NIAGARA FALLS —
Lisa Surace's life keeps circling back to Niagara Falls. Her music studio is located in her mother's old high school homeroom. Just across the street is the hospital where she was born.
In a city where generations of musicians have woven a pulsating network of support and tradition, Surace is a second-generation performer.
Her father, Anthony, who owned five grocery stores throughout the city, was at heart a singer who performed at weddings and local clubs. "He made a lot of people happy," Lisa said of her dad. In the place of family vacations, he would gather his wife and kids and take them onroad trips to Las Vegas where he could take a stage and still spend time with the family.
Anthony would sing “Misty” to his little girl and today, she sometimes sings that same song to those to come to watch her perform.
Created from a gene pool that includes, on her mother's side, renowned composer Giacomo Rossini, who wrote the "William Tell Overture” and "Barber of Seville," Lisa’s own gifts have led to her performances on stages in Germany and Buenos Aires.
As she sat recently among the instruments that fill her comfortable studio at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center, she recalled that traveling far and wide to perform, and then returning home to her native city, was always part of her master plan.
These days her studio is home to students of all ages who wish to enhance their musical skills. While she is classically trained, she enjoys crossing genres from pop music to jazz, and has trained local rock singers on perfecting their tones.
Crossing genres, and doing it well, is something unique for classically trained singers, according to Tim Kennedy, director of Buffalo Opera Unlimited who has worked with Surace in several productions. “The incredible thing about Lisa is that she sings jazz and she sings it well. Not a lot of classically trained singers can do that,” he said, adding, “She was fabulous. She has a rich soprano voice.”
Surace’s triumphs include a national singing title and the memories of a three-minute ovation from a German audience after she and fellow students performed an avant-guard opera performance by a noted European composer.
But, some her proudest achievements, she said, have occurred in her classroom, including her 100 percent success rate in helping her younger students achieve their goals in getting into music schools, including one who had a student solo at Carnegie Hall.
Surace herself continues to be a student. She has returned to her alma matter at SUNY Fredonia’s esteemed School of Music, where some of her former teachers are working with her with the intent of getting her onto a larger stage. In the process, she’s learning cutting edge techniques that she is brining back to her students.
The plan is to grow out into the world, but continue to circle back to her hometown, like a planet circling the sun, to share the things she learned and gathered.
She learned that lesson well. It’s one of the most important things she wants to model for her students as they wonder if a person can really have a life doing what they love, immersed in music. “Apparently you can,” she said, glancing around her studio with its cozy couch and chairs, twin pianos, antiques and memorabilia. “It works for me.”
“This is all I do,” she smiled. “I don’t want to do anything else.”
As for the music, she continues to work to create transformative experiences for audiences. The music, she says, “should take you on a journey, but it should enlighten you and transport you to a different place.”
“It should be something that takes your breath away,” she said.
Contact Features Editor Michele DeLuca
at 282-2311, ext. 2263.
Features
Related Photos
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Lisa Surace of Bravo Studio at the NACC
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Lisa Surace of Bravo Studio at the NACC
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