Performance Music at Scranton Welcomes Joseph Boga Octet Sept. 24

Sep 13, 2016
Trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator and NEPA native Joseph Boga will perform with the Joseph Boga Octet Saturday, Sept. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in The University of Scranton’s Houlihan McLean Center.
Trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator and NEPA native Joseph Boga will perform with the Joseph Boga Octet Saturday, Sept. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in The University of Scranton’s Houlihan McLean Center.

Performance Music at The University of Scranton will feature a concert by the Joseph Boga Nonet on Saturday, Sept. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the University’s Houlihan-McLean Center, Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue. The concert is part of the University’s Family Weekend celebration. Admission is free, and the performance is open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis.

Led by trumpeter, composer, arranger and educator Joseph Boga, the nonet also includes accomplished New York City jazz musicians Patrick Bartley (alto sax), Xavier Del Castillo (tenor sax), Tommy Gardner (tenor sax), Anthony Orji (bass clarinet), Nate Sparks (piano), Kyle Athayde (vibes),  Dan Chmielinski (bass) and Paul Wells (drums). Among the ensemble's more recent gigs was a week-long engagement of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.

A Scranton area native and 2014 graduate of The Juilliard School, Boga is equally adept playing in both the jazz and classical genres. He has performed at a number of high-profile venues in the United States and abroad.

In addition to the octet, Boga also performs with James Langton and the New York All-Stars Big Band, Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, Professor Adrian Cunningham and His Old School, The Gordon Webster Band, and The Kyle Athayde Dance Party. He has also played with the The Wycliffe Gordon Quintet, Septet and Big Band, Loren Schoenberg and The National Jazz Museum in Harlem All- Stars, Deerhead Inn Big Band, and many others, and has performed with many renowned vocalists including Michael Feinstein, Cyrille Aimee, Charenee Wade, Mitch Winehouse, Candace Hoyes, and Martina DaSilva.

As a classical musician, Boga has soloed with symphony orchestras, brass bands, and wind ensembles/concert bands, (including The Northeastern PA Philharmonic, Scranton Brass Orchestra, and Bucknell University Wind Ensemble in our region), and has performed with brass quintets and orchestras throughout the New York tri-state area. He’s a member of the Mark Gould-led New York Trumpet Ensemble, and in March he performed Louis Andriessen’s epic opera “De Materie” with The International Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Peter Rundel.

Boga has composed and arranged for brass orchestra, jazz octet, jazz combo, big band and string orchestra. He often returns to his hometown to perform and lead clinics and master classes at the University, and has also served on the faculty of the Scranton Brass Seminar, the Juilliard Jazz Camp in Atlanta, the Sitka Jazz Festival in Alaska, and a variety of other educational outreach offerings.
For more information, contact Performance Music at The University of Scranton by calling 570-941-7624, emailing music@scranton.edu, or visiting scranton.edu/music. For more information on Boga, visit josephboga.com.

Back to Top