Singing "Where is Love"
Elke Hirsh, piano - Geri Rizzo, flute

Geri was singing long before she was a flute player.  She has fond recollections of her Mom singing Big Band music around the house, preparing for her gigs with a local Big Band in upstate NY.  Geri began studying voice when she was nine and performed in high school musicals and church choirs all her life.  Vocal studies started at an early age with Helen Farina and  later with Broadway singer, Claudia Aaronson.   Geri has a two octave range and can adapt her voice from classical, to Broadway to country to rock!  It was a tough call to decide whether to major in flute or voice at the New England Conservatory of Music where she had a full scholarship, so she majored in flute and minored in voice.  Her maternal relatives from England abound with singers, artists and theatre performers. 

She sings Opera to Broadway to Jazz standards to Pop and has performed as lead (the "Queen", an alto lead) in Iolanthe and was featured in the Mikado at the Bardavon Theatre, Poughkeepsie, NY.  She  has performed with the professional choral group Doug Murdock Meistersingers in South Jersey, performing classical and Broadway, and the Cape Chorale, with Scott Breiner. She has also performed in several clubs such as Mimis in  NYC to Sloppy Joe's in Key West and on the stage at Yasgur's farm's Woodstock revivals.  Her repertoire is vast, from classical, to jazz standards, and generic music - i.e., Italian and Irish and more.

Rock and Roll?  Yes!  Presently she is an area club and party favorite with her classic rock and more duo, "Leather and Lace", with guitarist John Oelkers, website here.

As a composer/songwriter, Geri has written several ballads, "You're My Angel"; "Soledad"; "Jolie"; "If You Were Mine", and "Christmas Without You", available on CD Baby.

"As long as it's music, it doesn't matter what the genre - bring it on!", Geri quips..  A woman of many musical hats!