The Jamesville-DeWitt Fine Arts Hall of Fame
held its inaugural celebration Tuesday, November 26, 2019 7:00 pm
J-D High School Auditorium
Congratulations 2019 Jamesville-DeWitt
Fine Arts Hall of Fame Inductees
(Any problems watching the video, please email jdfahall@gmail.com)
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J-D Fine Arts Hall of Fame
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The Jamesville-DeWitt Fine Arts Hall of Fame
is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit charity
Amy Feldman Bernon 1985 Music
Amy’s love of music began when her parents sent her across the street to Joyce Ucci’s house for her first piano lesson. During high school, she was a member of Roaring 20’s, Select Choir, Concert Band, and Orchestra. Bonnie Nye and Ron Nuzzo were her supportive teachers, encouraging her to participate in All-County and All-State.
Amy earned degrees from the Hartt School of Music and the Yale University School of Music. She studied composition with Martin Bresnick, Robert Carl, and Jacob Druckman, piano with Watson Morrison, and voice with William Diard and Lili Chookasian. She was a member of the Hartt Chamber Singers and the Yale Camerata, and she spent her summers participating in musical theater as a writer and performer.
Amy taught at the Buckingham Browne and Nichols School (MA) and The Taft School (CT). She was director of the Litchfield County Children’s Choir and founding director of the Alamanda Women’s Choir. Commissioned by choirs in the U.S. and abroad, Amy has approximately 100 choral pieces published by Alfred Music, Choristers Guild, Hal Leonard, and Heritage Music Press. She is a proud member of the American Choral Directors Association. Amy teaches privately and lives with her husband, Jonathan, in Woodbury, Connecticut.
Alex Brandt 2006 Technical Theater, Art
Alex studied photography during all four of his years at J-D. He won several Scholastic Art and Writing awards for photography. His initial theater experience was on Les Miserables, which began a four year period of working with and learning from Cindy Shippers. Throughout high school, he spent as much time as possible in the theater, including working with the new ETC lighting system. He worked with countless amazing staff and parents from the community helping to produce musicals and dance recitals.
His first professional theater experience was working as an audio engineer on The Talent Company’s production of West Side Story. He earned a BFA in Design & Technology, summa cum laude from Emerson College. In Boston, Alex was a master electrician at ArtsEmerson, production coordinator at Event Illuminations, lighting director at Boston Lyric Opera, and assistant lighting supervisor at the American Repertory Theater. Throughout his years in Boston, Alex also spent his springtimes as a master electrician at Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC.
He recently relocated to New York City where he is lighting supervisor at The Public Theater. Alex works on dozens of productions that appear in the company’s five East Village theaters, plus a summer Shakespeare in the Park series at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Beth Quackenbush, Cindy Shippers, Lisa Troubetaris, and many others greatly shaped his career path. “Everything after J-D was because of them!”
Rhys Henson 1974 Music
Rhys began his musical career in summer 1964, at age 8, on a soprano bugle with the Clinton Square Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps (later known as the Syracuse Marauders). That fall in third grade, his mom got him a trumpet and taught him the C scale, and he joined the Genesee Hills school band. The next year, he added chorus. Throughout his years at J-D, Rhys played trumpet in the school’s concert, select, and jazz bands, as well as in the school musicals’ pit bands. He sang in the concert and select choirs and with the Roaring 20’s show choir.
Rhys earned A+ NYSSMA scores on both trumpet and vocal solos throughout his school years. He was also chosen to play trumpet with the All-County Jazz Ensemble every year. As a junior he was asked to play lead trumpet with the Syracuse University Jazz Ensemble and was also selected to play lead trumpet in the All-State Jazz Ensemble, his first year under the direction of Chuck Mangione and under Rayburn Wright his senior year. At 16, Rhys started playing professionally with local bands and teaching trumpet to private students. He also taught the brass line and arranged music for The Syracuse 76’ers Drum & Bugle Corps.
