2009: Vinny Golia

performing solo and with Thollem Mcdonas, Rent Romus, Damon Smith, Noah Phillips, Garth Powell

Vinny Golia, the internationally noted multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader has become an important contributor to the vanguard of creative music. His performance at the Summit this year will consist of solo & group compositions for woodwind instruments considered obscure, such as the contrabass flute, contrabass clarinet, Tubax and taragoto.

As a composer he fuses the rich heritage of jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions.

As a performer, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States in ensembles varying dramatically in size and instrumentation. Putting down the paint brushes of a visual artist in 1971, Golia devoted himself full-time to music and has since evolved into one of the world's most celebrated creative jazz artists. At the forefront of improvised music, he plays twenty different woodwinds, plus various ethnic aerophones.

In 1977 Vinny formed his own recording company, Nine Winds Records, since then his label has specialized in music from the West Coast of North America.

Golia has also contributed original compositions and performance to Ballet and modern dance works, video, theatrical productions, including such films as Three Men and a Job, Serpent's Lair, Star Trek IV, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation, and The Lost Boys to name a few. As a composer Golia has received numerous state and national grants in composition and performance for his own works.

As an educator, Vinny has lectured on music, improvisation, Jazz history, record manufacturing and self-production in a variety of formats, ranging from radio broadcasts to workshops and residencies at various music festivals, high schools, and universities, throughout the United States, Canada and Europe including a course in the study of improvisation at the prestigious Art Center in Pasadena California. Vinny has been a featured performer with Anthony Braxton, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Horace Tapscott, Bertram Turetzky, George Lewis, Barre Phillips, The Rova Saxophone Quartet, Patti Smith, and George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, amongst many others.

Artist (photo by Photographer)