CHS alumna follows her passion to Music City USA

For Joanna Sugameli, failure was an important step on her road to success. After graduating from Canton High School in 2009, Sugameli went on to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she majored in music education, planning to become an educator. For her, the decision was an easy one.

“My mom is a teacher and I’ve always had good relationships with my teachers, especially at Canton High,” she said.

At the end of her sophomore year at Berklee, Sugameli underwent a test, which included writing lesson plans and playing a number of instruments for department faculty. One of those faculty members was Associate Professor Libby Allison, who coincidentally had taught at CHS prior to Sugameli’s four years at the school. After the test, Sugameli received an email from Allison, telling her that she wanted to talk about how the test had gone.

Sugameli clearly recalls what happened when she arrived to speak with Allison. “She pushed a box of tissues in front of me,” she remembered. “She said, ‘We don’t think you should continue in the program.’ That was an emotionally scary and pivotal point in my life.”

What Allison had seen during Sugameli’s test was someone who was passionate about performing. That wake-up call led Sugameli to the person she is today: a Nashville performer who sings, plays violin, tours, and has recorded with two different bands. She has also created her own individual professional identity, Jo Cleary. Cleary was her maternal grandmother’s maiden name and Sugameli chose it to pay homage to a family member who played the violin as she now does.

Sugameli began playing the violin in third grade, but stopped when she began appearing in musical theatre productions at the Galvin Middle School and later at CHS. She loved becoming someone else on stage and the team effort that went into putting on a show. At the Galvin, she appeared in Anything Goes and Honk and was cast as Miss Hannigan in Annie. In high school, she appeared in Les Miserables and Pippin. “I was lucky enough to get some major roles,” she said. “They were all such good parts.”

After Sugameli failed the music ed test, she picked up her violin and contacted the chairperson of the Department of Professional Music to arrange for an audition. One week later, she had a new major and musical direction in her life. She played the violin every day and began contacting musicians at Berklee, asking if she could practice the violin with them so that she could learn more and improve.

“I was in a practice room every day practicing,” she said. “I’d call people constantly.”

Sugameli moved to Nashville after graduation, but the job she thought she had fell through. She began doing what she had done in Boston, which was talking to everyone and anyone, in the hopes of starting her career. She also went to local shows, taking her violin with her. One night, a band asked her to join them onstage and play the violin. “I was terrified,” she said. But as she began to be invited more and more onstage, her confidence grew.

Then she met Fable Cry at a music jam. The band had just lost their violinist, and after the jam session, Sugameli was asked to join. She now plays with the band every month, tours with them around the country and has recorded an album with them. Sugameli said that fans describe their music as similar to musical theater and punk rock and the musical group Queen. Fable Cry writes its own music, which she said are songs that tell adventures. One of the songs features a character called Scampy, leading fans to describe Fable Cry as scamp rock.

Six months after meeting Fable Cry, Sugameli got a call that the band Roanoke was recording in a studio and needed a violinist. She expected to record two songs and move on, but instead connected with the band. She is now a member of Roanoke, which plays folk Americana music. Sugameli performs with both bands, as well as on her own, under her professional name, Jo Cleary.

Sugameli’s years at Berklee taught her how much she both wants and needs to perform. “Whenever I felt tense or upset,” she said, “I would pick up my violin. Whenever I’m on stage in front of all those people, I forget about everything. It’s very healing. It makes me happy.”

For more information on Fable Cry and Roanoke, go to fablecry.com and roanokeband.com, or check out both bands on Facebook.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on Sep 16 2016. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.