HOW TO GO
WHAT: "Jazz! Geoff Gallante" as part of the Entertainment Plus series
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 7
WHERE: Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton
TICKETS: $15 for Fitton Center members; $20 for non-members. Purchase at www.fittoncenter.org
Musical prodigy Geoff Gallante has performed across the country, including gigs at the Kennedy Center, the White House and on national television shows.
And he’s done it all by the ripe old age of 14.
Gallante is a 14-year-old trumpet prodigy who will perform Saturday at the Fitton Center.
The young teen likes to be considered “old school,” he told the Journal-News in an interview.
"I play lots of straight ahead jazz, bebop. That is my style of music," Gallante said. "I don't really do a lot of funk or pop. I respect those, but I do music like Charlie Parker, Freddie Hubbard, Miles and Dizzy. That's where I am."
Despite national television appearances, Gallante, who also plays cornet and flugelhorn (cousins of the trumpet), manages to keep a normal schedule.
"I go to public school and do normal kid stuff," said the Washington, D.C., resident who takes private lessons with a musician who was in the Pershing's Own U.S. Army Band.
“You could count on both hands the people in the school who know what he does,” said Dave Gallante, who serves as his son’s manager.
He added that Gallante has continued his public school education and takes his homework on the road when he travels.
Gallante’s mother and grandmother were influences on his early musical success.
“His grandmother is one of his biggest fans and they share the love of jazz,” Dave Gallante said. “She is 90 and still plays jazz piano and still gets a weekly lesson.”
Gallante’s mother also played trumpet. Gallante was “enthralled” by the instrument after his mother showed him how to make a basic sound on it when he was 4 years old, his father said.
Gallante plans to study music once he graduates high school and eventually “live and survive as a jazz musician.”
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