At 23, Rhys moved to Los Angeles, spending 30 years as a freelance player. He studied with world-renowned player, Claude Gordon, who was a longtime student of Herbert L. Clarke (solo cornetist for the John Philip Sousa Band). He played in symphonies, big bands, touring Broadway shows, recording studios, and on cruise ships. He performed on TV and in movies as a sideline musician. Rhys played trumpet for and road-managed Columbia Artists nostalgia shows, backing for artists Vic Damone, Diahann Carroll, Shirley Jones, and Pat Boone. In 1984, he played with The Fanfare Trumpets for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games of the XXIII Olympiad.
In 1992, Rhys formed a horn band called Groove Therapy. For 16 years they played state and county fairs, weddings, casinos, colleges, music festivals, park concerts, and corporate parties for NBC, ABC, Hilton Hotels, Toyota, and the Los Angeles Angels baseball team among others. They performed at Disneyland, Universal Studios, and famous LA clubs like the House of Blues, the Roxy, and BB King’s. They recorded two albums featuring original material on one and cover songs on the other. Groove Therapy opened for The Average White Band, The Grass Roots, and Stevie Wonder.
In 2008, Rhys moved back to Syracuse to care for a family member. Since being back, Rhys has taught the Brigadiers Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps for five years. He gives clinics, teaches privately, and plays with local bands and for theater productions. He co-founded Brig Juice, a brass ensemble, comprised of players ages 16 and up that includes Ron Nuzzo and other local music teachers. They perform at music festivals, parks, and drum corps and marching band shows in summer. During fall and winter, they play at the North East Jazz & Wine Fest, Destiny Mall, Dickens’s Festival, and the downtown tree lighting ceremony.
Jonathan Howell 1991 Music
Jonathan began singing professionally at age ten having been “discovered” and mentored by his 5th grade music teacher, Charlotte Haas. She recognized his talent and was instrumental in finding him opportunities to develop his voice. She sent him to participate in the Syracuse Children’s Choir directed by Barbara Marble Tagg. At J-D High School, Bonnie Nye began mentoring Jon. She trained him in the art of stagecraft and helped guide the development of his vocal abilities. He sang in chorus and select chorus, earning 6A+ NYSSMA solo scores all four years. In All County Chorus, he was ranked first among tenors each year he participated. He performed in musicals and Roaring 20’s, and with his band, The Dartboard Goalies, performed for several JD dances and area high school dance marathons.
Shortly after graduating from J-D, he performed with Salt City Playhouse and other musical theatre companies. Later, he worked as a folk-rock artist in Boston. A change in direction saw Jon pursue opera and earn a degree in vocal performance at the University of North Texas. While there, he performed with the Dallas Opera Chorus and drew accolades from the Wagner and Puccini Societies of Dallas for his performance of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme. He continued his studies with a degree in vocal pedagogy from Syracuse University. Jon was a Charn Uswachoke Competition Scholarship and Texoma Region N.A.T.S. winner. In collaboration with Conservatorio di Musica Agostino Steffani in Venice, Italy, he performed with La Fenice Opera.
He has performed in New Orleans, Colorado, Texas, Indiana, Virginia, and Florida, as well as, Canada and Mexico. Jonathan has performed 14 roles for Syracuse Opera and was named their Artist of the Year in 2008. He has premiered numerous pieces for the Syracuse-based Society for New Music, including the role of Major Duckworth in the nationally recognized opera, Eleanor, by Buffalo native Persis Vehar. Vehar wrote this role specifically for Jon to perform. In 2009, he was honored to be invited to audition at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where he received encouragement and was invited to return for future auditions. He hopes to do this in 2020. Currently, Jonathan is a resident of Liverpool where he operates a private voice studio. He has sung an average of 100 funeral masses per year since 2006 and is a cantor for the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.
