In those days we owned an Italian restaurant in Redondo Beach, California so we were the entertainment playing traditional Italian tunes and old American standards. We were an entertaining trio with my father waltzing up to each table and serenading families while they ate pizza and spaghetti. My father was from Italy and his personal hygiene was not the best so it was embarrassing when he serenaded customers by sticking his soprano sax in their faces blowing his bad breath all over them and their meals. The customers didn’t seem to care because he was the quintessential showman that always delighted his audiences. I too had entertainment value. Although I was 12 years old, I looked like I was only about 8 years old so our customers were intrigued by the little “prodigy” guitar player.

My father later wanted to expand the entertainment at our restaurant so he had a young man audition one afternoon. He had just gotten off the bus arriving from Tennessee. He was the splitting image of the actor that played the lead in Bye, Bye Birdie, an honest to god Conrad Birdie/Elvis Presley look alike. He hooked up his guitar into my amp, took the classic rock stance with legs far apart, and started rock’n, “One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready now go cat go!” My father hired him on the spot and he became the main attraction on weekend nights. I asked him one night why he decided to come out west and he replied that he wanted to become famous like Elvis Presley. I became part of his act as he sang swerving his hips and doing the rubber legs while I sat on the edge of a nearby chair playing rhythm guitar. I was now a rock’n roller!

Watch Vito Simplicio perform:

"Buona Notte Il Mio Figli” - “Goodnight My Son"

Serenade by Judith Lang Zaimont

Serenade flows ever forward, though troubled currents are deep beneath. Colorfield artworks are drawn from paintings by Gary Zaimont. His wife, composer Judith Zaimont, performs her own piano solo composition. Videography by Michael Bregman.

Zaimont’s music is widely performed throughout the U.S. and Europe and has been recorded for MSR Classics, Naxos, Navona, Koch Classics, Arabesque, Albany, Jeanné, Leonarda, Northeastern, Blue Griffin, and 4Tay labels. Currently there are 26 Zaimont CDs available, most being all-Zaimont recordings. Her principal publishers are Subito Music, Galaxy/ ECS, Jeanné and Vivace.

Judith Zaimont is equally a distinguished teacher, formerly a member of the music faculties of Queens College and Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she was named "Teacher of the Year" in 1985. She held the post of Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Adelphi University from 1989-91, and from 1992 to 2005 she served as Professor of Composition at the University of Minnesota School of Music, as well as division chair and Scholar of the College of Liberal Arts. After serving as National Board Member for Composition for the College Music Society (2003-2005), she served a second term on the advisory board of the International Alliance for Women in Music while also serving on the editorial board of American Music Teacher magazine (2004-2007). She remains sought-after for master classes and private lessons in composition and orchestration, and is active as clinician, frequent adjudicator and masterclass presenter across the US and abroad.

JUDITH LANG ZAIMONT: String Quartet, The Figure - Movement 1, "In Shadow"

The Harlem Quartet's world premier performance September 15-17, 2007. Commissioned through the Andrew Mellon Foundation by 3 NY state universities for the Harlem Quartet. It has since been recorded by 2 different quartets. The work received a standing ovation at its premiere at Syracuse University. In 2012 at Museum of Modern Art, Judith and performing artists, the Juilliard new music ensemble, received 3 ovations. *Photo by Gary Zaimont, "After the Monsoon", from Honeycutt Avenue right here in Maricopa.  Was selected for an exhibit and shown for 3 months at Sky Harbor airport. 

Judith Zaimont - Equally  involved as writer and speaker, Judith’s articles and essays on various music subjects include an invited address on “Modern America and America’s Musical Women” to UNESCO in Paris (1997), the Keynote Address to the College Music Society in 2006 and to other national conferences in following years, and  the 2009 Article of the Year award from Music Teachers National Association for “Embracing New Music” (American Music Teacher magazine), and twelve years as creator and editor-in-chief helming the critically acclaimed book series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective.  (For Volume III she was awarded a major development grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and First Prize in the 1993 international musicology awards, the Pauline Alderman Prizes.) 

-- Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up in New York City, and received international prizes in piano performance from the age of 8.  As a pianist, she was a featured soloist on the Lawrence Welk Show (age 11), and a semi-regular on the Mitch Miller Show (mid-teens). Her career as concert pianist concluded at age 24, and includes live performances in 18 states, with radio and recordings.

     Judith Lang began composing spontaneously at age 10, and at age 12 won a national First Prize (performance in Washington, DC).  She has since been many times honored for her original music, which continues to be performed, recorded, and included on required repertoire lists in four countries.

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