UA’s Free Sonic Frontiers Concert Features Jazz Legend Vinny Golia

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Legendary Los Angeles jazz musician Vinny Golia will headline the third concert in The University of Alabama’s Sonic Frontiers concert series Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m.

The free concert will be held at UA’s Moody Concert Hall.

In addition to Golia’s solo performance, the concert will feature performances by the UA School of Music’s Jazz Ensemble, who will play a set of Golia’s large ensemble music.

Chris Kozak, UA associate professor of music and director of jazz studies, will direct the ensemble.

Other performers are Dr. Andrew Raffo Dewar, a UA associate professor who will play soprano saxophone, and Joe Berry, an undergraduate student, who will play drums.

“As a composer, Vinny Golia fuses the rich heritage of jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions,” Dewar said. “Mr. Golia has won numerous awards as a composer, including grants from The National Endowment of the Arts, The Lila Wallace Commissioning Program, The California Arts Council, Meet the Composer and the American Composers Forum.

“In 1982 he created the on-going 50-piece Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber orchestra and jazz ensembles.”

Golia is a multi-woodwind performer whose recordings have been consistently picked by critics and readers of music journals for their yearly “ten best” lists. In 1998, he ranked first in the Cadence Magazine Writers & Readers Poll and has continually placed in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll for Baritone & Soprano Saxophone.

In 1999, Golia won LA Weekly’s Award for Best Jazz Musician, and Jazziz Magazine named him one of the top 100 people who have influenced the course of Jazz in this century. In 2006, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Journalists Association.

Sonic Frontiers is a cutting-edge concert series of innovative and experimental music that enriches the cultural life of West Alabama and invites creative exchange between world-class performers of adventurous music, students and the greater community through public performances and lively post-concert discussions.

All Sonic Frontiers events are free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by The University of Alabama’s New College, the School of Music’s jazz studies program and the College of Arts and Sciences.