Rob Kapilow: What Makes It Great?
About the Artists
Rob Kapilow
Nia Drummond (Singer)
Pat O'Leary (Bass)
Joshua Richman (Piano)
Gabrielle Stravelli (Singer)
Mark McLean (Drums)
For over 30 years, Rob Kapilow has brought the joy and wonder of music – and unraveled some of its mysteries – to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Characterized by his unique ability to create an “aha” moment for his audiences and collaborators, whatever their level of musical sophistication or naiveté, Kapilow’s work brings music into people’s lives: opening new ears to musical experiences and helping people to listen actively rather than just hear.
Kapilow’s range of activities is astonishingly broad, including his What Makes It Great?® presentations (now for over 20 seasons in New York and Boston), his family compositions and Family Musik® events, his Citypieces, corporate programs, and residencies with institutions as diverse as the National Gallery of Canada and Stanford University. The reach of his interactive events and activities is wide, from Native American tribal communities in Montana and inner-city high school students in Louisiana to audiences in Kyoto, Istanbul, and Kuala Lumpur, and from tots barely out of diapers to musicologists in Ivy League programs.
In the 2025/2026 season, he returns to the Celebrity Series of Boston, Stanford Live!, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, and Music Toronto. What Makes It Great? programs include Anything but Standard: The Music of Ella Fitzgerald & Oscar Peterson, as well as new programs of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and The Summer of Love: The Music of Jimi Hendrix & Janis Joplin.
Mr. Kapilow’s large-scale choral/orchestral composition, We Came to America, based on inter-generational immigrant stories had its world premiere in January 2024 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in conjunction with the Thurnauer School of Music of the Kaplan JCC of the Palisades and the New Jersey Symphony.
Kapilow is an award-winning author of three books. All You Have To Do Is Listen, published by Wiley/Lincoln Center won the PSP Prose Award for Best Book in Music and the Performing Arts. What Makes it Great?, also published by Wiley/Lincoln Center, was the first book of its kind to be specially designed for the iPad with embedded musical examples. His latest book, Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim, published by Norton/Liveright received wide critical acclaim and was a finalist for the Marfield Prize. In June 2020, he signed a new, two-book contract with Norton/Liveright, and he is currently hard at work researching and writing both books, the first on the music of the Woodstock Generation.
Kapilow has appeared on NBC’s Today Show with Katie Couric; he presented a special What Makes It Great?® for broadcast on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center; and he was the subject of a full-length PBS documentary as a composer entitled Summer Sun, Winter Moon. His What Makes it Great radio series was broadcast for more than a decade on NPR’s Performance Today.
Rob Kapilow dedicates his summer months to writing and composing new music. He was the first composer to be granted the rights to set Dr. Seuss’ words to music, and his Green Eggs and Ham has been called “the most successful piece written for families this half-century.” A CD featuring Nathan Gunn and Isabel Leonard in two more of his popular Family Musik® compositions, Chris van Allsburg’s Polar Express and Dr. Seuss’s Gertrude McFuzz, was released in 2014, and his work composed for the 25th anniversary of Ottawa Chamberfest based on Louise Bourgeois’ spider sculpture, “Maman.” received its premiere in August of 2019.
Kapilow’s career has been marked by numerous major awards and grants. He won First Place in the Fontainebleau Casadesus Piano Competition and was the second-place winner of the Antal Dorati Conductor’s Competition with the Detroit Symphony. He was featured on Chicago Public Radio’s Composers In America series and is a recipient of an Exxon Meet-the-Composer grant and numerous ASCAP awards.
Kapilow has conducted many of North America’s major orchestras, as well as new works of musical theater, ranging from the Tony Award-winning Nine on Broadway to the premiere of Frida for the opening of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, and premieres of works for the American Repertory Theater. At the age of 19, Kapilow interrupted his academic work at Yale University to study with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Two years later, after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Yale, he continued his studies at Eastman School of Music. After graduating from Eastman, he returned to Yale, where he was an assistant professor and conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra for six years. He lives in Montvale, NJ, and he is a Sensei and third-degree black belt in Shorin-Ryu Karate.
