Artist Spotlight - Ticia Aumell
It is our immense pleasure to introduce our July 2023 Artist Spotlight, Ticia Aumell. Ticia is the creator and current artistic director of the local theater group, Stage Notes. She also serves a number of other roles in our community including vocal instructor, accompanist, performer, music director at St. Patrick’s Church, arts advocate, and much more!
Ticia began Stage Notes with the hopes of teaching her students that “their art can make a difference and through their love of performing, they can benefit the community.” Stage Notes began in 2009 with a performance of Once on This Island and is now in its fifteenth season. Since its start, Stage Notes has performed a show every summer, occasionally even two shows, with the exception of 2020 due to COVID restrictions. This summer, they will be performing Guys and Dolls at the Dulles State Office Building on July 27-29 at 7:30.
Mrs. Aumell is a graduate of Watertown High School and holds a degree from Geneseo in Vocal Performance. Growing up, she had played around with the idea of performing full-time, however, she started her own music studio in the fall of 1998 and immediately knew that she wanted to be a mentor for students and help them on their musical path.
In the early 2000s, Ticia began to feel that she had more to give her students than just weekly lessons. “I felt like I couldn’t teach them everything. I could teach them how to sing a song and stand and sing a song, but I didn’t have anything to teach them about theater.” She also began to realize that through her music she had gifts she could share with her community. At the time, and still to this day, she was working as Music Director for St. Patrick’s Church in Watertown and realized that if someone were to die she knew she wouldn’t be making a lasagna in condolences, but instead would share her musical talents. Through this grew the idea for Stage Note. The purpose was to teach her students more about performing and also teach them about sharing their gifts. When Stage Notes first began, they had no idea the huge impact they would make on the community. To date, they have raised over $65,000 for various organizations.
Mrs. Aumell strives to teach her students to not just be talented performers but to be good people as well. She encourages teamwork and always tells her students to “be the person you want to work with… talent will get you in the room, but character will keep you in the room.” Mrs. Aumell encourages any aspiring artist that if you want to be successful, “you have to work at it, you have to practice, you have to put in the time” as well as “be a good person and work as a team.”
Be sure to catch Stage Notes’ performance of Guys and Dolls on July 27-29 at 7:30 at the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown. To get tickets or to find out more about Stage Notes, visit the links below:
