UNCW Symphonic Band • Dominic Talanca conductor
UNCW Saxophone Ensemble • Frank Bongiorno conductor
Featuring ~Nois Saxophone Quartet
Conducted by Dominic Talanca, UNCW Symphonic Band is comprised of students in the Department of Music and from across campus, performing the finest literature available for winds, including traditional wind band repertoire, marches, transcriptions and the newest 21st-century works
This special concert also features ~Nois Saxophone Quartet.
Founded in 2016, ~Nois has become one of the premier ensembles in the U.S. by combining contemporary classical music and improvisation in unique concert experiences. Known for their “truly innovative musicianship” and “raw creativity” (Cacophony Magazine), ~Nois has been awarded top prizes at prestigious chamber music competitions including the Fischoff and the M-Prize competitions. Since its founding, ~Nois has given over 70 performances in 20 states from coast to coast and has premiered over 30 pieces.
As part of the Beckwith Recital Series, ~Nois also performs on Saturday, March 26 at 7:30 in Beckwith Recital Hall.
Learn more about ~Nois by visiting their website.
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PROGRAM
UNCW Saxophone Ensemble
Everett Gates: Foursome
UNCW Saxophone Ensemble / ~Nois Saxophone Quartet
Georges Bizet: L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2; “Farandole”
UNCW Symphonic Band featuring ~Nois Saxophone Quartet
David Maslanka: Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble
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ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Dominic Talanca is director of bands and assistant professor of music at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he conducts the Symphonic Band and Pep Band, teaches courses in conducting and woodwind techniques, and administers all aspects of the band program. He is also the conductor of the Wilmington Symphonic Winds and the OLLI New Horizons Band.
Talanca received his Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in Wind Conducting from the University of North Texas, where he studied conducting with Eugene Migliaro Corporon. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting at Northwestern University, where he studied with Mallory Thompson.
Talanca taught for ten years in the Lewisville Independent School District in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and served as associate director of bands at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas from 2006-13, during which time the student musicians were recognized for their performances in concert and marching activities – earning numerous placements in the All-Region and All-State ensembles as well as four consecutive biannual Texas 5A State Marching Championship Awards.
Talanca is co-author of a beginning band method Musical Mastery, published by MRNS Music. Additionally, he has contributed three articles to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, published by GIA Publications. He has recorded more than 450 significant works in the wind band repertoire on the Mark Custom, Klavier, Naxos, and GIA recording labels. Talanca has also had conducted, as well as performed and recorded, with the Lone Star Wind Orchestra.
Talanca is an active conductor, master class clinician, and adjudicator. His professional affiliations include Pi Kappa Lambda (National Music Honor Society), the College Band Directors National Association, North Carolina Music Educators Association; he is an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
~Nois, founded in 2016 and pronounced “noise,” has become one of the premier ensembles in the United States by combining contemporary chamber music and improvisation to connect with audiences in unique concert experiences. Known for their “truly innovative musicianship” and “raw creativity” (Cacophony Magazine), ~Nois has been awarded top prizes at prestigious chamber music competitions including the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the M-Prize International Arts Competition.
Since their founding, ~Nois has presented more than 90 performances in 20 states from coast to coast. In addition to their regular concert season in Chicago, ~Nois has performed on festivals and series such as Big Ears, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and the University of Chicago Presents Series. They are in demand as a guest artist and lecturer at universities and secondary schools across the nation having held residencies and given performances at more than 30 institutions including University of Southern California, the University of Colorado-Boulder, the Manhattan School of Music, and Princeton University. ~Nois was appointed as the Don Michael Randel Ensemble in Residence at the University of Chicago for the 2020-21 academic year.
In 2020, ~Nois released its debut album, Is This ~Nois, as a love letter to the quartet’s home of Chicago, featuring music by composers with strong ties to the city and its vibrant new music scene. Hailed as “fresh and intense” (The WholeNote), the album was named among the “Best of Bandcamp Contemporary Classical: June 2020” by critic Peter Margasak. “If ~Nois’ debut album is any indicator of what is to come from the group, the genre of the saxophone quartet has a bright future on the near horizon.” (I Care If You Listen).