Described by The Wall Street Journal as a “moving and electrifying performer,” singer, songwriter, pianist, and historian Nia Drummond is a Brooklyn-born artist whose work lives at the crossroads of tradition and transformation. Her voice moves fluidly through opera, jazz, soul, gospel, and spirituals, genres that form a living archive of Black musical expression. Whether on a concert stage or in a sacred space, Nia performs with a clear sense of purpose: to remember, to reclaim, and to reimagine.
Raised in Brooklyn’s vibrant creative landscape, Nia found early inspiration in the storytelling of Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand. That spark has carried her to some of the world’s most renowned stages, from the Apollo Theater to the Kennedy Center. She has shared the stage with artists including Sir Elton John, Valerie Simpson, and Juicy J, and has performed under the batons of Michael Tilson Thomas and Lorin Maazel. Her work has reached audiences worldwide, including three U.S. Presidents and guests at the christening of a Carnival Cruise Line ship.
Nia’s artistry defies boundaries. She has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, American Pops Orchestra, Syracuse Opera, New York Pops, St. Petersburg Opera, Opera Ebony, and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. Her television appearances include Tamron Hall, Access Hollywood, and PBS’s Great Performances. As a collaborator, she has lent her voice to artists across genres, including Bette Midler, John Legend, Billy Joel, Fantasia, Phish, Deborah Cox, and Natasha Bedingfield.
A decorated performer and scholar, Nia is the 2025 Gold Medal Winner of the American Traditions Vocal Collective, a two-time National YoungArts winner, recipient of the Sherrill Milnes American Opera Award, and a district and regional winner of the National Association of Negro Musicians Voice Competition. She is also the inaugural recipient of the Gordon Parks Centennial Scholarship Award and had the honor of performing the National Anthem at New York City’s annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony.
Recent projects include performing as a featured soloist with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Revelations under Damien Sneed, as well as collaborations with Samora Pinderhughes’ The Healing Project and Mohammad Gorjestani’s 1-800-HAPPY-BIRTHDAY, an installation honoring Black and Brown lives lost to police brutality.
Through bold artistic choices and rigorous research, Nia gathers and reshapes cultural memory into sound. Her work stands as a testament to the endurance of Black artistry: music as evidence, as healing, and as truth.
Bassist Patrick O'Leary, born in Buffalo, New York, and now living in Manhattan, studied piano and bass at The Crane School of Music, where he received a bachelor's degree. He has toured the world with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, the Illinois Jacquet Orchestra,Bob Dorough and Gabrielle Stravelli. Other leading artists with whom O'Leary has played include saxophonists Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, and James Moody, pianist Marian McPartland, vocalists Joe Williams, Marlena Shaw and Carol Sloane and vocalist/pianist Diana Krall.
As a Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassador, O'Leary toured several African countries, SouthEast Asia, Central and South America, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Moldova, Slovenia and Malta with Scott Robinson, Larry Ham, Bill Heid, Bob Dorough and Gabrielle Stravelli. Pat arranged and composed "The Montenegro Jazz Suite" and "The Serbian Jazz Suite" for Choir, Orchestra and Jazz Quartet.
Award-winning pianist, composer, and band-leader, Joshua Richman received his BA from William Paterson University in 2008. In 2010, he completed his master’s degree studying jazz piano performance at The Juilliard School. Joshua has studied jazz with piano legends such as Mulgrew Miller and Kenny Barron, and classical piano with Gary Kirkpatrick. He is a two-time winner of the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award. Along with leading the Josh Richman Quintet, Joshua has been fortunate to have performed with distinguished artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Wynton Marsalis, Terell Stafford, Chris Potter, Randy Brecker, Peter Washington, Kenny Washington, Benny Golson, Joel Frahm, Steve Wilson, Lea Delaria, John Ellis, Harry Allen, Jeremy Pelt, and Eric Alexander. Joshua also was the pianist for Anthony Rapp and Stephen Sondheim at the “Sondheim on Sondheim-In Words and Music” event at William Paterson University.
