Wednesday, April 03, 2002

WILMINGTON, NC -- The UNCW Department of Music will present its final concert of the 2002 Artist Recital Series at 8 p.m., Sunday, April 21, in Kenan Auditorium.

Featured musician Frank Bongiorno, saxophonist and chair of the UNCW Music Department, will perform along with several music faculty including pianist Ellen Robison, guitarist Robert Nathanson and cellist Richard Thomas. Bongiorno will play well-known pieces for the saxophone such as Sisyphus by William Latham and Prélude, Cadence et Finale by Alfred Desenclos. The recital will also feature new pieces for saxophone and guitar, including the Wilmington premiere of Images of China by Jing Jing Luo-Haven and a transcription of Antonio Vivaldi’s oboe Concerto in d minor for soprano saxophone, piano and cello.

According to Saxophone Journal Bongiorno is “an excellent saxophonist who has the magic to tell stories through his saxophone performance. Not only does he tickle the listener's ear, but he fires up the imagination and stirs the soul." An active recitalist, orchestral soloist, jazz artist and clinician in the United States and abroad, Bongiorno is also a member of the Ryoanji Duo, a saxophone and classical guitar duo with guitarist Robert Nathanson.

Bongiorno’s recordings include two critically acclaimed solo compact disc recordings Classic Saxophone and Classic Saxophone, Vol. 2: Musica da camera as well as a jazz play-along CD, a master class CD on learning to improvise using transcriptions and a saxophone vibrato master class CD. A CD of music commissioned for saxophone and classical guitar is planned for release this year.

Listed in the International Who’s Who in Music, Seventeenth Edition, Bongiorno has written “classical” saxophone transcriptions, original compositions for jazz combo, paper presentations at national conferences, as well as more than 50 articles and reviews. He was featured in a front cover interview in the January/February 1993 issue of the Saxophone Journal.

General admission is $10, $5 for UNCW faculty and staff. UNCW students admitted free with a valid ID. Proceeds benefit the UNCW Department of Music through student scholarships.

For more information, call 910/962-3390. A photo of Bongiorno is available to download from the Web at www.uncwil.edu/news/releases/april02/bongiorno.html.