Pamela Sue West-Finkle poses with Connor Dorosky with his saxophone and Mitchell Dorosky with his tuba at Carnegie Hall on Monday. The three performed with the Hartwick College Wind Ensemble. The Dorosky boys are former students of West-Finkle and both students at Hartwick.
STAMFORD – If you saw Pamela Sue West-Finkle recently and she appeared to be floating on air, she was still riding aloft from her dream come true of performing at Carnegie Hall. And she got to do it with two of her former students, all three playing with the Hartwick College Wind Ensemble.
"It was such an awesome experience," said West-Finkle. She said she was so emotional she was crying as they left the stage at Carnegie.
Two members of the wind ensemble just happen to be former music students of hers, brothers Mitchell and Connor Dorosky, graduates of Jefferson Central. They are now college students at Hartwick, where Finkle is now the bassoon instructor. All three are members of the ensemble.
West-Finkle has played the bassoon nearly her entire life and she has been dancing and playing to the music since she could walk and talk. "Miss Pam”, as many know her, has been gifting others with her love of music for a long time, as a pre-school and school music teacher, performer and member of numerous bands.
West-Finkle could hardly believe it when Hartwick announced the Carnegie Hall trip. Members of the ensemble traveled to Carnegie on Sunday. Although West-Finkle has been there for concerts in the past, nothing could prepare her for being backstage. "I got so emotional, I cried as we were coming off the stage following our performance."
The history of Carnegie and its energy are something that made her want to go around and see all the pictures and the history of all who have performed there. She congratulated the college students who, she said, demonstrated great maturity and talent. She said she is very proud of them.
"I don't know if the kids enjoyed it as much as I did," she said. Performing at Carnegie Hall is an opportunity most local students never get to experience.
West-Finkle notes that her own high school music teacher passed recently. It was her music teacher who taught her how to play the bassoon. "I grew up in a small town in Ohio, but we had a consolidated school district with a good music program."
When she was younger she practiced eight to 10 hours per day and played in a number of ensembles.
It gave her the inspiration to teach music. The inspiration to play the bassoon may have come from her mother. Her mother was a talented bassoonist who had earned a full music scholarship to Baldwin Wallace, but got married and became a mother to West-Finkle instead.
West-Finkle entered the Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, VA and is an Army veteran. She played the bassoon while in the Army and in college. "I was still playing the bassoon when I earned my masters."
She has also taught private lessons on piano and guitar, which is how she came to know the Dorosky brothers. She is also a songwriter and you will find the bassoon in all of her recorded albums.
Kim Finch, mom to the Dorosky boys, said her sons began with piano lessons and then guitar. They began lessons when they were 5 and 7. West-Finkle taught them for seven years and has stayed close with them over the years. Connor Dorosky wrote: You are the best music teacher we ever had and probably will have.
Connor is at Hartwick to earn his music education degree, while Mitchell is studying cyber security. Finch said they both play in the ensemble because they love to play music.
"She taught them their first music," said Finch. Mitchell was only 3 when he attended Kiddie Corner Pre-School and Miss Pam got them into music.
"She turned them on to all things music. They understand the scales and Mitchell even composed a piece for the concert band at JCS.
"Miss Pam has always been very enthusiastic about music and always happy to teach anyone. She was a huge influence on the boys and she is the reason they got to go to Carnegie Hall, because of the early start and foundation she gave them. She taught them grit and determination and gave them a good attitude and love for the instruments and she is always looking to give back."
She is founder and executive director of the Community Music Network, Inc. and Humble Servant. She is often providing movement and music at community events and she still plays and sings with various groups
You can find Miss Pam at Robinson Terrace in Stamford on Thursday getting seniors to join in with music, movement and singing. She is now working on her dementia project, creating a digital video for seniors with dementia. Music is the last thing our minds forget, so even when we can't remember our human loved ones, we can recall tunes and lyrics to songs. "I have waited a long time to do something like this," she said.
Pamela Sue West-Finkle with Connor Dorosky (left) and Mitchell Dorosky (right) when they were taking music lessons from her back in 2014. They have maintained their friendship over the years. leading them to the performance this week at Carnegie Hall.
