Jamanis Project

Just back from a European Concert Tour with my mom, the amazing Frances Veri! Vienna had wonderful pastries and great coffee. The European breakfast buffets are really good because they just have everything and the coffee was delicious. Wow! And as I watched my mom, I realized she really makes friends everywhere she goes and really does go with the flow!

We made it back from Europe, just in time for TONIGHT's Jamanis Spring Fling concert.

We are mixing things up at this concert by featuring two jazz composers:

Claude Bolling’s Suite for Violin and Jazz Piano Trio featuring Frances Veri, Matthew Woodson, Genevieve Chapin, and myself.

Francis Wong’s Sorrow, Year of the Monkey, and The Fire This Time featuring Matthew, Genevieve and myself.

Both of these composers challenge classical players differently than, let’s say, Beethoven whose Spring Sonata we’ll open with.

Essentially it has to do with rhythm and improvisation.

Jamanis Spring Fling Concert
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
31 S. Duke St.
Lancaster, PA
@7:30pm
Free and Open to the Public

Saxophonist Francis Wong, whose first instrument was violin, invites you to leap and trust your collaborators and to let go of what you played the last time. He’s all about presence.

In keeping with that spirit, Matt, Genevieve, and I are creating duets and trios of works that Wong initially wrote for solo violin--for the first time tonight!

I’m excited to share Francis’s work in honor of Asian American Pacific islander Heritage Month.

Claude Bolling, a French jazz pianist and composer, was a child prodigy who started playing with jazz greats Lionel Hampton and Kenny Clark when he was fourteen. This Suite for violin with jazz trio has been described as “a mix of Baroque elegance with modern swing,” and it’s the swing that makes it a fun challenge.

Lancaster native composer Richard Field's Flights of Fancy (crowd pleasers in Europe) will complete the set. Frances Veri and I will play three movements: The Masked Ball, A Flight of Fancy, and High Five.

Please join us tonight, Thursday May 7 for a genre blending musical experience.

Join us tomorrow! With special guests Matthew Woodson and Genevieve Chapin 🌼💐🌷

Such an amazing experience so far with my mom!

This month’s Woman in Music Spotlight is none other than my mom, Frances Veri!
Here is some advice from Frances to up and coming musicians: “We always advise our young people to practice, to be prepared... and I will say yes, that is true, but when you walk out there to play you have to believe in yourself. You can’t do anything that you don’t believe. To be convincing you have to believe in yourself. You become The Little engine that could ... I think I can, I think I can until it’s.. “I did it!”

Had a great time bringing the Music For Everyone Sound Factory Strings to the Fulton Theatre for the first Friday celebration.

Incredible violinist Jeremy Cohen at the ASTA conference. I absolutely love his music and what he has brought to the violin world. Jeremy's compositions provide opportunities for so many string players of all ages and levels to have access to really fun music blending genres. Super cool 😎!!. His quartet San Francisco was presented one evening at the conference. It was so much fun.

Had an amazing time starting off 2026 helping at Washington elementary with their winter school concert. What made it really special was having former Washington elementary School student, Cindy Reyes, now helping with Music For Everyone participate. This is the school that got the MFE in the schools program started. Thank you Washington Elementary orchestra director, Heather Fellenser Balay for all your support and encouragement during the past 15 years.