglican Theatre Group, sang in coffeehouses and was the guitarist for a singing group called The King’s Messengers. In 1976, Richard came to the United States to pursue doctoral studies in engineering at Princeton. On graduation, he went to work for the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment in Washington, DC. Working there to help policymakers understand technology, Richard found time to pursue acting studies to balance and augment his career. The appeal of the big city was short lived, and in the early 80s Richard moved to Binghamton “to work on high-tech aerospace and live in the bush.” What he didn’t know at the time was that this area offers so many performance opportunities to one with non-professional aspirations in theater and music. Richard became active with the Ti-Ahwaga Players, performing in Oklahoma and Charlie’s Aunt. In Oklahoma, he danced with Karen Harriell who remains ever endeared to him for her courage and encouragement. Richard also performed poetry with The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton. More recently, he participated in “A Night to Remember” with A Singing Actor’s Studio. He now sings in various coffeehouse events in the Triple Cities and in Owego where he is known to perform the odd ballad poem.

Karen Harriell, ballerina
Karen Harriell is the owner and artistic director of TerpsiDance! (formerly Children’s Preparatory Ballet Academy). She began serious ballet training at Huntsville Civic Ballet Company under the direction of Loyd Tygett where she achieved the status of Principal Dancer. She continued her dance education at Birmingham Southern College earning a degree in Dance Performance. She performed with the Birmingham Ballet and Indianapolis Ballet where she achieved rank of Soloist. Karen enjoyed many years of the thrill of performing and now has the pleasure of passing that experience on to her talented students. YA Dance! Company (Young Artists Dance Company) is a performing ensemble made up of students from TerpsiDance! Ballet school.

Bradley Wierbowski, teen pianist and composer
Brad Wierbowski is a teen pianist from Owego. He is a junior at Seton Catholic Central High School. Brad studied beginner and intermediate piano with Patricia Cashwell for seven years, beginning at age seven. He also studied music theory under Doug Beardslee. Brad is currently studying advanced piano with Craig Johnson of Owego. Brad has composed an original piano piece, "Call to Destiny", c 2006, which he will be sharing at the TCCA 'Musical Kaleidoscope' concert on May 17th. In addition to playing piano, Brad runs cross-country and track at SCCHS, and is interested in writing.

Dancers for this Performance:
Helen Hiltebeital
Julia Hiltebeital
Larissa Hankey
Kayla Rose Hankey

Piano Accompanists for this Performance:
Eva Baldwin
Ann Lowdermilk
Arlene Mills

Concerts in the Park

Presented by:
The Tioga County Council on the Arts
and funded by:
The Town of Owego.
Hickories Park - Owego, NY
Wednesday Evenings 7 - 9 PM

Kids Night Out 2008

Entertainment for Kids at the Courthouse Gazebo, Downtown Owego, NY
7:00 - 8:00 PM
Free

For kids of all ages! Bring a smile and a blanket or chair. Even if you don’t have kids, come on down and have a relaxing enjoyable evening in downtown Owego.

Thursday, July 3rd
Fun With Puppets
Tom Knight, Puppeteer
(Please note this is a Thursday performance)

Tom Knight has been writing and performing for kids for 14 years. Formerly with the Peanut Butter and Jelly Puppeteers, Tom creates a dynamic performance suited to any kind of audience. It's a show that's fun for kids, but savvy enough to appeal to grown-ups too.

Friday, July 11th
Sing-a-long for Kids
Johnny Only

Friday, July 18th
Juggler Extraordinaire
Will Stafford

Folk Arts Series

The Tioga County Council on the Arts is pleased to announce its “Folk Arts Series” for 2008. These events are free and open to the public.

The Folk Arts Series is made possible, in part, by the Cooper Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a state agency, and Senator Thomas W. Libous