Anaïs Reno
Anaïs Reno is a 19-year-old LaGuardia High School graduate who is currently attending SUNY Purchase as a jazz major. Winning the Forté International Competition, Great American Songbook Competition, The Mabel Mercer Competition, the Julie Wilson Award, a winner and Finalist in YoungArts, and the jazz prize winner at The American Traditions Competition, Anaïs has performed in New York at important venues such as Birdland, Carnegie Hall, Rose Hall, David Geffen Hall, Dizzy’s, Chris' Jazz Café in Philadelphia, and many others. Her album, “Lovesome Thing: Anaïs Reno Sings Ellington & Strayhorn”, which was recorded with Emmet Cohen when Anaïs was 16, received critical acclaim and rose to number 6 on the jazz chart. She was featured in the “New York State of Mind” video with Idina Manzel and Stephen Colbert and was on national television singing "America the beautiful" for the Mets/Yankees 9/11 game last year. She received a critically acclaimed review from Downbeat Magazine on an album with Gary Smulyan, Pete Malinverni, David Wong and Matt Wilson, of Tad Dameron tunes ,"Tad's All Folks", which Anais recorded at age 17, She has performed in Houston, Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and London this past season, and opened the baseball season on April 15th at Citi Field for the Mets. Additionally, Anaïs will be coming out with a new album soon, featuring Peter Bernstein, David Wong, and Joe Farnsworth.
Pete Malinverni
Since arriving in New York City from his native Niagara Falls, NY, Pete Malinverni has performed in the great halls and clubs of The City. His art proves that passionate music is indeed the universal language.
His seventeen recordings in multiple formats reveal his commitment to elevate the art of Jazz, leaning on tradition while looking to the future. His latest, “On the Town – Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein”, was in the top ten for airplay worldwide for five straight weeks, including two weeks at #2.
He served for eighteen years as Minister of Music at the African-American Devoe Street Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY and is conductor/pianist at Westchester Reform Temple, in Scarsdale, NY.
Pete shares his belief in music as metaphor for a “life lived freely” with his students at SUNY Purchase, where he served ten years as Chair of Jazz and continues to teach Jazz Theory, Harmony, Improv, Jazz Choir, Combo and “Bridges”, a course that explores the intersection between Classical and Jazz Piano.
