(ethereal music) - [Announcer] Performing tonight on "Expressions," Tony Villecco.

(singing in foreign language) "Expressions" is made possible by the support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - Good evening and welcome to "Expressions."

I'm Adara Alston.

Tony Villecco has been on stage almost his entire life beginning at age 10 in a Tri-Cities Opera production of "La Boheme."

That was just the start of an eclectic career in music that has spanned nearly five decades in just as many genres.

From show tunes to jazz standards, Tony has entertained audiences with his angelic voice and easygoing charm.

Tonight, he has assembled a merry band of minstrels to perform a set of Baroque period songs at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Binghamton.

("Amo Tirsi") (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) ("Warbling the Birds") ♪ Warbling the birds enjoying ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Free and gay ♪ ♪ Warbling the birds enjoying ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Gay ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Warbling the birds enjoying ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ While we would love complying ourselves to care are tiring ♪ ♪ He hops and swats ♪ ♪ He hops and swats all day ♪ ♪ Warbling the birds enjoying ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Free and gay ♪ ♪ Warbling the birds enjoying ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Gay ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ♪ Warbling the birds enjoying ♪ ♪ Sweet pleasure free and gay ♪ ("Strike the Viol") ♪ Strike the viol ♪ ♪ Strike the viol ♪ ♪ Touch, touch, touch ♪ ♪ Touch, touch, touch ♪ ♪ Touch the lute ♪ ♪ Wake the harp ♪ ♪ Wake the harp ♪ ♪ Wake the harp ♪ ♪ Inspire the flute ♪ ♪ Wake the harp ♪ ♪ Inspire the flute ♪ ♪ Sing your patroness's praise ♪ ♪ Sing your patroness's praise ♪ ♪ Sing, sing, sing ♪ ♪ Sing in cheerful and harmonious lays ♪ - Well, I grew up in Tunnel, New York.

Grandpa Villecco was a cheese maker and my father and his brothers took that over in the late '50s and '60s and made and sold Italian cheeses all over the Binghamton area.

And it was a big booming business.

So that was a interesting way to grow up.

My brother and I both got hooked on opera very young.

Unlike my folks, my dad was a jazz saxophonist and my mom played trumpet.

So it was kind of strange that the two boys took to opera.

We would always listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast.

When we'd go to Binghamton, we'd stop at Weeks and Dickinson Music store or Fowler's at that point had a big record collection and we would coerce our father (chuckles) into purchasing opera recordings for us.

But I always knew I was gonna sing.

Ever since I was in elementary school, I was always singing.

So I started actually wanting to take voice lessons.

I was a boy soprano.

And I started at age 10 with Harold Mason.

Harold was a great friend and singer that used to sing with TCO, Tri-Cities Opera.

It was Tri-Cities Opera that we grew up in.

We started in the chorus and I started "La Boheme" in the little children's chorus, as well as my brother.

The Tri-Cities Opera group was huge growing up.

It was a major part of my musical education.

And so that was a great experience.

And I mean, it just blossomed from there.

I always wanted to be an opera singer.

I mean, that is still my passion.

But I knew very early on that I didn't have a big enough voice.

You know, you need a big voice if you're projecting in an opera house.

I mean, I can sing opera.

I can sing arias and I study arias, but I sort of sensed that really wasn't my forte.

The minute I heard period music of the Baroque, I just knew, I knew in my heart, it was like a visceral reaction that this is the kind of music I love.

It's instantly recognizable, the period of the music.

And that just, I can't think of another period aside from of course opera that emotionally drives me, moves me.

When I sing those arias or the songs of that period, not only do they fit vocally, I think that it's what I was meant to do.

That's a kind of music that I do well.

The Baroque vocal pieces, in particular the Baroque arias, the Baroque opera developed the, what they call the da capo or back to the beginning, back to the head, the A-B-A form where you'd sing the initial aria, then there's the B section, which is usually much more agitated and elaborate, and then you go back to the A section again, but they were very big on ornamentation.

So you would do all kinds of ornaments and trills and long extended scales.

It's very similar to jazz in terms of improvisation.

That's why people get confused, they look at a vocal piece on paper and they think, well these notes aren't written.

But you sing it as written, but then you do the ornamentation, which is expected in that period of music.

I can get lost singing.

I mean, and that's the part of art is you wanna get lost and love it so much that it just takes you over.

And that's the way that you can also, I think, connect to an audience because if they see that you love this so much and it's moving you, how can it not move someone in the audience?

I mean, it has to affect them.

That's the whole point of art and what we do as singers.

("Ave Maria") (singing in foreign language) ("Ah!

Spietato") (singing in foreign language) - What a heavily performance by tenor Tony Villecco.

There is so much more of Tony's performance from St. Thomas Aquinas Church that can be viewed at WSKG.org/expressions.

You can also listen to his complete concert on the "Expressions Director's Cut" podcast available on most podcast platforms and at yourpublicradio.com.

Until next time, I'm Adara Alston, thank you for watching "Expressions."

Good night.

(Tony singing in foreign language) (Baroque music)