First single from my Pete Calandra and Straight Up Project. 
Upbeat contemporary jazz in the Joe Sample, Bob James, Herbie Hancock vibe

Straight Up

Neptune Beach

Neptune Beach- Pete Calandra and Straight Up

The impressions of classical music came at an early age for multi- instrumentalist Marcia Watson Bendo. The vibrations of strings and the air movement of woodwinds caught her attention and she decided that music would be an important part of her life. That and maybe being a scientist. At age seven it was 88 keys, and through the years, violin, the clarinet, and the Native American flute. Recently she learned to play the harp. It is that never ending curiosity and desire to learn that has inspired her continued pursuit of a long career in the music industry.

Marcia’s formative years were spent playing the violin, during which she performed with the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra, The Tulsa Opera, and The Tulsa Ballet strengthening her classical roots. She went on to perform with notables such as Sammy Davis Jr., Doc Severinsen, and Ella Fitzgerald and with conductors Skitch Henderson and Arthur Fiedler. She continued her career as a free-lance violinist playing with Tom Jones, Don Williams, and she appeared in an Osmond Productions concert on HBO television.

During this time her professional career followed a tangent in psychology and law. She earned degrees in law and a Ph.D. in psychology. It is a certainty that her experiences influenced her future vocation, i.e. communicating with people with her music on an emotional level.

Bendo picked up the Native American flute in 2011 and her career changed. She began composing for the flute and piano, honed her recording skills, and composed an album called Woodland Moons that featured flutes accompanied by light orchestral elements.

Currently retired and living in Plano, Texas with her husband, Marcia lives each day to focus on her music. Her joy in the journey. She gages her success not on celebrity, but in the potential exchange with her listeners. It is the little things that she appreciates; learning new material and breathing life into her music.

Her current music embraces several genres such as classical, traditional folk and World genres with unique instrumental textures not typically heard in Native American Flute recordings. What gives her the most pleasure is connecting with her listeners on many levels, both musically and spiritually.

She has many goals for her music, but on a personal level,
she believes it’s important to be informed about evolving issues affecting the music industry, artists, and creators. She hopes that the technology which allows people to create, record, share, and collaborate with others worldwide will retain the human element in its evolution.

Of her music Marcia Watson Bendo says, “I strive to artistically create music that resonates with people by expressing an emotion, an image, a story, or reviving a memory. I enjoy exploring the melodic nuances and musical diversity of the native flutes with tenderness, poignancy, energy, and whimsy. It’s my hope that listeners will experience the qualities I love to convey with all the instruments and connect emotionally with my music.”

Peter Calandra is a prolific composer and keyboard player who has been immersed in the New York City music scene for most of his life. He has scored over 100 films and written over 2000 compositions for television. He's composed music for every major television network including the FIFA World Cup Theme for FOX Sports, the Special Olympics World Games and Invictus Games Theme for ESPN as well as writing music for the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Calandra garnered acclaim for composing the music to Jellysmoke, a film which won the Los Angeles Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and Unknown Soldier, a film which won the Los Angeles and Philadelphia Film Festivals and also was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. His solo albums are wonderfully diverse, spanning world music, Christmas music, jazz, contemporary jazz, new age, pop, and neo classical.
The thread throughout his music is the lyrical expressiveness of the compositions and purity and purposefulness of the musicianship. Two of his recent albums First Light (2015) and The Road Home (2017) were nominated for a Zone Music Reporter Award. As a keyboard player he performed in the Broadway productions of Miss Saigon (for 10 years), The Lion King, Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera, and Little Shop Of Horrors. In addition to his Broadway resume -- which includes first chair keyboard player positions for many of those productions -- he has also performed with the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, NY Pops Orchestra, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Don Cherry, Aretha Franklin, Allen Ginsberg, Annie Golden, Donna McKechnie, Lillianne Montevecchi, and he spent 16 years as the keyboard player in the NYC-based Climax Band, the creative vehicle for artist and musician Larry Rivers.

Calandra's prismatic experience and artistry allows him to inhabit a multitude of genres, conjure up a diverse selection of moods and emotions, and work within a broad array of mediums. "I don't try to define anything because I find that, as a creative person, when you put something in a box, you limit the creative flow," Calandra says. In addition to his keyboard and compositional skills, he is also an accomplished guitarist and multifaceted studio engineer versed in the arts of tracking and mixing.

Currently, he's on the faculty at the Aaron Copland School Of Music at Queens College, CUNY teaching Audio/MIDI, Film Scoring and Music Composition to both graduate and undergraduate students. Peter is also a Yamaha Endorsed Artist.