AMHS members and their guests were recently treated to an outstanding performance by two very talented pianists visiting from Rome. The musicians, Vincent Catalano and Katrina Sudman, performed at Casa Italiana on December 11, 2022.

Their trip had been months in the planning, since AMHS President Ray LaVerghetta visited Italy last spring. That is when he met Vincent and his wife Katrina who now live in Rome. They finally arrived here a few days before the concert and were hosted by Peter Bell and then Robert D’Onofrio. 

This was their only performance in the Washington, D.C., area, and they said they selected a special program for us, beginning with Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Major and ending with Rossini’s Overture to La Gazza Ladra (the Thieving Magpie), a very Italian piece and a real crowd-pleaser. Then, they delighted the audience with several four-hand piano duo selections. Their repertoire was inspired by Italian opera, song, and dance. 

Vincent Catalano was born in L’ Aquila, in Abruzzo, where he graduated with the highest possible scores at the G. Braga Conservatory in Teramo. He then graduated with a Master’s Degree in Piano Interpretation-Composition, summa cum laude. He perfected his musical studies with internationally renowned pianists, Aldo Ciccolini and Carlo Maria Dominici, with whom he is currently studying and who himself studied with famed pianist Vladimir Horowitz.

Vincent has won a number of piano competitions including the “8th Concorso Nazionale di Cittá S. Angelo” held in Pescara, Abruzzo, where he performed at the event “Dal’Etna al Gran Sasso Tradizioni in Festa.” He also won 1st place at the “10th Concorso Internazionale Paolo Barrasso di Caramanico Terme”, also held in Pescara, and 2nd place at the “17th Concorso Nazionale Flegreo in Pozzuoli” held in Napoli. 

In addition to various piano master classes, he participated in many concerts in Rome, Saracinesco, Pescara, Gaeta, Napoli, and Viterbo. He also performed in Teramo for the “150 years of Italy’s Unity” celebrations in 2011. He dedicates himself with passion to instrumental duos including a piano four-hands duo with Katrina, as well as with violin and flute.

Katrina Sudman is from the Chicago area, and currently lives in Rome. She earned her Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, summa cum laude, from Azusa Pacific University in California. She now continues her studies privately with internationally acclaimed pianist Carlo Maria Dominici in Rome.

In 2018, Katrina took 2nd place in the International Piano Competition at the Festival of the Gulf in Salerno. She has performed in venues across the Chicago area, including the Grant Park Music Festival and the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

In addition to her solo performances, Katrina performs a four-hand piano duo with Vincent. Together they have performed throughout Chicago and in the Basilica of St. Anne in Detroit, which is the second-oldest continuously operating parish in the United States. She also collaborates with violinist Hsuan Chen of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She has been on faculty at Concordia University since 2017 as a piano instructor in the Preparatory and Community Piano Program.

The talented duo seemed to have really charmed the audience. They said that they enjoyed meeting attendees before and after the concert. They added that they felt very much at home in Casa Italiana.

A big thank you to all those who helped make the concert a success, especially Ray LaVerghetta, Peter Bell, Maria Marigliano, Lynn Sorbara, Richard Durkin, John Dunkle, and Julie Finigan Dal Forno. Unfortunately, Ray was unable to attend, so the pianists were introduced by Nancy DeSanti.

Dear members and friends:

Welcome to 2023. I extend warm New Year’s greetings to all our members and friends. Along with those greetings comes a sincere wish that all of us enjoy the best of health and happiness in the coming year. 

At the beginning of each new year, I like to review some of the events that brought us together, in one form or another, during the previous year. Early last year, the resurgence of Omicron cases prompted us to postpone our in-person plans and switch to virtual events. Our first one was a discussion, led by filmmaker Jim Toscano, of the documentary “My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes”, which told the story of the many Italians who helped Jews, partisans and refugees escape the ravages of the Holocaust during the Second World War. Our audience stretched across the coasts and feedback for the late January event was very positive.  Then in February we presented “Italian Louisiana: History, Heritage, Tradition”, a virtual talk by historian and author Alan Gauthreaux. It informed us of the many ways in which Italian immigrants shaped the culture of New Orleans. We resumed our in-person format in March with author and tour guide Carla Gambescia, who spoke on the “A to Z of Italian Culture”. Casa Italiana was packed for this presentation and the full house was not disappointed. In April, we organized a short trip over to Tysons Corner Center in Virginia to view a Michelangelo Sistine Chapel exhibition, followed by a lunch at the Italian Oven restaurant in McLean. After this event, we featured a talk in May with TV personality and culinary expert Amy Riolo, who moderated a panel of well-known Italian chefs and food industry personalities. It was a great afternoon for everyone interested in Italian cuisine. May was also the month in which we awarded scholarships to two outstanding students — Marcella Finelli of the University of Maryland and William DiGiovanni of Georgetown University.

The month of July featured a virtual event in which the Chief Curator of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum talked to us about the Fascist style in Italian philately during the period 1922-1941. In August, we got together for our annual Ferragosto picnic at Ft. Ward Park in Alexandria, Virginia. Later that month, we presented another virtual program in which Edvige Giunta spoke to us about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of New York City in 1911. There was a happy hour in September at In Bocca al Lupo on Wisconsin Avenue NW in DC and another in-person event later that month which featured Eric Denker, the Senior Lecturer at the National Gallery of Art and an expert on the artistic treasures of Venice. We held our annual wine tasting event in November and then a classical music piano concert in December. Two additional events of note were the launching of our online shop and the introduction of a new music scholarship — the Angela Lastrico Raish scholarship which the AMHS will manage.

Looking ahead, please mark January 29th on your 2023 calendars. Dr. John Mather, a Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will be our featured guest speaker. Dr. Mather was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in 2006 for his discoveries supporting the big-bang model. He is also the Senior Project Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope. I am sure that we can all learn a lot from this renowned scientist.

I would like to thank our three Board members who finished their terms in December of last year: John Dunkle, Chris Renneker, and Sonny Scafetta. I simply cannot overemphasize the importance of their guidance and initiative in steering our organization over the duration of their time on the Board. At the same time, I welcome their replacements — Julie Finigan Dal Forno, John Iazzetti, and Teresa Margaret Talierco — and look forward to the contributions that they will make. I also must thank Maria D’Andrea-Yothers, who stepped down from the Board at the end of December 2022. Maria has been our organization’s greatest asset, both during her tenure as President and during mine as well. She has been amazing. Her connection with the AMHS began with its founding and she has shaped it over the years like no one else. I am in her debt, as indeed all members and friends should be.

By now you will have received in hard copy the 2022 Scholarship Fundraising appeal letter. Please look it over and, if possible, make a contribution to our campaign. We count on member donations exclusively to fund our two scholarships, which constitute perhaps our most important activity as an organization. Your donations make our two annual scholarships possible — it is as simple as that. 

Thank you for reading and have a great year!

Best regards,
Ray LaVerghetta