<!--Michele Deluca--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Michele Deluca</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:michele.deluca@niagara-gazette.com">michele.deluca@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
By Michele DeLuca
michele.deluca@niagara-gazette.com
Talk to any musician in the region and they’ll say that the Niagara music scene is teaming with talent. As a result, on any given day in the U.S. there are albums beings released infused with the talents of those who got their music start right here in the region.
Lately, three natives have produced music of note. They include:
Nina DiGregorio’s first really important professional gig was at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas, working with singer Wayne Newton. “I took a book of matches off one of the tables and saved it,” she recalled during a recent phone interview.
Since then the violinist from Lewiston has worked with many stars, including Toni Braxton, Michael Buble, the hit maker David Foster and most recently, performing with Beyonce.
DiGregorio, a Lewiston native, who won all sorts of classical music awards and played with the University at Buffalo Symphony Orchestra before she moved to Las Vegas, created an all-female electric rock string quartet called Bella Rumore that plays regularly gigs on the Vegas strip.
That’s kind of the nature of the music business she said. “One day you’re playing a gig for a hundred bucks, the next day you’re playing with Beyonce, and the next day you’re playing a gig for a hundred bucks again.”
Bella Rumore, which allows her to count on a regular paycheck rather than being at the whims of the rich and famous, plays an unusual style of rock music. “People have never seen Jimmy Hendrix played on electric string instruments before,” she explained. “They’re awed by it. There’s only a few groups in the world doing this kind of thing.”
The band even went on America’s Got Talent,” when it first went on the air. “We did it as kind of a joke,” she said. “David Hasselhoff loved us. The other guy hated us ... We got booted for a stripping Elvis.”
Bella Rumore has an album available on DiGregorio’s website. She is now working on a solo album of will continue to be passion for DiGregorio
DiGregorio is releasing a solo album in the next couple of months.
The 28 year-old, whose father, Tony, is a Niagara County Sheriff and whose mom, Theresa is an administrator at NCCC, says her parents are trying to understand the life she’s chosen for herself as a professional musician. “Sometimes it’s tough for them. I think they’re dealing with it as best they can.”
In the meantime, she continues pursuing her dreams of playing music while holding a thought in her head borrowed from a baseball hero who lived in another era.
“Joe DiMaggio used to say that he goes out there and plays his hardest every day because there might be some kid out there who is seeing her play for the first time,” she said. “If you can do that it translates to people and the career and money and the fame all falls into place after that ... ”
To hear Bella Rumore play “Whiter Shade of Pale,” and other rock fusion music or to learn more about Nina DiGregorio visit ninadigregorio.com.
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As DiGregorio lives her dream in Las Vegas, another local musician has spent twenty years building his dream of being a studio musician in Los Angeles.
That dreams has turned out so well that he’s named his third album, “Living the Dream.”
Chris Tedesco, who was raised in Niagara Falls and whose parents still live in Lewiston, has played his trumpet with celebrities including Christina Aguilera, Frank Sinatra Jr., Joe Cocker, Natalie Merchant and Cher.
“How lucky am I to be able to do this where a lot of people don't ever get a chance to actually chase their dreams and actually realize it,” he said.
His latest album draws upon his many years of work in the Los Angeles studio scene, with 8 big band tracks and two, thirty piece orchestra tracks, four of which feature Buffalo native and vocalist Tony Galla. Among the highlights of the album are Galla’s moving rendition of “Man’s World,” which he does partially in Italian, in a similar style as an acclaimed version done by tenor Luciano Pavorotti and soul singer James Brown.
Tedesco penned four of the tunes on the CD, including one he dubbed Lewistonia, inspired by a visit to Lewiston when he and his family were charmed by the tempo of the village.
Tedesco, whose parents, Marge and Chick, live in Youngstown, grew up in the Town of Niagara and is a 1978 graduate of Niagara Wheatfield High School. He got his start playing in the jazz band at the school under band director Jack Lis and recalls those days fondly. “That stuff leaves a mark on you. You got really charged up when you played a jazz band concert.”
He was hoping to revisit those early emotions when he produced “Living the Dream.”
“I really wanted to do something that stirred my heart again,” he said during a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “I wanted to make something that wouldn't loose my parents, wouldn’t loose a high school kid.”
Tedesco, who is currently working on the music for an upcoming Christina Aguilara movie, a burlesque musical in the vein of “Moulin Rouge,” hopes to perform again next summer at the Lewiston Jazz Fest. He’s also working hard planning the release party
for the album which, flavored by his early love of the music of Frank Sinatra and Count Basie, is all he hoped it would be.
“I made it to stick to the wall...” he said.
To learn more about Chris Tedesco and to hear music from “Living the Dream,” or purchase his albums, visit christedesco.com.
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While Tedesco is living his music dream, another Niagara Falls native is trying to follow his own musical dreams as well, despite his great success in an entirely different occupation.
Dr. David Pochatko always wanted a career in music but his parents discouraged him. Musicians, they said, don’t make that much money.
So, he listened to them and went to medical school. Built himself a great career as an orthopedic surgeon working with a prestigious group of doctors in Amherst. But, he couldn’t keep the music out of his head. So he built himself a recording studio in the basement of his Clarence home so that he’d have somewhere to go with the music that filled his dreams.
He woke up one morning with a Christmas song in his head. He put it to paper and called it, “Most Special Day of the Year.”
As soon as he wrote it, he knew who he wanted to sing it, former American Idol contestant John Stevens.
Pochatko works with John’s father, Jack, who is an anesthesiologist. Jack brought his son to Pochatko’s house so the two could meet and so John could see the recording studio. They decided to make a Christmas album and spent a year producing it through e-mails and visits as John was finishing up at the Berklee College of Music.
The two spent the holidays promoting the album and Pochatko got a taste of the music industry from the inside.
The experience has led to contacts in the music industry and the doctor has even got some interest from Troy Williams race car people, seeking a song for their NASCAR team.
“Even though I didn't get to go to music school,” it was a dream I’ve always had,” he said.
His musical future appears to be bright, despite the early concerns of his parents, Stephen and Carolyn Pochatko, who still reside in Niagara Falls.
“Most musicians don’t make that much money,” he said, “so they were right.”
But, the experience of making the holiday CD, has infused him with the desire to make more music. And he has the support of his wife, Judy and three daughters, despite the evenings and weekends he’s sacrificed to his music. So, he’s forging ahead, in between patient consultations and surgery.
It just goes to show, he said, that “if you stay focused on your dream you'll eventually get it.
“That’s the key,” he said.
Pochatko and Steven’s album “Home for Christmas,” and/or single tracks, can be purchased at itunes.com.