~Nois has premiered more than 50 works including compositions by Gaudeamus Prize-winners Kelley Sheehan and Annika Socolofsky, and 2018 Guggenheim Fellow Tonia Ko. They recently partnered with the Kinds of Kings composer collective on the Afterimage series, a collection of concerts in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and have performed with the Bang On A Can All-Stars, Claire Chase, Eighth Blackbird, and My Brightest Diamond.
Frank Bongiorno has been UNCW professor of saxophone and jazz studies since 1982. During that time, his saxophone and jazz students have received national and international recognition by organizations such as Down Beat and Jazzfest USA. He has been recognized for contributions to teaching at UNCW, receiving the 2006 J. Marshall Crews Distinguished Faculty Award, the UNCW 2010 Distinguished Teaching Professorship Award, and the 2011 North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.
As an active recitalist, orchestral soloist, jazz artist, and clinician throughout the United States and abroad, Bongiorno’s performances have taken him to Berlin, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal, New York, Tokyo, Nuremberg, Montreux (Switzerland), Graz and Salzburg (Austria), Valencia (Spain), Montréal, Pesaro (Italy), and Ljubljana (Slovenia). He has performed solos with professional and college ensembles such as the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana (Italy), Shreveport Symphony, Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Auburn University Wind Ensemble, Williams College Jazz Ensemble, and Northern State College Jazz Ensemble. Bongiorno was also a member of the Ryoanji Duo (saxophone and classical guitar). Other performing credits include performances and supporting musician for the Four Tops, Carol Channing, Red Skelton, the North Carolina Symphony, Kenny Rogers, Frankie Vallie, Johnny Mathis, Steve Lawrence, and Edie Gorme, and for the soundtrack of Chasers.
Bongiorno’s solo compact disc recordings include the critically acclaimed Classic Saxophone, Classic Saxophone, Vol. 2: Musica da camera, and Images, as a member of the Ryoanji Duo. The duo also recorded David Kechley’s Sea of Stones – a concerto for saxophone, guitar, and orchestra – with the Filharmonia Sudecka in Walbrzych, Poland, and was released with other orchestral works by Kechley. Bongiorno has recorded a jazz play-along CD of original jazz compositions; a master class CD on learning to improvise, using transcriptions for Jazz Player Magazine; a saxophone vibrato master class CD; and two sets of play-along duets for saxophone published in Saxophone Journal.
Publications include classical saxophone transcriptions (Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5: Cantilena by Heitor Villa-Lobos); original compositions for jazz combo; paper presentations at the 18th annual International Association for Jazz Educators Conference and the second annual Boston Saxophone Workshop and Contemporary Woodwind Seminar; a DVD on basic reed maintenance for the Saxophonist, as well as more than 150 articles and reviews in publications such as the Saxophone Symposium, Saxophone Journal, North Carolina Music Educators Journal, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and Popular Musicians. His book, Basic Concepts and Strategies for the Developing Saxophonist, will be published in the spring of 2022.
Bongiorno has served as membership director, treasurer and coordinating reviews editor for the North American Saxophone Alliance, and was featured in a front cover interview of the January/February 1993 issue of the Saxophone Journal, listed in the International Who’s Who in Music, Seventeenth Edition, and Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century.
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Tickets and ticket prices, please visit:
$10 general public; free to UNCW and CFCC students with valid IDs; free to CFCC music faculty/staff
Tickets available in advance and at the door starting one hour prior to performance.
You may also call the UNCW Box Office at 910.962.3500.
UNCW Box Office is open Tuesday-Thursday 12-4 p.m.
Any remaining tickets will be available one hour prior to performance at Kenan Auditorium.
UNCW students may obtain tickets in advance by going to the UNCW Box Office (located in Kenan Auditorium) Tuesday-Thursday 12-4 p.m.
Present your UNCW ID at time of purchase.
Don't forget! The box office closes 15 minutes after the start of a Department of Music event.
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For more information or to join our email list, contact us
or call 910-962-3415 (Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.)
Directions to Kenan Auditorium:
Plenty of free parking for this event, right next to Kenan Auditorium.
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DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC CONCERT GUIDELINES FOR UNCW STUDENTS
Arrive on time: at least 10 minutes before start of concert
• Arrive at the concert venue at least 10 minutes before the posted concert time.
Use of electronic devices during performances
• use of computers, tablets, phones is not allowed during performances. Anyone using an electronic device will be asked to put it away. Noncompliance may result in being asked to leave the event.