Know How To Love

Tom Mank & Sera Smolen have been performing and writing music together since 1994. Mank, a self taught singer songwriter, and Smolen, a conservatory trained cellist, blend their musical languages into an eclectic style. Guitar, voice and cello have many ways of blending, with the cello as bass, and doubling with guitar or soloing. Smolen’s eloquent cello improvisation is contrasted well with Mank’s poetic lyrics.

Their recent CD's have been recorded in Woodstock, NY, Ithaca, NY, and Ooigem, BE, with American, Dutch and Belgian musicians and vocalists contributing. Their CD's have received enthusiastic reviews in both the US and Europe.

Tom Mank, an independent singer songwriter for the past 20 years, has played in folk, blues, and bluegrass bands, collaborating with a host of singers and instrumentalists in Boston, MA, Brattleboro, VT, Keene, NH, and Ithaca, NY. He currently performs primarily with Smolen and many other musicians and continues to generate new music.

Dr Sera Smolen is an active performer of many genres of music, including 4 centuries of classical music. In addition to her collaboration with Mank, she has performed extensively with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Albert Consort (New Violin Family), Tri Cities Opera, Mansfield University Piano Trio, Ithaca Piano Trio, Trio Melange, Chiron Festival Of The Creative Spirit, and Cornell University Hesterian Musicism. She has taught at Mansfield University, Alfred University, Hobart & William Smith, Ithaca College, and Opus Ithaca. She is the assistant director of the New Directions Cello Festival, a founding member of the Binghamton Cello Festival, and a guest clinician around the US and Canada.