Concert Series – Charlotte County Jazz Society

Our 2025-2026 Concert Season is set to be an exciting one! After reviewing our membership questionnaires from last year, we’ve decided to try a few new things this season. The biggest change is where we are holding each concert, but we’re also bringing back some favorite acts from the past few seasons.

We are opening our season on October 13th with the Rebecca Richardson Trio. This concert will be held in the round at the Charlotte Harbor Event Center. This promises to be an intimate musical experience like no other in Charlotte County.

Our November, December, and January Concerts will be held at the Charlotte Performing Arts Center. This season we’re moving our Big Band concert from February to December, so don’t miss it!

And finally we will be closing out our season with the February, March, and April concerts that will be held at the Gulf Theatre.

Click on the dates below to get more information!

CCJS members will be admitted FREE with membership card and the public is welcome for only $25 per person.

All directors; middle, high & college students will be given a FREE PASS for any CCJS concert. Stop by the membership desk with your ID for your FREE PASS.

Doors open at 6:30 and concerts begin at 7:00 pm.

For more information call our CCJS hot line 941-766-9422.

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Michelle Amato is a dynamic vocalist whose abilities to convey the deep passion of a lyric, and then soar effortlessly through the stratosphere, have taken her from posh, intimate clubs to The Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall. She was a featured soloist in Cirque Du Soleil’s “La Nouba,” and with The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, with whom she toured Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and across the Atlantic on Crystal Cruise Line. Michelle has performed and recorded with an incredibly diverse array of artists, including Liza Minnelli, Quincy Jones, Al Green, Sandi Patty, Jon Secada, Michael McDonald, Donna Summer, Jon Hendricks, Celia Cruz, Rita Marley, and world renowned composer Yanni. Her solo and background vocal work can be heard on his “Ethnicity” cd and “Yanni Live” dvd. Michelle’s debut cd, “I’m All Smiles” features jazz trumpeter Ira Sullivan, and is available on I Tunes and CD Baby. She performs regularly at clubs, private parties, corporate events and music festivals around the country. Michelle continues to love her orchestral work, and has been a featured soloist with The Memphis Symphony, The Sunrise Pops, The Baton Rouge Symphony, The Sarasota Orchestra, The Orlando Philharmonic, and recently with The Macon Pops, performing a concert of all Gershwin music as well as a concert for the Pitt. State Jazz Festival, both with award-winning multi instrumentalist and composer, Matt Catingub.

Staying extremely active in the recording studio as a singer and contractor, some of her clients include The Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean, Costa, Regent, and Carnival Cruise Lines, McDonald’s, Warner Brothers, Alfred, and Shawnee Press Publications, Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, Tournament of Roses Parade, and numerous private artists and production companies throughout the world. She has enjoyed being a member of several professional vocal groups, including Walt Disney World’s Voices of Liberty and American Vybe.

Michelle’s Master’s Degree from the prestigious University of Miami School of Music has created great demand for her expertise as an educator and clinician. She has coached vocalists for Cirque Du Soleil, Walt Disney World, and has been an adjunct professor at The University of Miami, The University of Memphis, Rollins College, and The University of North Florida. Michelle has conducted master classes and clinics for The International Association of Jazz Educators, Appalachian State University, Grammy In The Schools, and The North American Cultural Center in San Jose, Costa Rica. Her adjudicating duties have included The National Foundation for The Advancement of the Arts, The Florida Vocal Association, Orlando Fest, and various jazz and choral societies.

Michelle was recently invited to the 2024 Jazz Educator’s Network Conference in New Orleans to sing in the sight-reading ensemble and adjudicate college vocal ensembles.

The Midiri Brothers have delighted swing dancers and been acclaimed by critics at jazz
festivals throughout the country for many years. Joe and Paul Midiri have made both
jazz and classical music the focus of their lives since they graduated from college in the
mid-1980s. With Joe on clarinet and saxophone, and Paul on vibraphone, xylophone,
marimba, drums and trombone, they have recorded with everything from trios to big
bands featuring the arrangements of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and the Dorsey
Brothers, as well as Paul’s original arrangements and compositions. After nearly a
decade of Philadelphia, New York and Atlantic City gigs, the Midiris made their west
coast debut at Jazz Jubilee by the Sea in Pismo Beach in 2002 and have since been
featured at many California festivals, as well as at countless jazz clubs coast-to-coast.
Their most recent California appearance was at the Norris Performing Arts Center in
Palos Verdes for their Cabaret Jazz Summer Series where they played to a packed
house.
See the recent review of their latest album in the Syncopated Times at:
https://syncopatedtimes.com/the-midiri-brothers-simply-splendid/

Joe Midiri has been performing as a professional musician in both classical and
jazz since graduating college in the 1980’s. He has performed on clarinet, soprano
sax, alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax as well as bass clarinet. He has travelled
across the country playing many jazz festivals including The Sun Valley Jazz and
Music Festival, the Pismo Beach Jubilee by the Sea, Monterey Jazz Bash and many
more. Mr. Midiri has authored two clarinet method books and is currently working

on a jazz etude book. He has also written many arrangements for both big band and
small group jazz ensembles. Teaching has long been a passion for Mr. Midiri and
he has taught many students throughout his career, he is also active as a clinician in
many schools across the country. “Simply Splendid” is the latest of the many
recordings he has been featured on with both his own bands as well as other
groups.

