Tannery Pond Center presents the Summer Concert Series - Ellen Rowe & Mike Sakash, Jazz, Piano & Saxophone
Thursday, July 30, 2026 | 7:30 PM
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 day-of concert, Free for youth 18 & younger
For advance price tickets, please visit the TPC box office, call (518) 251-2505, or purchase online through Eventbrite. We have limited tickets available for "Day of Event", which will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. We will also begin a wait list of names at the event window for tickets not picked-up. Tickets not picked up by 10 prior to the event will be issued to wait list customers.
Parking: As there is significant construction in the lot behind the town hall building, that lot is unavailable for parking. You may park in the the “library/town hall” lot, along Main Street north of the intersection of Main Street/28N. On 28N, so long as you are not in the street and pulled off the side of the road. In the grass lot on the corner of Main Street/28N - this is private property, but we have temporary permission to use this lot.
About the Performers
Ellen Rowe and Mike Sakash have been performing together for five years both in a duo format and as part of the Ellen Rowe Quartet, which released a new recording, “Vinton’s Cove “, in November 2025. They originally met in 2021 while adjudicating the University of Montana’s Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival, which had to be online because of COVID. During a clinicians’ Zoom happy hour they discovered that Mike lived 20 minutes from Ellen’s family’s cabin in Maine. They started getting together to play and became a popular duo in the Maine /New Hampshire region, performing frequently at the Majestic Cafe in Conway as well as donating performances for charitable organizations throughout the area and playing together in the Portland Jazz Orchestra.
In the last year they have given clinics at Community High School in Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Fryeburg Academy in Maine and the Manchester NH Summer High School Jazz Workshop, where they also gave a duo performance. They are recording their first album in the summer of 2026.
Visit Ellen’s website HERE and Mike’s website HERE
Listen to their music HERE, HERE, HERE
Ellen Rowe
Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and composer, is currently the Earl V. Moore Collegiate Professor of Music and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. Ms. Rowe has six CDs as a leader to her credit, including her most recent, “Vinton’s Cove”, featuring Mike Sakash, released in the fall of 2025.
Her “Momentum” octet, which includes Ingrid Jensen and Allison Miller, has been featured at the Jazz Education Network Conference, Dizzy’s Club (Jazz at Lincoln Center) and the Amazonas Jazz Festival in Brazil. Recent performances as piano soloist and bandleader include the 2025 Michigan Jazz Festival, 2024 Detroit Jazz Festival, and 2024 Summer Solstice Festival. Artists that she has performed with recently include Janis Siegel, Randy Brecker, La Tanya Hall and Adam Larson.
Ms. Rowe’s compositions and arrangements are published by Kendor Music, Doug Beach Music, Brava Publishing, Sierra Music Publishing and Excelsia Music and have been performed by ensembles including the Village Vanguard Orchestra, BBC Jazz Orchestra, U.S. Navy Commodores, Berlin and NDR Radio Jazz Orchestras, DIVA and the Perth Jazz Orchestra. She has received commissions from the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra, Minnesota Music Educators, Illinois Music Educators, Lawrence University’s Fred Sturm Commissioning Project, Florida Music Educator’s Association, DIVA Jazz Orchestra and the Jazz Education Network. She has also been selected to conduct numerous All-State jazz ensembles, including the NafME All-Eastern and All-Northwest honors groups. Ms. Rowe has been awarded residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Ucross Foundation.
Mike Sakash
Mike Sakash holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in Music Education and Performance, as well as a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied saxophone with Lynn Klock and Raymond Ricker, improvisation with Yusef Lateef, and jazz composition and arranging with Fred Sturm. Before settling in New Hampshire Mike was Associate Professor of Music at Washington & Jefferson College (PA). Currently, he is the arts department chair at Fryeburg Academy, in Fryeburg, ME, where he directs the instrumental ensembles and teaches courses in music theory, guitar, and jazz improvisation. Mike also serves as a guest artist and clinician at music festivals throughout the country. In 2017 Mike received the Maine Music Educators Association “Music Educator of the Year” award, presented at the Maine All State Conference. As a saxophonist he has performed, recorded, and toured with the Phoenix Jazz Project and the Traverser Saxophone Quartet, in addition to being a regular member of the Portland Jazz Orchestra.
As a member of the Portland Jazz Orchestra Mike has had the opportunity to solo with vocalist and saxophonist Darmon Meader, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and saxophonists David Demsey and Jeff Coffin. His compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by the Portland Jazz Orchestra. Mike was recently featured on the Ellen Rowe Quartet’s 2025 recording “Vinton’s Cove” and will be recording a new duo album with Ellen in the summer of 2026.
