Cultural Arts Alliance
98 Hayden Rowe St.
Hopkinton, MA 01748
Phone: 508-435-9222
General info: info at caahopkinton dot org
Website issues: webmaster at caahopkinton dot org
Chris Carter, Guitar, is a 1996 graduate from UMass Lowell's Music Business Program and has been teaching guitar full-time since then. He teaches here at the CAA, at the Needham Fine Arts, the Weston Recreation and the Franklin Recreation. During the summer, Chris offers group guitar classes through the Holliston and Ashland recreation departments. He also has years of experience playing in bands and frequently jams with other musicians. Aside from teaching and performing, Chris is a member of the Connecticut Songwriters Association and writes and records original music to be used in radio and T.V.
Robb Millett, Guitar, took up guitar at 10 years old, in 1965, and has rarely stopped to put it down. He's been in bands in and about the Boston/Metrowest area since 1971 and gave his first official performance in fifth grade, playing Jingle Bells on guitar for his former first grade teacher (Miss Sonnenberg, Warren Oaks Elementary School - now Miriam F. McCarthy School *she was the principal when I attended* - , Framingham MA ) and her class...one of the few times he'd performed where the management did not come down on him for being too loud.
In the late 70s and early 80s he played many nights at all the Famed Boston Clubs that No Longer Exist: The Rat, The Channel, Jacks, Cantones, just to name a few. During his tenure with the Hot Dates, received varied amounts of local airplay on WBCN, WERS, WAAF and a few other college stations he can no longer remember, and released a couple vinyl 45s and an LP... (In fact, if anybody wants one of those relics, lemme know, I have a couple boxes left -Robb)
In the early 90s, with "The United Snakes", released the CD "Lighten Up! This Ain't Brain Surgery" to some critical acclaim, which resulted in a box of CDs left collecting dust next to the boxes of Hot Dates 45s and LPs. Since 1995, Robb has been the front man/protagonist/ringleader of the Spock Goes Mental floating pick-up band, though most often currently he can be found playing various local open mike nights as a solo acoustic act, or occasionally hosting a jam/open mike at the Milford Performing Arts Center.
Over the course of his career as a guitarist/songwriter/musician, Robb has had the good fortune to play in many bands of varied styles, including Rock & Roll, Metal, Punk, New Wave, Fusion, Blues, Folk, Jazz, Avante Garde, and even some theatrical numbers. He is fluent in many styles, from Drop-C Thud to Folk fingerstyle and slide, and spent ten years from 1983-1993 as a bassist exclusively.
Robb regularly records his original compositions in his home studio and posts them to his Soundclick.com artist page, under the artist name "Robbovius" check it out! "
Pete Sanderson Electric Bass Guitar
Jeanine M. Vital, Voice, has her bachelor’s degree in Music Education and Performance from Ithaca College. She’s taught voice at Cornell University and Boston College and now runs a private studio in Northboro. Her background also includes choral conducting and arranging, ballet and modern dance, stage directing, theatrical make-up and photography! In 1980-81she sang in Poland through the cultural branch of the American Embassy where she was also assistant conductor of the Warsaw Schola Cantorum. From 1987 to 2001 she was the manager, artistic director and conductor of her own traveling sacred dance and music ensemble which was comprised of adult and children in the choirs and dance groups, and as actors and narrators.
Ms. Vitale has been teaching voice/singing for over thirty years. She earned her bachelor degree from Ithaca College in Music Education and Performance. Her private teaching background includes Boston College and Cornell University in addition to her ongoing studio in Northboro and the Cultural Arts Alliance in Hopkinton. For over seventeen years she danced in, and was manager, artistic director and conductor of the sacred dance and music touring ensemble Window On The Heart. Her solo concert career was relatively short but full with many performances in musical theater, opera and jazz largely in the Ithaca, NY area, in Massachusetts - but also in Poland where she lived with her late husband in 1980-81 when the country was still under communist rule. During the later, she was assistant conductor of the Warsaw Schola Cantorum and sang concerts sponsored by the US Embassy’s cultural office. Presently she is one of the cantors at St. Rose of Lima Church in Northboro.
Although Ms. Vitale spent many years doing theatrical make-up, she hadn’t had much more time for her second passion in the visual arts until fairly recently. However, during the past 5 years she has revived that interest and is now a photographer showing her works at the Westboro Art Gallery, “60 Nobscott” in Sudbury, Danforth Art Museum gift shop, private collections and exhibitions.