"What are you doing""

This is what clarinetist Michele Spinelli, a Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduate, was asked when auditioning to attend Ithaca College, a place she knew in her heart she belonged.

Six months later, after mastering her auditioning skills, she went back, and the same man who had laughed at her was begging her to stay.

Now, Spinelli is a freelance performer and the principal clarinet and soloist with the Air National Guard Band of the Northeast.

Spinelli (née Von Haugg) will be returning to the Capital Region in September to perform at her former school, the Schenectady County Community College, in the college’s Rising Star concert series.

In its second year, the series showcases former SCCC students making their mark in the music world.

Spinelli will perform a free concert with pianist Mark Evans and clarinetist Brett Wery, co-directors of the concert series, on the campus at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 at the Carl B. Taylor Community Auditorium.

Spinelli, who grew up in East Berne, now lives in Arlington, Mass., about eight miles outside of Boston.

A freelance performer, she plays with many musical groups, including the Miami-based New World Symphony, the Glens Falls Symphony, and three Boston groups: Symphony By the Sea, Hingham Symphony, and the Civic Symphony Orchestra.

Roots and the road

While growing up, Spinelli was inspired by Jane Goodall, best known for her studies of chimpanzees in Africa; Spinelli thought she would become a naturalist.

She had grown up without classical music and didn’t know what it was.

Beginning her music path as most students do — by trying out different kinds of instruments in elementary school — Spinelli started clarinet lessons early on. However, she wasn’t as passionate then about performance and mastering her instrument.
"It was something I did because it was something to do," she said.

While in her senior year at BKW, Spinelli saw a performance by violinist Michael Emery that changed her thinking. Emery’s performance, she said, broke her heart.
She then auditioned in 1995 "at the last minute" at Schenectady County Community College. During her three years in Schenectady, she was instructed by winds professor Brett Wery, whom she called "very intense" and "a wonderful educator."
After SCCC, Spinelli went to Nazareth College, a four-year liberal arts school in Rochester. Spinelli said she didn’t fit in and the experience "wasn’t a good thing."

While looking for another school, she fell in love with Ithaca College.

After being turned away on the first try, Spinelli finely-tuned her auditioning skills with the help of Robert DiLutis with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. After DiLutis’s instruction, she then auditioned and changed the thinking of the man who had turned her away just months before.
"Playing is one thing. Auditioning is truly another," Spinelli said.

She went on and earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from Ithaca. While in the program, she learned other instruments and was tested on them. But this wasn’t what she wanted to do.
"What I wanted to do was practice," Spinelli said. She was pushed into the education program, she said, and was told that she wasn’t good enough.
"People develop at their own rate," said Spinelli.

Though she was accepted at Boston University, Spinelli opted to join the Air Force and served three-and-a-half years of active duty with the United States Air Force Band of Liberty. She completed her master’s degree and earned her performance diploma from the New England Conservatory.

Now that her schooling is finished, Spinelli does a bit of everything.

Each year, she tours New England with citizen soldiers in the Air National Guard Band. She performs with a chamber group. She teaches 25 clarinetists. And she plays with orchestras whenever she can.

Mastering the art of performance of the clarinet continues to be her goal, and she waits for a phone call from the New World Symphony Orchestra, established by Michael Tilson Thomas.
"When they call me, I drop everything and run," Spinelli said.