Guitar virtuoso Dario Saraceno hopes that some student will remember him with the affection he had for the late Ed Brown, who mentored him as his guitar instructor.
In fact, he may already have one. The Orange County musician began instructing Sam Rubin in his freshman year at Monroe/Woodbury High School and is proud of the fact that his student got named to the All-County Jazz Band and was invited to write for a string quartet. Rubin also plays the viola.
Rubin now reports for his lessons to the Woodbury Guitar Studio that his mentor opened in May in Central Valley. Some 30 students have followed Saraceno from his former store front operation in Monroe. “Aaron Burr lived in the building,” Saraceno reports of the two-story structure at 375 Route 32. “It”™s sunlit and there is a downstairs waiting area. The lessons take place upstairs.”
Saraceno”™s parents, who hail from southern Italy near Potenza, initially opted to move to England with their three children. “My mom”™s brothers had moved there, as it wasn”™t so far from Italy.” But opportunities in the United States finally lured the family to the Bronx. The five years in England made their mark on the future guitarist: “It was the Beatles era, and my mom was always playing them,” Saraceno recalls.
The family relocated from the Bronx to Wappingers Falls in time for Saraceno to enter Roy C. Ketcham High School. He continues to reside in Wappingers Falls.
“My brother had a guitar hanging on the wall,” Saraceno recalls. “One day I took it down and began playing with it. I took a few lessons and got more serious in my later teens. I then found a really great guitar teacher, Ed Brown.” Brown”™s new student ultimately cut his own teeth in teaching by instructing several neighborhood children.
Enrolling in Berklee College of Music in Boston, he earned a master”™s of music degree. But he was faced with student loan repayment. A West Virginia friend overwhelmed with students enlisted the new graduate to help out. “I went from teaching four students while in high school to 40 of them,” he remarks.
Teaching has gone hand-in-hand with his own recordings. Right now, Saraceno has songs played on internet radio. “Internet radio is pushing independent musicians,” he says. His band, Dario and the Clear, has CDs available on iTunes.
One recording experience has not enhanced his love for computers. The disaster occurred in a recording studio when half of a completed album got completely erased, he reports. “All of my work had been in vain,” he adds. “I lost thousands of dollars. I”™m laughing now, but I was not laughing then.”
Saraceno reserves his primary professional admiration for guitarists Allan Holdsworth and Steve Vai. His fourth CD, “Tattooed Prophet,” includes on the bass Tony Levin, an associate of John Lennon, and drummer Jerry Marotta, who recorded “Tears for Fears” with Paul McCartney. His third CD, “Dario and the Clear,” includes Mark Egan from the Pat Metheny Group.
Saraceno”™s teaching philosophy is that every student has to be approached differently. He cites a student who could not read music, but was brought along by his recording him and playing the music back.
About half of his students also sing. “I took vocal lessons for six weeks,” he notes, indicating his voice is in “the John Lennon range.”
Saraceno visits with parents dropping off their children. “I have the children for a half hour or hour, so parental support is important,” he notes. But not all his students are children. The present crop ranges from eight to 55.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
