Eleanor and Friends
Eleanor Aversa
Hello! I’m a composer, songwriter, pianist, and educator. I started working with kids in 2002, teaching English as a Foreign Language. After getting my doctorate in music composition, I taught piano at a community music school, mostly to ages 6-10. I saw many parallels between how kids pick up music and how they pick up a language. Playfulness helps, as does rhyming, and repetition with variations rather than rote repetition.
I grew up listening to my parents’ eclectic music collection. My piano teacher, Bobbe Bramson, was also a commercial songwriter and taught me both classical music and how to play from lead sheets and improvise. I started working as an accompanist around age 14. Over the years, I’ve played in many genres for school and church choirs and as an audition accompanist for soloists and instrumentalists. I’ve also played a lot of chamber music.
Since 2016, I’ve taught Composition at the Berklee College of Music, specializing in traditional harmony, voice leading, and counterpoint. Because it’s Berklee, I’m surrounded by a wide spectrum of contemporary genres, so it feels like I’ve come full circle. Some of my amazing colleagues perform on this album.
I wrote all of the music, lyrics, and arrangements, with the exception of a few collaborations: my brother Andrew arranged the two songs with electronic accompaniment, and singer Josephine Kraemer, a native French speaker, helped translate and re-write the lyrics to “Not the Owl” to make the song work as “Pas un hibou.”
I play piano on:
The Most Important Things You Carry
Sun in the Moon
It’s the End of Your Screen Time
Solfege Song
Feelings Are a Wheel
Not an Owl
Pas un hibou
You can listen to my chamber, orchestra, and choral music here.
Andrew Aversa
Eleanor’s brother Andrew Aversa is a composer and arranger of electronic music. On Pandora and Spotify, his music has been streamed over 36 million times. His work has been featured in a variety of live events, advertising campaigns, and TV shows on networks including MTV, Discovery, Food Network, NBC, and FOX. He’s credited on over 20 titles in roles including composer, arranger, mix engineer and sound designer in the game industry. He founded and runs two companies: Impact Soundsworks and Impact Gameworks.
Electronics arranger:
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Bright and Shining)
I Love Percussion
Production and mastering: all tracks
Vocals
Josephine Kraemer
Up-and-coming singer Josephine Kraemer holds an MFA from the Boston Conservatory (2020) and a BA from the University of the Pacific. She has played Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (Pacific Mainstage) and Nina in A Night in Hollywood/A Day in the Ukraine (Boston Conversatory Mainstage) and was a featured soloist in Annie Get Your Gun (Carlmont Performing Arts Center) and The Opera Follies (Pacific Opera Theater). She has appeared in supporting roles in the Boston area at Moonbox Productions and Lightning House Players.
It’s the End of Your Screen Time
Not an Owl
Pas un hibou
Rain on the Roof
Sun in the Moon
Solfege Song
Water’s Calm / Row Your Boat
Nadia Washington
Nadia Washington leads the Nadia Washington Quartet and has also performed with Esperanza Spalding, Lalah Hathaway, Terri Lynn Carrington, and the late George Duke. She has appeared at Jazz at Lincoln Center and was a featured writer and performer on the REVIVE Music and Blue Note Records compilation, REVIVE Music Presents: Supreme Sonacy (Vol. 1). Nadia was also a background singer and songwriter for Dianne Reeves’ Beautiful Life, which received a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocals in 2014. She has also received awards from DownBeat and the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Allergies
Because He Was a Weasel
Solfege Song
Water’s Calm / Row Your Boat
Waves on the Water
Dan Callaway
Dan Callaway played the title role in the Broadway National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera. He performed in Spamalot and Sweeney Todd (LA Ovation nomination for best featured actor in a musical) with Musical Theatre West, and One Touch of Venus with Lost Musicals at the Royal Opera House. His performances with LA’s Musical Theatre Guild included Chess, The Most Happy Fella, Aspects of Love, and Edwin Drood. He appeared in Carousel and The Light in the Piazza with Theatre Raleigh as well as George in Sunday in the Park with George for North Carolina Summer Rep and Emile DeBecque in South Pacific at Triad Stage.
The Most Important Things You Carry
Feelings Are a Wheel (One Breath at a Time)
Sun in the Moon [four voice chorus]
Shradha Ganesh
Shradha Ganesh received the Vidya Bharathi Canada Young Artist Award for outstanding accomplishment in South Asian classical arts in 2023. She also performed for 10,000 at Hum Sab Diwali in North Carolina in 2023 with singer/songwriter Abby V. As a composer, Shradha worked on the score for the Tamil short film “Vaa Sellalaam Parandhu” which has received over a million views on YouTube.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Bright and Shining)
Water’s Calm / Row Your Boat [voice 3]
Anney Barrett
Anney Barrett has been the resident soloist at Christ Church of Andover, MA since 2006 and appears on an album of the Renaissance composer Pietro Vinci by the Nota Bene viol consort. She holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Westminster Choir College, and the Longy School. of Music.
