Spotlight

A longtime aide to and confidante of the late, beloved Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Monsignor Kenneth Velo has leveraged his local and national connections in the Catholic Church to do a world of good for a host of worthy causes. About a year after being ordained a Catholic priest, then-Fr. Kenneth Velo was enthusiastically helping manage the large parish of St. Angela in Chicago, where he was associate pastor. Fellow churchmen saw something in the new priest and made a seemingly small move that changed the course of Velo’s life. Ordained for only two years, he was elected by his confreres …

Indefatigable after 40 years at the helm of Giordano Dance Chicago, Nan Giordano continues to advance the legacy of her father, jazz-dance pioneer Gus Giordano. Nan Giordano says she’s blessed with a high level of energy — energy that enables her to dance, mentor dancers and produce performances, but also to run the business side of an arts organization and manage its budget. As the artistic director and leader of nonprofit dance company Giordano Dance Chicago, she’s continuing the legacy of her late father, Gus Giordano. Known across the country among dancers and dance fans for developing the Giordano jazz-dance …

Deeply attached to his Italian roots, Joe Mantegna has portrayed the best and worst of our community with equal commitment in the course of a stellar decades-long career in show business. Joe Mantegna has been a pillar of Hollywood and the Italian-American community for decades. His professional accolades are a testament to his more than 200 film and television appearances. Mantegna won a Tony and a Joseph Jefferson Award in 1984 for his role as Richard Roma in the Pulitzer Prize- winning play “Glengarry Glen Ross.” He’s also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles …

A rising star in the Fox News firmament, Rosanna Scotto maintains close ties to her Italian-American family and community. There is more to Rosanna Scotto than meets the eye. Not only has the host of “Good Day New York” been a lead news anchor at Fox-owned WNYW-Channel 5 since 1990, she’s also a pillar of the state’s Italian-American community. Born in Brooklyn, Scotto is a third-generation American, with roots to Calabria on her mother’s side and to the island of Ischia on her father’s. Raised in Brooklyn’s Dyker Heights Italian enclave by parents Anthony and Marion (Anastasio), Scotto was surrounded …

Italian-American leaders and Hollywood luminaries converged on downtown Los Angeles recently for a groundbreaking award ceremony. The event took place on Jan. 18 at AGBO, the studio run by industry powerhouses Joseph and Anthony Russo. The dynamic duo presented fellow Hollywood heavyweight Louis D’Esposito with their inaugural Renaissance Award. The annual ceremony was launched to honor Italian Americans who have had a positive impact on the entertainment industry and to raise funds for the Russo Brothers Italian American Filmmaker Forum. The purpose of the forum is “to champion emerging filmmakers who are trying to explore the Italian-American experience and share …

The seed for “Cabrini,” the soon-to-be-released biopic of America’s first saint, was planted nearly seven decades ago by a young man in a small church in Philadelphia. The year was 1955 and J. Eustace Wolfington was just starting out in business. Born and raised in the City of Brotherly Love, he was 23 years old at the time. A devout Catholic, Wolfington was hoping to fit in an early-morning Mass before the start of a long workday. By chance, he chose St. Donato Church, where he encountered a statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, who founded the parish’s school in …

Born in Austria to Neapolitan parents, Patrizio Buanne believes that Naples is more than just his ancestral home, it’s part of his cultural identity. “Think Tom Jones, Italian-style.” That’s how The Boston Globe described the voice and music of multilingual Neapolitan pop crooner Patrizio Buanne, who has sold more than 10 million records around the world. In an interview with Fra Noi, Buanne described his repertoire as “original and good, old sexy ballads and fun up-tempo tunes” rooted in the pop tradition of his European upbringing and identity. Buanne has released eight albums since his 2005 debut with “The Italian,” …

No longer merely the son of Andrea Bocelli, Matteo has emerged as a performer and star in his own right. September was a huge month for Matteo Bocelli. After three years of intensive work, the Italian pop classical crossover singer released his first solo album and then embarked on his first solo world tour, all in short order. “It is an incredible feeling to finally be able to share my first album with everyone,” Bocelli tells Fra Noi. “To be able to release it after so long is a satisfying feeling. I am excited and nervous to see what people …

An award-winning anchor and reporter for WGN-TV, Dina Bair leads a fulfilling triple life as a cancer crusader and mom of four. As a little girl growing up in suburban Philadelphia, Dina Bair liked to pretend to be a journalist and narrate accident scenes for imagined TV cameras while riding in her mother’s car. Her role model was broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer, who inspired her to pursue a journalism degree at Northwestern University and forge an award-winning career at WGN-TV in Chicago. Bair is an anchor for WGN Midday News and the medical reporter for WGN Evening News, as well …

NICK BUONICONTI JR. Undersized for a linebacker, he dominated the NFL gridiron for 14 seasons before making a name for himself in the fields of law, business, broadcasting and medicine. The hardest thing about profiling Nick Buoniconti Jr. is having enough space on the page. The man accomplished more in one lifetime than most talented people could accomplish in 10. Let’s start from the beginning. Nick was born on Dec. 5, 1940, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Nicholas Anthony Buoniconti Sr. and Pasqualina Mercolino, both of whom traced their roots to Naples. Nick Sr. married into a family that owned an …