Bobby D'Ambrosio...Bass, Bass pedals and Vocals... Bobby's musical career started at the age of 6 when he auditioned as "Elvis" on the Ed Sullivan Show. He was aptly named the first Elvis impersonator. In his early teens he was extremely motivated and quickly excelled at playing lead guitar and keyboard, but focused in on bass guitar as his outlet for musical expression. His musical ability came naturally and without any professional teachings. Being part of a band was a very important aspect of Bobby's life. His musical talent quickly surrounded him with top musicians. Bobby played in the group "Revolver" along with guitarist Wayne Avers, who later became the guitarist for "The Monkees". Another one of Bobby's musical experiences was being a member of the "New Ohio Express" as lead vocalist. The "Ohio Express" started the 1960's "Bubble Gum" music craze with their hit "Yummy, Yummy Yummy". In his progressive music band "Apostle", he played bass guitar side by side with keyboardist Jordan Rudess, who is one of the music industry's top keyboard virtuosos. Jordan is currently in the group "Dream Theater". Throughout the years, Bobby continued to develop his song writing skills and wrote catchy tunes with memorable melodies. One such tune, "On Long Island" was in the running to become Long Island's official theme song. Bobby is also a member of FLYER, the first band produced by Lou Pearlman. FLYER is a studio band writing and producing their original music.
Thorne Ventura...6, 12 and 14-string Guitars, Lap steel and Vocals... After the obligatory piano lessons at age 8, Thorne started playing guitar in New York City when he was 9 years old... and he has never stopped. Along the way he added singing, electric bass and keyboards to his musical arsenal. His influences range from Jefferson Airplane, the Beach Boys and the Beatles to Pat Metheny, Yes and the Grateful Dead. He has been performing regularly since 1971 on stage and in orchestra pits as well as appearing on several studio recordings including his own band's 1991 recording, "Rosetta Stone-The Discovery" (Rosetta Stone ruled Musicmachine's "Best of" categories in the early 90's). In the late 70's Thorne studied music theory on his own and in classes at Nassau Community College. In 1981 Thorne shifted his full-time music career into a computer science career, attending SUNY Potsdam where, in 2 years, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science. Although Thorne traded the music world of 9pm to 5am for the corporate world of 9am to 5pm, he continued to pursue his passion for all things music and always found a band in which to perform. In addition to directing and producing variety shows, Thorne was stage manager and production manager for 6 years at one of the 50 music venues during Austin's South By Southwest (SXSW) international music, film and multimedia festival, working with bands, record and production companies, and the SXSW staff to put on the best music shows possible. In 2003 Thorne produced, mixed and mastered his first CD album, "Stealing the Covers", on which he played all the instruments and sang. To stretch his guitar vocabulary, Thorne played in an 18-piece jazz band whose repertoire spanned the likes of Spyro Gyra and Cherry Poppin' Daddies to Duke Ellington and Count Basie. After 11-years of southern living, Thorne returned to New York where he plays the music that has always been the most challenging, APOSTLE music ! Thorne also plays in The Cagneys, a Hudson Valley-based dance rock band.
Mike D'Ambrosio...Drums and Synth Drums... Mike started playing drums at the age of 6. Many times he would go along to his brother Bob's band rehearsals where he would pick up the drum sticks during their breaks, sit behind the drums and play. His dad, realizing Mike had some talent, went to Modell's and purchased his first drum set for $40.00. Mike is mostly a self taught drummer whose influences are Billy Cobham, Carl Palmer, Bill Bruford & Neil Peart. Mike played in a group with Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater in 1980 and 1981. He was the Drummer for Apostle in the 70's as well as other Long Island bands throughout the years. He was blessed to be the drummer for Evangel Church of God from 1997 until 2002 which was a very spiritually enlightening experience. Check out Mike's web page and Mike's drum videos.
Scott Harris...Keyboards and Vocals... Scott Harris has played with many groups live and in the studio. He formed the band Heresy, voted one of Long Island's top bands by the readers of Good Times magazine. Heresy also released two independent albums (on which Scott co-wrote the songs with independent artist Tony Garone), one of which featured guitar work by Steve Vai. Currently, in addition to Apostle, Scott plays with Zazen, a progressive/New Age group featuring grammy-nominated guitarist Joaquin Lievano (formerly with Jean-Luc Ponty, among others, as well as a Sony recording artist himself) and grammy-nominated bassist Andy West (from the Dixie Dregs); Rat Race Choir (a tristate area favorite for over 35 years), and RSVP (a cover band for hire for all occasions... but not your typical wedding band!).
Laura Press...Lead Vocals, Percussion and Guitar... Laura Press brings a wealth of experience performing progressive rock to the band. She has sung Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd (amongst others) to audiences of thousands at Jones Beach and sold out houses at BB King in New York. Her range is apparent from a partial list of people she has appeared on stage and/or has recorded with in her singing career. The list includes, Eric Bazilian, Julio Fernandes, Gil Parris, Tommy “Pipes” McDonnell, Thierry Arpino, Benny Harrison, Beledo, Arno Hecht, The Sylvester Brothers and local prog-rock legends Wonderous Stories.
Mike Carr...Lead Vocals, Percussion... Mike is the original Apostle lead vocalist from the 1970's Apostle. His jovial personality fronted and led the band up an energetic musical path, helping to put Apostle on the Long Island Prog Rock road map.
Mike Stallone...Keyboards... Mike is the original Apostle keyboardist from the 1970's Apostle. At the time he was majoring in Architecture and still managed to find the time to learn the incredibly complicated keyboard work of Rick Wakemen and Tony Kaye. With a bank of keyboards over which he could hardly see, Mike provided that 10-fingered magic to fill in a hole that most bands can only hope to fill with so much talent.