Although based primarily out of New York City, he regularly performs both nationally and internationally. Joshua is currently a faculty member at Temple University, where he teaches classes, private lessons, ensembles, and conducts masterclasses.
"Ms. Stravelli’s emotional intelligence coincides with a phenomenal voice that she wielded with an easygoing confidence and impeccable taste." - The New York Times
Vocalist & songwriter Gabrielle Stravelli brings to every performance soulful swing, sharp lyricism, and a deep connection to the American Songbook and jazz repertoire. Her career has been defined by highly individual choices and a genuine connection with audiences.
In the last year, Gabrielle headlined the 2025 Battersea Jazz Festival in London and the 2025 COTA Jazz Festival at The Deer Head Inn. She made debut appearances at Carnegie Hall (with the New York Pops) and at Dizzy’s Club in NYC. She toured South America, performing and teaching, and held her fifth month-long residency at Birdland Jazz Club.
She regularly leads her group at the country's finest jazz clubs & performing arts centers as well as headlining domestic & int’l jazz festivals including the 2025, 2024 & 2023 Deer Head Inn COTA Festival, 2025 West Virginia Wine & Jazz Fest, 2023 Cape Cod Jazz Festival, 2023 Cayman Arts Festival, 2024, ‘21 & ’18 WBGO Jazz on the Mountain Festival, 2019 Providencia Jazz Festival in Chile and the 2016 Eleuthera Jazz Festival.
Gabrielle has collaborated with world-renowned jazz pianist Fred Hersch three times, most recently recording his song cycle “Suspended In Time.” She toured the U.S. premiering "Abyssinian" with Wynton Marsalis and as a U.S. State Department "Jazz Ambassador" since 2015, she has performed and taught throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America.
Mark McLean is a very dynamic and versatile studio and touring musician. If you ask him about his biggest musical influences, the answer is likely to take more time than you have. Even if you ask for just the 'main ones' the list will go on and on. And it is a diverse list; from Johann Sebastian Bach to James Brown (and those are only the 'B's). And for that reason he has been the grooving spark behind many jazz, pop and soul legends whose music and influence span multiple generations. The late legendary producer Phil Ramone, who began hiring him for numerous sessions starting in 2003, called McLean “a tasty, sure handed drummer, a song man’s musician”- but that’s only part of the in-demand musician’s powerful story and evolving artistry. Whether playing a sensitive ballad with Andrea Bocelli, swinging mightily with Jamie Cullum or laying down a funky backbeat for George Michael, Mark McLean is always in his element.
Over the past few years, while maintaining a steady flow of prestigious gigs as a sideman and music director, the Toronto born, New York City based drummer/composer/producer has emerged as a popular band leader, performing numerous gigs with his own group and releasing two acclaimed solo recordings that showcase his expansive musical passions. In an industry that often prefers pigeonholing to expansive creative expression, the multi-talented artist — whose credo is “I don’t want to be seen as a drummer, I want to be known as a musician whose instrument just happens to be drums” — breaks all the rules on his eclectic 11 track sophomore album Feel Alright, sharing his love for everything from old school soul, down and dirty blues/funk and traditional jazz to Southern folk-pop with a zydeco twist, Rat Pack-like swing, edgy pop/rock and New Orleans brass band music. Mark believes that freedom from the burden of musical categorization enables him to fully explore his own voice.
Program
GEORGE AND IRA GERSHWIN "Lady Be Good" (1924)
TRANSCRIBED FROM ELLA FITZGERALD AND THE BOB HAGGART ORCHESTRA "Lady Be Good" (1947)
JEROME KERN "I'm Old Fashioned" (1942)
TRANSCRIBED FROM ANOTHER DAY, THE OSCAR PETERSON TRIO "I'm Old Fashioned" (1971)
GEORGE AND IRA GERSHWIN "How Long Has This Been Going On" (1927)
TRANSCRIBED FROM ELLA AND OSCAR "How Long Has This Been Going On") (1975)