Join us in Ravenscroft Hall on Sunday, October 29th at 7:00pm as MSW Presents 2 Pianos, 6 Hands! an extravaganza of stride, swing, boogie, & more! Featuring the masterful stylings of piano duo Paolo Alderighi and Stephanie Trick, alongside Phoenix’s legendary Nicole Pesce. These three powerhouses team up to honor the exciting and dynamic styles that are the bedrock of jazz! In this rollicking one-time only event, these six hands will thrill and entertain you while simultaneously serving to raise funds for Kitchen on the Street who have been feeding Phoenix’s hungry kids with bags of hope for over 16 years.
100% of ticket sales from this event will benefit Kitchen on the Street as they serve our community by caring for our most vulnerable. To learn more about the organization, visit kitchenonthestreet.org.
PAOLO ALDERIGHI AND STEPHANIE TRICK
Stephanie Trick (St. Louis), a leading exponent of stride piano, and Paolo Alderighi (Milan), one of Italy’s foremost jazz pianists, met at a piano festival in Switzerland in 2008. Both have a background in classical piano. Stephanie graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in music, and Paolo has a piano performance degree from Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Three years after meeting, they started collaboration on a four-hands piano project dedicated to classic jazz, preparing arrangements of songs from the Swing Era, while drawing from the ragtime, and blues repertoire.
Their first project explored the formula of four-hands duets on one piano, rarely used in jazz. They recorded CDs “Two for One” (2012), and “Sentimental Journey” (2014). “Double Trio Live” (2015), and “Double Trio Always” (2016), were recorded in the piano trio setting. “Broadway and More” (2018) was their first album on two pianos. Their most recent project is “I Love Erroll, I Love James P.” (2020), a double album, featuring the compositions of two legendary figures of jazz piano, Erroll Garner and James P. Johnson.
Their dedication to jazz and the repertoire of early American popular music is accompanied in equal measure by a desire to share its rich history. They perform in schools and universities world-wide. Their programs include lectures, concert lessons for students of all ages, and master classes. A few of the topics they cover are “History of Jazz”, “Intersections of Jazz and classical music”, “Women in Jazz”, and “Ragtime”. Blending impeccable technique with mature musicality, this piano duo has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia, at some of the world’s most extraordinary venues and festivals, winning the acclaim of critics and fans alike.
NICOLE PESCE – nicolepesce.com
Pianist, keyboardist, composer, and arranger Nicole Pesce entertains audiences with a unique blend of virtuosity, humor, and pizzazz.
Nicole began playing piano at age seven and, by age 10, had memorized over 500 songs. At age twelve, she won First place in the Discovery National Television Competition and appeared on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. For the next couple of years, she packed in an extensive US tour and a year-long residency in Las Vegas.
Since that time, Nicole has expanded her memorized repertoire to over 12,000 songs and is affectionately dubbed “the human iPod.” In Phoenix, the AZ Republic included Nicole on their list of “top ten musicians to hear in Phoenix.” For over a decade, she was featured as the headlining pianist at the Ritz Carlton, entertaining patrons with everything from Bach to Lady Gaga.
In 2016, “We 3” was formed with vocalist Renee Patrick and violinist Suzanne Lansford, the combination showing yet another facet of Nicole’s talent. This threesome has made quite an impression on local and international audiences, selling out shows from Phoenix’s MIM to La Chope Champerret in Paris.
Her extraordinary talent is not limited to playing piano. As a composer with a catalog of over 300 songs, Nicole has made a name for herself creating original music for documentaries and live events. Also, she offers several Master Classes for Arizona Music Fest’s Educational programs. Currently, Nicole presents virtual concerts to folks worldwide and maintains her busy performance schedule in the Phoenix, AZ, area.
KITCHEN ON THE STREET – kitchenonthestreet.org.
Kitchen on the Street was founded by the Scarpinato Family in 2006, when they learned about food insecurity in local schools. Since its inception, the organization has utilized the people power of volunteers to serve more than 3.5 million meals to struggling children and families!
Kitchen on the Street is a faith based nonprofit organization that stands with children in need at the intersection of nutrition and academic excellence. Food insecurity is a social deterrent that has a profound negative impact on health and academics. Thousands of food-insecure children in AZ receive breakfast and lunch at school but do not eat on the weekend. Kitchen on the Street provides weekend nutrition so at-risk kids can have academic success. Case studies show that food insecure children who enrolled in a Kitchen on the street program substantially increased in their reading and math scores. Today’s kids are tomorrow’s workforce, so meeting their nutrition needs today improves Arizona’s future, and that’s good for everyone!
