RVC kicks off Music on the Green summer concert series

The Village of Rockville Centre kicked off its annual Music on the Green concert series on July 10 with performances by two local musical acts — Sarah & Sofia and 2 Italian Dads.

Deputy Mayor Kathy Baxley introduced the summer concert series about six years ago, with the goal of bringing the community together to hang out with neighbors and enjoy an evening full of music.

“It worked out very well,” Baxley said. “Music always brings people together.”

Dozens of families, friends and neighbors gathered at the Village Green on Maple Avenue to enjoy the first performance of the summer concert series.

Rich Lind and Andrew Ciancimino have only been performing together for only a year, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to them play. Their combined talent and musical preferences really make them a well-balanced group that puts on a show that the whole family can enjoy.

“We met last year at the beach and started playing together as a way to blow off steam,” Lind said.

While their name leaves much to be desired, the 2 Italian Dads perform a wide range of mainstream hits from The Killers and Cee-Lo Green to more classic rock songs from Van Morrison and Hall & Oates.

“We didn’t know what to call ourselves,” Lind explained. “Both of us have grandparents from Siciliy … and we’re really a dad band.”

Lind is a software sales executive with an extensive background in technology, business operations and professional sales. Originally from Fairfield County, Connecticut, he began playing music when he was 20 and has used it as a healthy outlet to destress. He currently lives in Rockville Centre with his wife and two children.

Ciancimino is a classically trained jazz pianist and a board certified internal medicine specialist with Catholic Health, who has been performing for more than 35 years. At the age of 16, he was given the high honor of performing a solo show at Carnegie Hall and taught piano to make his way through medical school.

“Rich is so outgoing,” Ciancimino said. “I think we really come together and balance each other out.”

Sarah Borruso and Sofia DiMarco are an acoustic singer-songwriter duo from Rockville Centre who have been making major strides in the recording industry after entering a national contest for a chance to appear on NPR’s popular Tiny Desk concert series.

“NPR was kind of unexpected,” Borruso said. “So we were not really expecting anything.”

Much to their surprise, out of the more than 6,000 entries submitted, Sarah and Sofia were selected by NPR affiliate WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut, as the top pick from Long Island.

Borruso and DiMarco first met at soccer practice in the third grade, and after elementary school, rekindled their friendship as members of the middle school drama club.

“So, it was really RVC arts that brought us together,” Borruso explained. “I think the amount the town supports the arts has really created this bond.”

DiMarco said that initially they started performing as part of a larger act, but decided to break off from the group in 2021 to pursue their own ambitions as a duo. Together, they have been performing since their sophomore year at South Side High School.

“When we were in high school, we played every single high school event,” DiMarco said, “even the budget vote.”

Their first big performance was at the second annual Playing on the Porch music festival, a village-wide day of music where more than two dozen local bands sign up to perform on the porches, lawns, and in the driveways of homes all over Rockville Centre.

It didn’t take long before they found themselves booking performances at different restaurants, bakeries and community functions in the area, winning over the crowd with their eclectic range of covers, from the Indigo Girls to Jack Johnson and beyond.

Borruso and DiMarco were ambitious about recording their own original music. For their senior project they dedicated three-to-four weeks in June 2023 towards writing, producing, mixing and releasing five brand new songs.

“It was a major crunch because the songs literally didn’t exist before that,” Borruso said. “So it was like three weeks of craziness.”

After graduation, the duo has continued to work on new music in their downtime, while focusing on their college education. DiMarco, who also teaches both piano and guitar to Rockville Centre youth, is studying jazz piano at the Frost School of Music at Miami University, and Borruto is studying voice and opera at the University of Maryland.

Despite the distance between them, they will continue to write and set release dates from school, so they can promote their new music online remotely.

“We really want to start opening for some larger artists,” DiMarco said. “That’s the next step.”

Sarah and Sofia will be releasing their latest single, “all the same” on Friday, July 19, on Spotify. They are also set to take the stage at The Delancey in New York City on August 1. For more information visit Linktr.ee/SarahandSofia.

Artists interested in performing during the Music on the Green concert series this summer can also reach out to the Mayor’s office at (516)-678-9264.