Mr. Paul Midiri, along with his brother Joe, directs the 18-piece Midiri Brothers
Orchestra as well as various small group ensembles. The Midiri Brothers Sextet
performs jazz arrangements of standards, classical music as well as originals, many
of them arranged by Paul.
Paul’s many instrumental talents lend a special versatility to the Midiri
Brothers unique sound. With the sextet his specialty is jazz vibraphone. His love of
the vibes and xylophone has led him to arrange numerous pieces for the sextet to
give these instruments a proper setting. His extended virtuosity includes playing
trombone and drums with the sextet where his brush work is often featured.
Mr. Midiri can be heard performing with the sextet across the country in many
jazz festivals including the Sun Valley Music and Jazz Fest, Pismo Jubilee By The
Sea, the Capital City Jazz Fest, Monterey Jazz By The Bay Festival as well as
other venues.
“In The Garden”, a CD of hymns in a jazz setting, is Paul’s first self-produced
CD and has enjoyed considerable success, including an A+ rating from jazz
reviewer Cam Miller. He can be heard playing vibes and drums on thirteen Midiri
Brothers sextet CD’s. He has been featured on two CDs with the Brooks Tegler
Orchestra, one with Harry Salotti (featuring Mr. Salotti on tuba) and many more.
Mr. Midiri may also be seen performing with the Midiri Brothers on You Tube as
well as the Midiri Brothers Orchestra page on Facebook.
As well as performing, Mr. Midiri has taught music privately for the past
thirty-five years and has worked as a clinician at high school and jazz workshops.

L E W D E L G A T T O

The versatile Lew Del Gatto has been a dynamic figure in the New York music scene for over thirty years. His versatility and knowledgeable comprehension of musical art-form was the basis for a stellar career. He has been involved with jingles, films, jazz and television. He has been a saxophonist with the Saturday Night Live Band from the show’s beginning in 1975 to 1979. He continued back on the show from 1985 until 2005. Besides his contributions on bari sax and woodwinds, Lew was also involved as an arranger and contractor on this illustrious show.

A native of New York, Lew’s musical abilities were obvious at an early age. Lew’s father played the saxophone. The music of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman was forever in the Del Gatto home. Lew quickly gravitated towards the music of Bird, Prez, Getz and Rollins. During his training at Manhattan School of Music, Lew went on the road with the Les Elgart Band, Sal Salvador and appeared with the world famous Johnny Carson Tonight Show Band. For many years, Lew was busy in the New York studio world with such clients as Coke, Pepsi, Folgers Coffee, Ford and Burger King. He was not only a player in these jingles – he also arranged and composed some of them as well.

Lew has also been busy in the film industry. His credits include: The Blues Brothers, My Blue Heaven, Naked Gun 2 1/2 and others. T.V. show credits include the Grammy Awards, the Emmy Awards, the New Show and Steve Martin’s Best Show Ever. He is on numerous recordings for such artists as Tony Bennett, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, Bette Midler, Cal Tjader, the Brecker Brothers, Quincy Jones, Stanley Turrentine, Harry Connick,Jr., Buddy Guy, Mariah Carey…the list goes on and on. He is a featured performer on the “G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band” CD, Phil Woods Big Band “Celebration”, and on George Young’s CD, “Old Times”.

Lew’s live appearances are impressive. He has appeared with many giants in the music world, including Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Liza Minelli, Buddy Rich, Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones, Chuck Israel and The National Jazz Ensemble, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Band, Henry Mancini, Herbie Hancock, Phil Woods, Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton, to name a few. Lew has played jazz festivals in Europe as well as locally. He appeared at the Cancun Jazz Festival with his own trio, as well as with George Young and Friends. He performed annually for over a decade at the Delaware Water Gap Festival of the Arts. In the summer of 1998 and 2000 Lew toured Europe with Phil Woods and the Festival Orchestra.

Lew can be heard on his own CDs. “Katewalk”, on Naxos which has received rave reviews and made it to number 13 on the Gavin charts, featuring Victor Lewis, Steve Turre, Randy Brecker, Chip Jackson, Joe Cohn and Ron Feuer. “You and the Night and the Music”, is a romantic jazz CD recorded with Ron Feuer. “Heroes Vol I” is one of his latest CDs which is an homage encompassing music of many of the saxophonists he has been inspired by through the years. “To Al & Zoot…with Love” is just that and is the newest CD performed with his buddy of many years, Bob Keller, along with Tom Whaley, Tony Marino and Jesse Green all from the Gap area. All of Lew’s musical roads have paved the way for what is yet to come – his total devotion to jazz. Lew has always been intricately entwined in the music world in various mediums but his first love is jazz… that is what he plays at every possible moment and where his best instrumental voice can be heard.

LEN PIERRO

Len Pierro is a performer, composer, arranger, musical director, producer, and educator from the Philadelphia area. A graduate of the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts, he was an adjunct professor at Bucks County Community College teaching saxophone and woodwinds at their School of Music. Len has been arranging and composing for recordings and live performances for many years. He is the leader of the Len Pierro Jazz Orchestra which has released two CDs titled The Third Quarter (2020) and As I Was Saying (2024). Jack Bowers at All About Jazz said, “Few big-band albums in recent memory have been more pleasurable to hear and evaluate than The Third Quarter. With Pierro’s irrepressible charts setting the course and his masterful orchestra giving them life, the session fairly bristles with energy and enthusiasm, amplified by the dexterity and magnetism of Pierro’s creative power.” Len was formerly a participant in the internationally acclaimed BMI Jazz Composers Workshop where most of the compositions on the CDs were developed.