Tom Mank and Sera Smolen

Tom Mank and 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. Mank’s eloquent writing of instrumentals is contrasted well with his poetic lyrics.

They have toured Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands together 13 times.  In September / October 2024, they toured again in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands with support from Rich DePaolo (guitar, vocal), Little Kim (vocal), Bart MC De Cock (accordion), Kristel Snellen (vocal), Amy Merrill (violin), Kathy Ziegler (piano, vocal), and Gait Klein Kromhof (harmonica).

Tom Mank, a US-based independent singer-songwriter for the past thirty 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 with Smolen and many other musicians and continues to generate new music.

Dr. Sera Jane Smolen is an active performer of many genres of music. In addition to her collaboration with Mank, she has performed four centuries of classical music extensively around the United States.  She has taught at Mansfield University, Alfred University, Hobart & William Smith, and Ithaca College. She has been the assistant director of the New Directions Cello Festival, a founding member of the Binghamton Cello Festival, and a guest clinician around the US, Canada, and Europe.  She currently has a cello program at Opus Ithaca teaching repertoire, improvisation and composition.  

RECORDINGS:

Skinny Boy 2024
Like a Raindrop on a Feather 2021
We Still Know How to Love, 2020
Unlock the Sky, 2017
Swimming in the Dark, 2013
Paper Kisses, 2010
Where the Sun Meets the Blue, 2007
Souls of Birds 2004
Conversations in Waves, 2001
Almost Time, 2000
Some Big Town, 1994 (cassette)
Blowing Me Away, 1991 (cassette)