Stephen Paparo 1992 Music
In fourth grade, with music teacher Gina Murano, Stephen began singing in and accompanying the school choirs. He continued those choir duties at JD Middle School where he became a member of the Good Time Singers under the direction of Charlotte Haas Quirk and Ken Sipley. He also played in concert and stage band for Vic Russo. In high school, Stephen continued his dual role as choral singer-accompanist with Bonnie Nye, and he studied music theory with Ron Nuzzo. Stephen participated in musicals as both a performer and as a pit pianist. He was a four year member of Roaring 20’s.
Stephen holds degrees in music education from Ithaca College, Syracuse University, and Michigan State University. He is a Guild Certified Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education. He taught grades 7-12 choral music and co-directed numerous musicals and plays in New Hartford, where he also performed in and music directed community theater productions.
Stephen teaches freshman through doctoral level courses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst helping to prepare future music educators. He also conducts the University Chorale and is active as a guest conductor and presenter at state, national, and international conferences. He is published in leading music education journals, and his compositions for beginning choirs are published by Alfred Music.
Robert Reals Educator Art (Posthumous)
In Bob’s words, he was “a hick kid from a hick hamlet.” Bob taught art at Jamesville Elementary in 1951 and 1952 and then spent three years in the U.S. Army. He returned to Jamesville Elementary to teach from 1955 to 1966 and became the coordinator of the art department for the district.
Bob joined the New York State Department of Education doing remarkably diversified work as an associate in the Bureau of Arts and Music Education and later as administrative director of the School of Media Arts. He oversaw the development of the New York State Art for Elementary Schools syllabus. Bob directed the creation of many publications and resource guides. They included works on art appreciation in elementary schools, arts for children with special needs, integrating social studies and folk music, and mathematics/architecture related activities. He led the creation of a program called RITA (Reading Improvement Through the Arts) and helped form the NYS Media Arts Teachers Association.
Bob took the lead role in creating the New York State Summer School of the Arts, a state high school for gifted students which offers four to six-week programs in orchestra, chorus, theater, dance, ballet, visual, and media arts. In 1969, Bob helped obtain increased financing for the summer school project by screening a short film for the New York State Commissioner of Education by 12 year old Chris Wedge. (Chris went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1999, and in 2003, Chris received an Oscar nomination for outstanding direction for his animated feature, Ice Age.)
During his 25 years with the Department of Education, Bob was also an adjunct professor at both Queens College and Schenectady Community College. After retirement in 1991, he stayed active by interviewing applicants and adjudicating works and performances at regional media arts shows. Bob passed away in April 2016.
Ronald D. Nuzzo Educator Music
Ronald Nuzzo, instrumental music teacher and band director, retired from Jamesville-DeWitt High School in 2011, after 49 years of teaching. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education and a Master of Music History and Literature from Syracuse University. It was there that Ron first worked with many prominent musicians and artists. As a member of the SU Orchestra, he had the distinct privilege of meeting and collaborating with Aaron Copland during a weeklong Festival of the Arts. Ron is currently a member of the National Association for Music Education and the New York State Music Association and had been a member of the Onondaga County Music Educators’ Association where he had served as treasurer. Additionally, he is a life member of Local 78, Syracuse Professional Musicians of Central New York.
Ron started teaching band and instrumental lessons at the Genesee Hills, Jamesville Elementary, and at the Junior High School, which was housed in the high school at that time. He took over the high school music program in 1964, when his mentor and founder of the JD music program, James W. Mosher, moved to OCC. At JDHS, Mr. Nuzzo taught Music Theory I and II, Advanced Placement Music Theory, Music History, Concert Band, Jazz Band, and Pep Band. He formed a number of NYSSMA award winning ensembles including Jazz Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Clarinet Ensemble, Woodwind Quintet, and Percussion Ensemble and also prepared countless students for individual NYSSMA competition. He was an active member of the musical production teams, conducting the pit band for every musical from 1964 to 2011. Ron enjoyed arranging band exchanges with other high schools, and his most memorable one was with West Springfield High School in Virginia. Our local congressman and their congressman arranged for the bands to dedicate the Wreath to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, an emotional honor that he will never forget. Ron is extremely proud to say that many of his students have gone on to become music educators and professional musicians renowned throughout the country.