I Love Percussion
Sun in the Moon [four voice chorus]
Jillian Aversa
Eleanor’s sister-in-law Jillian Aversa appears on the Gran Turismo film soundtrack as well as on the two-time Grammy-winning album Calling All Dawns by Christopher Tin. With Video Games Live, she has performed as a soloist with the Boston, National, Melbourne, Baltimore, and San Diego Symphonies, as well as the Shanghai Orchestra and the City of Prague Philharmonic.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Bright and Shining)
Nmesoma Ogbuani
Nmesoma Ogbuani is a two-time recipient of the Lia and William Poorvu scholarship for music and community engagement and is committed to creating developmental programs that will benefit communities. She currently serves as a Board member in Education and Outreach at the First Baptist Church of Medford, Massachusetts.
Sun in the Moon [four voice chorus]
Water’s Calm / Row Your Boat [voice 4]
Craig Juricka
Craig Juricka has performed with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Odyssey Opera (Boston), Boston Camerata, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and Bach Akademie Charlotte. He was recently featured in the Boston POPS production of Ragtime.
Sun in the Moon [four voice chorus]
Accompanied By
Jan Müller-Szeraws
Jan Müller-Szeraws has given solo performances with the Richmond Symphony, the New England Philharmonic, Orquesta de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. As a regular extra player, he has been extensively touring with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Müller-Szeraws is also the cellist of the contemporary music ensemble Boston Musica Viva and is an Artist-in-Residence at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Rain on the Roof
Solfege Song
Sun in the Moon
Bill Kirkley
Bill Kirkley is principal clarinetist and one of the founders of the Lexington Symphony, principal clarinetist of Cape Ann Symphony, and solo bass clarinetist with Orchestra of Indian Hill and the Albany Symphony. As a guest clarinetist, he can often be heard performing with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, and City Ballet in NYC. He has recorded extensively on such labels as CRI, SEAMUS, New World, Albany, Naxos, and Centaur.
Not an Owl
Pas un hibou
Sun in the Moon
Amy Bellamy
Amy Bellamy has performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Blue Note Jazz Club NYC, Irving Plaza, House of Blues Boston and Chicago, B.B. King’s NYC, Rochester Jazz Festival, Gathering of the Vibes, and Cayenne Jazz Festival. She is music director and coproducer of the A-Beez, a modern soul/funk original band with husband and bassist Aaron Bellamy.
Allergies
Because He Was a Weasel
Lee Fish
Lee Fish grew up performing in his parents’ band Amante at venues across North America. Since then, he has appeared on more than 50 recordings, including Mike Tucker’s 2014 release Live! featuring Warren Wolf and Jason Palmer’s 2019 release Sweet Love that received four stars from DownBeat Magazine. He has been a Zildjian artist since 2018 and has appeared on more than 50 recordings.
Allergies
Because He Was a Weasel
Andres Guerra
Venezuelan guitarist Andres Guerra has shared the stage and collaborated with a wide variety of artists, including Grammy-winning Carlos Vives, Aida Cuevas, Berta Rojas, Paquito d’ Rivera, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. He is currently attending the Mannes School of Music on scholarships from that school and from the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation.
Water’s Calm
Waves on the Water
John Lockwood
John Lockwood has toured the U.S. and Europe with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Gary Burton, the Mel Lewis Big Band, and The Fringe. He has also performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, MIT Symphony, Pat Metheny, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, Toots Thielemans, Stan Getz, and Art Farmer.
Allergies
Because He Was a Weasel
Matt Sharrock
Matt Sharrock performs chamber music with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Boston Percussion Group, and the duo Transient Canvas, as well as orchestra music with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra.
Rain on the Roof
Recorded By
Recorded at the Berklee College of Music Studios:
Alejandro N. Rodríguez recorded tracks 12 and 13.
Mark Wessel recorded tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 14.
Joshua K.W. Lu (Wellspring Studios) recorded tracks 1, 6, and 9,
as well as additional voice overdubs to tracks 2 and 12.
Jillian Aversa and Shradha Ganesh recorded their vocals in home studios.
Vox Futura choir was recorded by Futura Productions.
Production and mastering by Andrew Aversa.
Partial funding for the album was provided by grants from:
Berklee College of Music Faculty Development
Massachusetts Cultural Council