Mary Bastoni teaches voice, piano, and guitar at the Music School of Maine. Bastoni has a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance and currently is working on her Masters at USM. She has performed in musical theatre and opera as well as community theater. Besides teaching at the Music School of Maine, Bastoni also teaches voice at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine and The Schoolhouse Arts Center in Standish, Maine. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singers.

For more information about the Southern Maine Talent Competition sponsored by The Music School and Dance Studio of Maine that will be held on  Saturday, October 23, 2010, from 10 a.m. – noon at the Odd Fellows Building – 2^nd Floor, Corner of School Street and College Avenue, Gorham, call 207-839-6161.

In the late 1980′s Mark played guitar for Brad for three years on Brad’s solo project, which, in the end, was never released. Nevertheless, Brad later reciprocated by traveling to Maine twice to lend his distinctive voice to many tracks on Mark’s “Whatcha Gonna Do!” CD project. Brad is known as “THE” voice of the band Boston which featured Brad in multiple layered tracks, where he would basically harmonize with himself. While this CD is definitely not a Boston CD, in many ways it is better, in that it shows that you cannot put talent in a box – Brad was just at home singing lead and background harmony to blues and roots, as he was singing multi-track harmonies to pop-rock tunes. Since his tragic death, this will no doubt be one of the last projects showcasing his phenomenal voice that will ever be released.

This project, started in 2000, had more than a few setbacks, the most significant of which was the untimely death of Brad in March of 2007. Mark was very close to Brad, and that death, coupled with multiple other tragedies that year, really took the wind out of Mark’s sails. Mark had been living in Austin, Texas at the time, and returned to the East Coast when he heard about the tragedy. It would turn out to be the first of nine funerals in less than a year he would attend, for friends like Brad and Bill Chinnock, and family like his brother Gale and his “second Mom” Rose Jamo.

By early 2008 Mark, with some help from friends, redesigned the CD and cover, and went back into the studio to finish the mixes he felt were never done properly before. On December 21st – barely in time to have a “Christmas release”, the finished first batch of CD’s arrived. On January 4th it became available through CD Baby as a physical CD, and by January 21st it became available digitally on CD Baby and iTunes.