The SaddleBrooke Singers are busy rehearsing upbeat jazzy tunes for their show on Wednesday, April 12. Titled “Swingin” On A Song,” our incredible professional pianist, Sly Slipetsky will accompany the Singers.
While purchasing tickets at DesertView Performing Art’s website, at tickets.saddlebrooketwo.com for the April concert, do grab tickets for the March 2023 Variety Show Production. Our own Gail Nelli, a veteran Singer, is directing Pages from the Great American Songbook. It’s a song and dance concert of Broadway, Hollywood, and radio’s timeless standards showcasing many SaddleBrooke Singers.
The Hi-Fi PlayedAs a child Gail remembers her mother had the Hi-Fi going continuously “with her favorites; Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathias, and Barbra Streisand.” And her dad loved to sing, teaching his four daughters his favorite songs, and enrolling them in tap dancing, “so we could be the next Shirley Temples.” Family time included watching Ed Sullivan, The Wonderful World of Disney, film musicals and variety shows.
Gail’s first public recital occurred in kindergarten. She sang “I’m a Little Teapot“ and “Little Miss Muffet.” In elementary school, she sang with the adult church choir. “They did not have an adult who could reach those high notes for the more formal mass services (neither can I now, Lol!)” In high school, she played her favorite lead role as Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, easily reaching the high-pitched notes in “Vanilla Ice Cream” She also played percussion instruments in her school’s marching bands. “I loved performing!”
At SUNY Oswego, Gail sang with symphonic and show choirs, worked on theatre productions, and directed as a senior Edward Albee’s play, The American Dream. During her master’s program at the University of Buffalo, she focused on theater technology training.
Her theater outlet experience as an adult, included Geneseo Community Players along with the Festival Choir at SUNY Geneseo where pieces such as Orff’s Carmina Burana with full orchestral accompaniment were performed.
A Lifetime MembershipGail is a lifetime member of NYS Theatre Education Association, which from its 1984 inception has promoted theatre education in New York State’s K-12 schools. Members honored Gail with their Rod Marriott Award “for lifetime achievement in educational theatre.” She served as their board trustee for eight-years, president for two-years and chair of the Rochester Region until her retirement.
Homeowners here since 2002 the Nelli’s became Arizona snowbirds in 2006. Residents and natives of New York, the couple lives in the Genesee River Valley area near the town of Leicester. Together for 48-years, friends arranged for Gail to meet her husband. A year and a half later, they married; soon after a son and daughter arrived.
RetirementThough retiring in 2002, after 32-years teaching high school English and theater, Gail’s passion for theater continues. She currently teaches a series on composers titled “The Great American Songbook“ for SaddleBrooke’s ILR and acts as a theatre education consultant in New York and Arizona.
Might you, like Gail enjoy singing with the SaddleBrooke Singers? Please phone Claudia Kistler at (550) 306-2113. Find more information at saddlebrookesingers.org.
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