Bill Altman is a well-known and well-traveled guitar player as well as a Hendersonville native. With over 30 years experience, he has played in rock, blues, and alternative bands, including the Crystal Zoo, Crocodile Smile, and his current blues “groosion” trio, Big Block Dodge. Bill makes regular appearances as musician and as music director at Flat Rock Playhouse, both on the mainstage and at the downtown theater, and has appeared in more “Music on the Rock” concerts that any other musician. In addition to electric and acoustic guitar, he plays the dobro, mandolin, electric bass, banjo, lap steel, and pedal steel. Mark Fullington, in an article for The Indie File, wrote “the guitar of Bill Altman has a broad sonic palette that includes ominous chords, tormented rapid-fire leads that range in mood from mega-blues to sci-fi in a perfectly executed display of how much power and emotion a guitar can generate.
Katie Cilluffo, originally from Michigan, studied vocal performance at Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Michigan with a concentration in opera. Since moving to Hendersonville, she has sung everything from opera, jazz, bluegrass, musical theater, and pop with organizations such as Asheville Lyric Opera, Flat Rock Playhouse, Parkway Playhouse, and many others. Over the Christmas season, Katie performs with her a cappella trio, the Belle Tones, singing 1940’s Andrews Sisters-style hits. Katie recently recorded her first studio album of original jazz music by Michael Jefry Stevens, and she performs jazz and bossa nova throughout western North Carolina. She is currently the soprano soloist at Trinity Presbyterian Church and recently appeared as the soloist in a concert of Viennese operetta favorites with the Blue Ridge Orchestra in Asheville.