As a professional trumpet player, Ron played in the orchestras that accompanied such luminaries as Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Rosemary Clooney, Wayne Newton, Sonny and Cher, and many others. He was a member of the house band at Three Rivers Inn “where the stars came to entertain.” Additionally, he played in the pit for many local theatre companies including Limestone Players, Syracuse Musical Theatre, Sullivan-Nye, and Pompeian Players. By being in the professional world of performing, Ron was able to pass on important career experiences to his students.
Ron started off his retirement by playing in, and sometimes conducting, the Lyncourt Community Band. He is currently the music director for the Phoenix Community Band comprised of 65 competent and exciting musicians. The band is referred to as the “Pearl of the North Country.” He has also played in the Syracuse Brigadier Drum and Bugle Corps and the Brig Juice, which is an offshoot of the Brigadiers.
His decision to accept the teaching job at Jamesville-DeWitt came on August 22, 1962, when Jim Mosher called to tell him about a sudden opening in the music department. Leaving New York City, where he was employed and studying trumpet, was the best and most gratifying professional decision he ever made.
Bonnie B. Nye Educator Music
Bonnie adored working with the talented Jamesville-DeWitt music students for 33 years. She said it was such a pleasure making music with them and watching their growth and their appreciation of music! Bonnie received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Syracuse University and completed graduate work at SUNY Brockport, University of Buffalo, and Syracuse University.
She began her teaching career at Jamesville Elementary School and moved to the high school after two and a half years. As Choral Director at JDHS, Bonnie was responsible for conducting the Concert Choir, Select Choir, and the Roaring 20’s Show Choir, teaching voice classes, and preparing and accompanying students for NYSSMA Solo Competition. For 26 of her years at J-D, she directed, and sometimes choreographed, the high school musicals. Throughout these years, she conducted various All-County and All-State Area Festival Choirs. A highlight for her was conducting the JD Select Choir in a nationally televised premiere concert of the Passover oratorio, “Haggadah – A Search for Freedom,” with original text by Syracuse’s Cantor Harold Lerner.
In addition to J-D commitments, Bonnie was active in the Central New York theatrical scene both behind and in front of the footlights. She music directed for numerous local companies including Syracuse Musical Theatre, Shattuck-Nye, The Talent Company, Star Productions, Town of Manlius, and Town of Chittenango. Additionally, Bonnie had starring roles with many local theatre companies. Among her favorite performances are roles in Mame, Funny Girl, The King and I, and Hello, Dolly for Pompeian Players, Nunsense for The Talent Company, and Little Mary Sunshine for Syracuse University and Syracuse Musical Theatre. Twice she was privileged to solo with the Syracuse Symphony Pops, and she conducted an adult mixed chorus for the Town of Manlius.
One of Bonnie’s most unique experiences was judging Vanessa Williams in the Miss Syracuse Pageant and then working with her on her song for the talent portion of the Miss America competition. Vanessa not only won the talent category, but she went on to win the crown as well.
Bonnie received two prestigious Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards. In 2006, she was awarded Musical Director of the Year for The Talent Company’s production of The Full Monty, and in 2007, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of community theatre work.
Bonnie retired from Jamesville-DeWitt in 1995, but she is still active in her Western New York hometown area singing and soloing with the Lewiston Choraleers and her church choir.
During her junior and senior years in high school, Bonnie didn’t like how her fellow students treated their music teachers. As a result she said, “I will probably never be a music teacher.” So much for that declaration. How things did change…she wishes to thank Jamesville-DeWitt for providing many years of happiness and joy!