HEaRD in WNY: Shows for May 17 – 23

This week’s featured show is Ann Philippone’s 15th Anniversary Celebration, Sunday at Nietzsche’s.

15 years of a weekly residency, now that’s definitely something to celebrate! So come on down this Sunday, May 20th to Allentown’s legendary house for music: Nietzsche’s! Special guest Orly Bendavid and The Mona Dahls will be joining Ann Philippone starting at 6:00pm for this free show!

Playing piano has been her passion for as long as Ann can remember. Even in kindergarten, when they went around the room asking what they wanted to be when we grew up, she blurted out, “I’m a piano player”. Starting off with “traditional” piano lessons as a child, she went the classical route early on. Soon enough, it was off to Syracuse University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Piano and Art History in 1987. After studying and performing overseas at L’Ecole Hindemith in Switzerland and accompanying the 1987 Syracuse University Singers on harpsichord with a string quartet she continued learning closer to home.

She graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a Master of Arts in Music and Art History in 1996, and found Buffalo to be a great place to live, with a thriving music scene and no shortage of great musicians to play with. She started playing with some local bands, and not long after got hired by Joe Beard. The next ten years was spent playing in his band, but that’s not without picking up her own side gigs as well. She did several tours with Muddy Waters’ son, Big Bill Morganfield and went to Europe to play with John Ellison (composer of the hit song, “Some Kind Of Wonderful”). Ann was always playing solo gigs wherever she could, and was encouraged by the owner of Nietzsche’s to do a regular gig. She started playing Sundays so she could keep up with the gig schedule her other bands had, and has been playing every week since 2003. As she says “I still love playing with other musicians and lots of them come in to jam with me or sit in on Sundays at Nietzsche’s, and at my First Saturday monthly gigs at Hot Mama’s Canteen, or at my Third Thursday monthly gigs at Rohall’s Corner.”

Teaching piano is also a very joyful part of her life. She absolutely loves passing on her love of piano and the skills that go along with it! “One of the most important things we can do is to teach music to the next generation!” So, stop out this weekend and support one of Buffalo’s favorite players!

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