At 33, Jake Desormo carries a musical legacy within his family. Growing up in Watertown, surrounded by the melodies of his father Scott and older brother Brent, it was almost inevitable that Jake would find his rhythm in music. It all began in church, where he first picked up the bass, setting the stage for his musical odyssey.

It’s no longer a secret that our March Artist Spotlight, Gretchen Koehler, is a talented fiddler AND violinist.

Gretchen grew up in Western Massachusetts. When she was in kindergarten, fliers for free violin lessons were passed around in class. She took the flier home to her mom who got her started with lessons that followed the Suzuki Method. Similar to talking before reading, the Suzuki Method teaches students to play before they read.

The performing arts community could not function without talented individuals who are literally “behind the scenes” running the technical aspects. Our first Artist Spotlight of 2024 does just that.

Michael Schanely, our February Artist Spotlight, is the Audio-Visual Technician at Watertown Central School District. Because his father was in the military, Mike was born in Germany where he lived for about two and a half years. While there, he reminisced about speaking a strange mix of English and Deutsch due to his English-speaking parents mixed with his German-speaking babysitter.

To us, he was a “hidden gem” of the North Country, but to those who have seen him in action, he is a prodigy.

Our December Artist Spotlight, Mike Tyo, is an exceptionally proficient, and also blind, organist and singer, who is the current organist at Adams United Methodist Church.

One year brought about several life changes and two song releases for our November Artist Spotlight, Maggie Mintz.

In her very honest interview with Joe, Maggie claimed that she didn’t really feel like she started doing music until this year, even though she has been writing music since she was 12. This was the first year that she decided to push past her fear and get two of her songs recorded, mixed, mastered and released: “Jack and Jill” and “Toxic Love”.

Our October artist spotlight has been involved with Watertown Lyric Theater for 50 years.

Dan Davis, who is currently directing Watertown Lyric Theater’s production of Newsies, has lived in the Watertown area most of his life. Since his dad was a pharmacist and manager at Kinney Drugs they moved around locally, but Dan was able to attend Watertown School from 6th grade until graduation. About a year after graduating, Mr. Davis set out for New York City to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for two years. Soon after that he went to Florida to work the dinner theater circuit, but found his true home and the love of his life, Patricia (Patty) Davis, back in Watertown.

The Watertown-area performing arts community deals with a major loss. David A. Simmons, a choreographer, light tech, assistant director, and so much more, passed away on September 13th.

As we gear up for another school year, we chose to feature a music educator as our Artist Spotlight. Chuck Heck is going into his 44th year of teaching at Indian River School District as the high school wind ensemble director, high school jazz band director, lesson instructor and K-12 music coordinator. Mr. Heck started at Indian River in 1980 just after graduating from Crane. Though he had plans to eventually find a position in Rochester, the passing of his father kept him in the area, as he decided to take over his father’s position at Indian River School District.

Our August Artist Spotlight, Tyler Laughlin, utilized Watertown Lyric Theater’s recent production to become more acquainted with the local performing arts community. Tyler moved from Indiana to Fort Drum in December of 2022 on military police assignment and decided to reprise his role of Jimmy Ray in Steve Martin’s bluegrass musical, Bright Star. Though he has a baritone vocal range, he was able to soar through some of the higher melodies of the show.

She’s a choreographer, dancer, actor, singer, percussionist and 4th grade teacher. Our June Artist Spotlight, Madison (Madi) Draper, can do it all, and more! Outside of teaching for Watertown School District, Madi is also the assistant director at Rhonda’s Footeworks, which her mother, Rhonda Foote, has been running for 36 years. Madi dedicates a decent portion of her time to choreography, and though she isn’t always able to perform the routines herself, her experience in teaching has allowed her to effectively communicate what she sees in her brain to her students, or to actors in local theater productions.