BRAVO! Vancouver - Vancouver Washington

Conductor and Clarinetist Michael Kissinger is co-founder and Artistic Director of Bravo! Vancouver and is the founder and Artistic Director of the Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival. The Jazz Festival is “…the largest festival of its kind in the Northwest…” (KATU Channel 2, Portland, OR) and is “…one of the most important jazz festivals in the Northwest…” (Northwest Jazz Profile Magazine). Now recognized by the City of Vancouver as the #1 cultural arts event in Southwest Washington, the Festival has attracted more than 80,000 jazz, wine and art aficionados from 16 states and Canada since its premier in 1998. Dr. Kissinger has produced over thirty internationally acclaimed jazz and blues artists including: Arturo Sandoval, Bela Fleck, BeauSoleil, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bo Diddley, Booker T. Jones, Bobby Shew, Chick Corea, Chuck Mangione, David Sanborn, Diane Schuur, Dr. John, Eddie Palmieri, Ed Shaughnessy, Ernie Watts, Four Freshmen, James Cotton, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jose Feliciano, Kenny Loggins, Los Lobos, Mavis Staples, Melissa Manchester, Poncho Sanchez, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Ramsey Lewis, Regina Carter, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Spyro Gyra, Stanley Clarke, Take 6, The Louis Armstrong Society Jazz Band, The 5th Dimension, The Temptations, The Yellowjackets, and others. Dr. Kissinger has performed as a solo clarinetist and with orchestras, jazz ensembles and chamber groups in the U.S. and Europe including such diverse ensembles as the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, Heidelberg Opera Orchestra, Ciompi String Quartet, Carolina String Quartet, North Carolina Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Lansing Symphony, St. Stephen’s Chamber Orchestra, Raleigh Ballet Orchestra, Raleigh Civic Symphony, New Washingtonian’s Jazz Orchestra and the Rochester Big Band, among others. From 1989-1991 he was a solo artist in the prestigious North Carolina Visiting Artist program, where he also produced a radio series for National Public Radio affiliate WTEB-FM. He founded the American Music Festival in Beaufort, North Carolina, and was Artistic Director until 1993. He has performed on numerous commercial recordings including Wynton Marsalis’s Grammy-nominated album, Carnival and the CBS Masterworks recording Quiet City. Michael earned the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree (DMA) from the Eastman School of Music, and holds graduate and undergraduate music degrees from Michigan State University and the University of North Carolina. Dr. Kissinger has served on music faculties at UNC-Wilmington, Meredith College, the Eastman School of Music, Wake Technical Community College, Pamlico Community College, Albion College, New England Music Camp, Rocky Mount High School, and the Hochstein School of Music. Michael recently produced the Bravo! Chorale’s latest CD recording Hear My Prayer: The American Spiritual, released in December 2006. His choral music compositions are published exclusively by Sound Music Publications (www.smpjazz.com) in Edmonds, WA. Since 2006 he has been guest conductor with the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, and will be conducting the orchestra during their 2008 season.

Pianist and Conductor Maria Manzo is co-founder and Music Director of Bravo! Vancouver. Dr. Manzo has been Director of Music at St. Joseph Church in Vancouver, Washington since 1993 where she directs the Parish Choir, Children’s Choir, Youth Choir, Cantor Ensemble, Women’s Schola, Bell Choir, and is Parish Pianist and Organist. The St. Joseph Parish Choir has released three CD recordings under her direction including Then Sings My Soul; also Hallelujah! A St. Joseph Christmas; and Songs in the Key of Faith. In 2001 Dr. Manzo’s Parish Choir and the Bravo! Chorale were invited to perform at the 25th Annual National Pastoral Musician’s Conference on July 4th, 2001 in Washington D.C. This invitation developed into an East Coast concert tour to Washington D.C. and New York City featuring all-American sacred repertoire, including Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert. The New Washingtonians Jazz Orchestra from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts collaborated with Dr. Manzo on this tour, with a final concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Concert Hall in New York. She is recognized for her extensive scholarship on the American Negro Spiritual, and is an authority on the music of composer and arranger Jester Hairston, composer of Amen and other well-known spirituals. The Bravo! Chorale recently release the CD recording Hear My Prayer: The American Spiritual under her direction. It features classic & contemporary American Spirituals, including those of Hairston and others. From 1989-93, Dr. Manzo was Assistant Professor of Choral Music at North Carolina Wesleyan College. She received her B.A. and Master of Music degrees from Eastern Washington University and her Doctorate of Arts degree from the University of Northern Colorado. This season she will be performing and conducting the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra (DSO) in Dubrovnik, Croatia; and in October 2008, she will conduct the Bravo! Chorale and the DSO in a Pacific Northwest tour with performances in Vancouver/Portland, Tacoma, Edmonds and Seattle at the 2008 CroatiaFest at Seattle Center. The Bravo! Chorale has also been invited to tour under her direction in 2009 in Croatia with the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Manzo is currently on the faculty of Marylhurst University where she is the Director of the Marylhurst Chorale.