Charlie Esposito has nearly completed building a modular synthesizer that he can play music on. —Dena Porter 
Charlie Esposito illustrates his stories and cooking recipes. —Dena Porter 
Charlie builds his modular synthesizer in his spare time. —Dena Porter 
Charlie plays many instruments and has performed in bands over the years. —Dena Porter 
Charlie Esposito enjoys illustrating his cooking recipes. —Dena Porter
You might be hard-pressed to find a creative endeavor Charlie Esposito hasn’t pursued, bringing his unique artistic flair to each one.
Perhaps you first associate him with the Performing Arts Center (PAC), where he has worked since 2007, first as technical director and then as director. But his journey to this position has been fascinatingly circuitous.
Growing up in New York, Esposito thought he’d be a cartoonist. But music was always part of his life, too. In high school, he played piano in bands, having taught himself by listening to The Beatles. “Nobody in my family was musical or artistic, but my mom bought me a tape recorder, and that, along with the piano, got me into the tech world by recording funny skit radio plays.”
After high school, Esposito attended the School of the Visual Arts in New York. He explains, “It was known for cartooning in the 1950s and 1960s, but by the late sixties, it was ground zero for all the conceptual artists. So I thought, ‘Cartooning is not cool. I’m going to make another kind of art by combining music and art.’ I started an acoustic three-piece band with two friends in 1969—Mr. Timothy Charles Duane, or TCD.” They did original music, skits, comedy, and avant-garde music in lofts and small clubs.
To make ends meet in his early 20s, Esposito worked factory jobs so he could focus on his art. One factory made plastic bags, and another manufactured artificial flavoring. Esposito explains, “But they would always promote me to being in charge of departments, and I would quit because I couldn’t do my art.”
In 1975, two art school friends and one of Esposito’s band members came to the Vineyard. “They got a hold of me and said, ‘It’s really cool and off the grid from New York.’ So, Timothy and I moved to the Vineyard to rejoin Duane to start making music together again.” They became a fixture, doing shows at the Katharine Cornell Theater, Tabernacle, and Seaview.
Simultaneously, Esposito says, “In 1975, I went to the Black Dog and told them I just wanted to mop floors. I wanted a job I didn’t have to pay attention to, and I could do my art. They promoted me to dishwasher, then waiting tables, and later found out I knew how to cook.” Eventually he became manager of the floor, cooking weekly Chinese dinners for 200 to 250 diners a night.
In the early 80s, Esposito bought a synthesizer and started making electronic music, recording cassettes for friends. Soon, his audience grew, and to meet demand, he bought a duplicating machine. In the mid-to-late 80s, he upgraded his equipment and created a recording studio that quickly became popular. Esposito eventually set up shop in what was then Educomp’s basement. “I was recording Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish, Maynard Silva, Entrain, and other local bands. In the daytime, I’d be at the Black Dog and some nights cooking, and then I’d go over and record bands.” When the Black Dog decided to produce cookbooks, he contributed recipes, pen-and-ink illustrations, and did food styling. Esposito notes, “It was an art project with food.”
Eventually, Esposito moved on from both recording work and the Black Dog. In 2008, he joined the PAC as technical director and then became the director. The role is comprehensive. The tech side includes lighting, sound, sets, and rigging. He also schedules all the summer events, which entails contracts and invoicing. “During the school year, it’s about being available for all the plays and assemblies. Basically, it’s everything from unlocking the PAC at the beginning to locking it at the end and taking care of everything in the middle.”
Esposito didn’t have all the skills at first, but he learned on the job through trial and error, by reading up, and asking experts. “Now I get to pass the knowledge on to my students, who go on from there. Some of those who have graduated I now call as a resource.”
Music is still very much part of Esposito’s life, with some of his early examples available on bandcamp.com. There is the TCD’s 2009 “Forty Years and Nights,” a selection of pieces from the band that has been playing since 1969. “Accidental Music 1987-1991” compiles the best pieces from Esposito’s five cassette electronic music albums in the 1980s.
Esposito’s pen-and-ink work is also still alive and well. He is starting to create illustrations that illuminate different times in his life. “It’s like a cookbook memoir. There might be a recipe and a funny story about art school.”
“My life is an art project,” Esposito notes. “The concept and the idea are the art piece. Whatever I’m doing and wherever I land, it’s always a project in my head; whether I’m drawing a picture, playing in a band, recording a band, or cooking some noodle dish, it’s all the same thing.”
Asked what gets him out of bed in the morning, Esposito immediately replies, “Everything. Why not wake up? It’s all exciting.”
