Tilles Center Executive and Artistic Director Tom Dunn recently joined Dime Community Bank Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Steven Miley for an interview that touched upon Dime’s support of upcoming Tilles Jazz Fest, their shared love of jazz and the blues, and Dime’s community-oriented mission.

Hello. This is Tom Dunn, executive and artistic director of Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at Long Island University. Today, I have the pleasure of talking with Steven Miley, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Dime Community Bank. Dime is a major sponsor of the upcoming Tilles Jazz Fest and a key supporter of our mission and all that we do here at Tilles Center. Thank you for being with us here. 

Absolute pleasure to be here. 

Now, before we talk about the festival and all that dime does for the Long Island and Metro New York community, can you talk a little bit about dimes origin story? It’s such a compelling story, and I think it resonates so much still today.

Absolutely. Tom, thanks for asking. June 1 of this year marked 161 years since Dime opened its doors in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At the time, in 1864, Abraham Lincoln was President, we were still in the throes of the Civil War. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, there was a gentleman by the name of William Grandy who noticed that if you were an immigrant, you were not allowed to open an account at any of the other banks. And the fact that the people who were actually building New York as it is today were not allowed to put their money into a financial institution really, really bothered William. So, he made the decision to close down his very fruitful business in Brooklyn, and was humble enough to open Dime in the basement of another bank.

Dime allowed immigrants to open accounts so they could have a safe place to put their money. He had the forethought to think, I’m not going to make this difficult. All you need is a Dime and you can open an account. It was another 20 years before the Brooklyn Bridge was built. As a reference, we were still over a year away from the end of the Civil War, and William stopped what he was doing to support the community. William lit that torch for us 161 years ago. And really, all we do is we carry his torch forward today, and that is community first. We are very, very inspired by the efforts of LIU and the community. And so it was a very easy decision for us when we got together and talked the first time. Part of how we continue to carry William’s torch forward is by supporting the programs here. 

So you obviously have a strong focus on giving back to the community through initiatives like Dime Day and your sponsorships of Tilles and LIU. Can you talk about Dime’s commitment to the communities that you serve and how it reflects your mission a little more? 

Yeah, absolutely. A lot of people don’t realize that there is a program called the Community Reinvestment Act, which encourages us to give back to the community. Every two years regulators do an exam, and that exam is based on lending, service and investment. For the last two cycles, which is the last four years, Dime has received an outstanding rating, which is the highest rating you can get. And I will tell you, it’s because of everything our Community Reinvestment Act program and our team does within the community that allows us to to achieve that rating. 

It’s the service, which is the support of communities. It’s our investment in our communities–in  particular, lending back into the community. We’ve set a bar that other banks can’t even compete with by being so focused on community support.

Amazing. We are all as a community better for the investments that you guys make. We’re very grateful for that. Let’s get to the Jazz Festival. So Tilles Jazz Fest, presented in collaboration with our great partners at Jazz at Lincoln Center. It’s an honor to work with those guys. They are clearly leaders in that space. Jazz is a uniquely American art form. I think we proved the concept last year with the festival–one day, nine concerts across five stages, indoor, outdoor here at LIU. Any standout moments from you from last year before we talk about the upcoming festival? 

Oh, man, it was such a great program, and what a wonderful day of jazz. It’s personal to me. Coming out of the south, I had jazz out of New Orleans and I had the blues out of Mississippi. But last year, for me, it was seeing the families and watching the families get entranced by these performances–just being able to just spend the day in a beautiful setting out on the Great Lawn, and really enjoy some amazing music. A lot of people that I talked to that weren’t really that familiar with jazz, walked away saying, “I think I found a new genre that I just really, really enjoy.” It was great to see that jazz as an art form is being introduced thanks to Tilles and Jazz Fest, to folks that probably have never heard it before, but came out because it’s a great family event. 

We approach that very intentionally–creating a program that will be appealing to the jazz aficionados and to those who might be new to the art form, or who just want to come out and spend a day with their family on this beautiful LIU campus. 

Quick story about one of the artists from last year–Georgia Heers–the vocalist who kicked the day off. This was her first festival. She was so excited to be there and later that year she was cast in Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney’s show on Broadway, where she played Ella. We’re catching people at the beginning of their career, and, of course, at the peak of their career. Last year, our headliner was Branford Marsalis. That was one of the greatest sets I’ve ever had the privilege to be in the room for.

This year our co-headliners are 10 time Grammy winner, Arturo Sandoval and the John Pizzarelli big band with a program called Dear Mr. Sinatra. That’s another way to reach some people. This is music they’re gonna know. And so we’re really excited. One of the other real highlights of the Jazz Festival is the traditional second line New Orleans style jazz parade, replete with umbrellas and hankies. The parade ends the afternoon program and segues into the evening. It was a really special moment last year, watching the line proceed into the concert hall, and to see everybody get involved in it.

I think it’s going to feel like we’re in New Orleans at the end of the outdoor piece of this–but there’s variation. You can go to the Main Stage and enjoy some traditional jazz. You can go to some of the other stages and enjoy really different types of jazz. 

It allows people who have maybe not been immersed in jazz before to really understand the different parts of jazz and to become fans from there out. A couple of words on the artists that you’ll experience here, the Pedrito Martinez group, Summer Camargo Quintet–Summer is an up-and-coming trumpeter. She plays in the Saturday Night Live Band and she has an incredible following among the jazz community. She was here with us earlier this year for the Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival, which we present in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center. 

There are a couple of great vocalists that are going to be with us; Vanisha Gould is one–also another emerging talent. And then we also provide a platform for student performance. This year, the LIU Post Jazz Ensemble is taking one of the slots, which I’m really excited about. It’s got faculty, it’s got students, it’s got alumni, and then as you arrive, there’s also current and former student musicians who will be greeting people at the arrival. We really do think about this in a way where we’re engaging the student community here at LIU, providing a platform for emerging stars. And then, of course, it’s such an honor to host someone like Arturo Sandoval, who just won the Kennedy Center award last year.

Tom, the program that you’ve put together, you and your team–I don’t think you can get any more immersive, other than going to the Jazz Festival in New Orleans. You’ve brought an ability for people to truly experience something and take away with them a great and varied day of jazz. 

Thank you. I think the value proposition for Tilles Center is that you don’t need to travel to New York City for world class live entertainment. We’re bringing New Orleans to New York, and we’re bringing the New York Philharmonic to Long Island.

Thank you, Steve for joining us today and for Dime’s continued support of the Tilles Jazz Festival. I want to thank Eric and Sandy Krasnoff for their leadership on all things jazz here at LIU; McLaughlin & Stern and of course, our season sponsor, Catholic Health.

 Excellent, proud to be here and proud to be a sponsor.

Tilles Jazz Fest will take place on Saturday, July 19. Produced by Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center. The one-day event will take place on four indoor and outdoor stages across the beautiful Long Island University Post campus, including Tilles Center’s Concert Hall, with performances starting at 1pm and swinging into the night! Get tickets on our website, over-the-phone, or in-person through our box office.