Meet the Artist - Gene Bertoncini - CSC Gala Benefit Concert

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Daphne Does Dim Sum
Feb. 22-Mar. 9, 2008

Meet the Artist
Gene Bertoncini

Gene Bertoncini is one of the pre-eminent jazz guitarists active today. His fluid technique and lyricism have won him international praise and such accolades as the "Segovia of jazz."

Bertoncini was the guitarist on the Johnny Carson show in New York and duo guested on that show. He has been featured in many concert, television, and night club settings in the U.S. and Canada including appearances with symphony orchestras.

An eloquent and versatile improviser and master of the guitar, Mr. Bertoncini has been heard with an extraordinary range of jazz greats, including performances and recordings with Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Hubert Laws and Paul Desmond, among others, as well as with such distinguished vocalists as Tony Bennett, Carmen McRae and Lena Horne, Vic Damone and Edye Gorme. He has also performed and recorded with Gerry Mulligan, Paul Winter, Morgana King, Clark Terry, and arranger/composers Lalo Shifrin and Michel Le Grand.

The Washington Post proclaimed his last solo appearance in New York City "..the best jazz concert of 1999". Mr. Bertoncini's acclaim is hardly confined, though, to this country. His recent CD, Someone to Light Up My Life, his own arrangements of the compositions of the great bossa nova composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, won international raves, including recognition in Brazilian critic's and listener's polls as one of the ten best jazz recordings of the year; those same polls also named him the best acoustic jazz guitarist.

Gene Bertoncini has just released a striking new CD on Ambient Records, Body end Soul, which features his own innovative solo arrangements of classic jazz and popular songs.

"Bertoncini is an affecting, highly original guitarist who moves, easily back and forth between classical and jazz guitar..."
Whitney Balliett
The New Yorker

"His technique is so impeccable as to be almost invisible - it takes a while even to notice all the things he's up to- and his musical sense takes in a wide range of territory."
The Globe and Mall

"...raised the all of soft, seductive jazz to new levels of grace and adventure..."
Daniel Gewertz
The Boston Herald

"...a celebration of understated virtuosity, genial companionship and an imaginative seamless interplay that invariably impresses."
James Adams
The Edmonton Journal

"They create thickly contrapuntal texture that at once recalls the dynamics of a chamber orchestra and the Modern Jazz Quartet."
Tom Moon
The Miami Herald

"...one of the masters of melodic playing."
"...famous for the contemplative beauty of his classical and jazz guitar playing."
"Segovia of Jazz"
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

"Gene Bertoncini dazzled his Boston audiences...He displayed virtuoso skills...in an eclectic mix of jazz, pop, classical, and Brazilian music..."
The Boston Globe

"Gene Bertoncini can do it all."
Guitar Player Magazine

"... best living exponent of jazz on the classical guitar"
Gene Lees
The Jazzletter

Mr. Bertoncini's arrangements bridge jazz, classical, and bossa nova styles and "...eliminates the line between Jazz and classical." His music is harmonically up to date and acoustically old fashioned in that he often uses an unamplified classical guitar and achieves a full sound.

Bertoncini and his duo are also in demand as clinicians. He teaches every summer at the Eastman School of Music and has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, New York University, the Banff School of Fine Arts,
and the New School.

www.genebertoncini.com
Link to a slide with his music in the background

Review
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