Music Department

Accompanying

Tamara Cashour
Educational Affiliations: Adjunct Instrumental Accompanying Faculty: William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ (Brass, Woodwinds and Strings Departments); Vocal Coaching Staff: Mannes College of Music. Wagner College, Kingsborough Community College Music Theatre Departments: Musical Theatre Class/Auditions Pianist. Manhattan School of Music 1999-2007: Vocal Accompanying/Coaching Staff.
Recitalist: Carnegie-Weill Recital Accompanying Debut: February 2002; has given or prepared over 200 recitals with singers and instrumentalists in the US and Europe.
Pianist: Dal Segno Chamber Ensemble
Contemporary Music World Premieres: (As pianist and/or soprano), has premiered/performed art song and solo piano pieces of: John Harbison, Dorothy Chang (Composer Forums, SONGFEST 2004), Ricky Ian Gordon, Antonio Carlos Defeo, Richard Russell, Debra Kaye, Donald Hagar, Nataliya Medvedovskaya, Noah Haverkamp.
Opera: U.S. Regional/European Opera credits as Assistant Conductor/Coach: Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC), Lake George Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Natchez Opera Festival, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Opera Festival di Roma, International Lyric Academy of Rome, Golden Fleece Ltd., Garden State Opera
Oratorio/Sacred: Organist/Director of Music: Presbyterian Church of New Rochelle; Assistant Conductor: Bronx Concert Singers.
Composer: ASCAPlus Award winner 2008-2011, First Place: 2008 For Women Only Composers Competition World Premieres: Symphony Space, St. Peter’s Citicorp, Franklin Furnace, Columbia University’s Casa Italiana.
Education: BA, Columbia University; MA, New York University.

Warren Helms
Warren Helms presently is a faculty member of The Juilliard School and also William Paterson University. He served as opera coach at The Manhattan School of Music for eleven years. Mr. Helms was assistant conductor/pianist for the Broadway production of Showboat at the Gershwin Theatre and has performed off-Broadway with the Vineyard Theatre. He recently performed with the Three Irish Tenors, Aretha Franklin as well as Clay Aiken. Cabaret experience includes The Rainbow Room, Russian Tea Room. He collaborates with Drew University, Kean University and Westminster Choir College. He is also the Director of Music at The Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Wayne, New Jersey.

Frank Pavese
Frank Pavese is originally from Ramsey, New Jersey. He is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan and the William Paterson University of New Jersey where he is a faculty member. He credits his studies with Bulgarian pianist Elka Gurova Kirkpatrick as having had the greatest influence upon him. His professional debut was at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. The New York Times described him as a pianist with "Energy and Commitment" and called his playing "persuasive and especially sonorous." He first came to the attention of the European musical world after acclaimed concerts at London's Wigmore Hall and the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. The press and public followed his career with great interest as he gave his Viennese debut in the Brahms-Saal of the Musikverein in 1990 and toured Hungary. The following years have included return engagements to Vienna, a third tour of Hungary presented by the National Philharmonic, tours of France and Poland and appearances on Hungarian State Radio and Polish National Television. Orchestral appearances have included a tour of Poland where he performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Olsztyn Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Piotr Borkowski. As founder and director of the Hindemithon festival (now in it's 9th season) at WPUNJ, celebrating the life and works of composer Paul Hindemith, Pavese received high critical acclaim for his performance of Ludus Tonalis. Classical New Jersey wrote- "Pavese played the enormous work with an ease which was in itself awesome, given the obvious difficulties of the music. Because the composer wrote fugue subjects which were easily identified through their contours and character, the pianist went for the music and not the didacticism, understanding well that there was no need to underline the obvious. Technical and musical difficulties abound in the course of the hour, and Pavese met them all with a full understanding of the score and what Hindemith had set out to accomplish. It was one of the most impressive solo piano performances of a single work I have heard in a long time." Beginning in the fall of 2010, Pavese will be performing recitals of the works of Samuel Barber on tour in honor of the composer's centennial celebration.

Mary Pinto
[bio coming soon]