Robert Bonfiglio - Performances

Performances

Called "the Paganini of the Harmonica" by The Los Angeles Times, ROBERT BONFIGLIO has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Gewandhaus, Teatro Colón, Teatro Massimo, Teatro Amazonas, Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall and Lincoln Center. Robert has appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning,” “CBS Morning Show,” “Live with Regis and Kathy Lee,” “Larry King,” "The Jim Bohannon Show" and Garrison Keillor’s “American Radio Show.” He has had feature stories and reviews in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune.

BONFIGLIO performed the World Premiere of the Henry Cowell Harmonica Concerto with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under the great Lucas Foss and the West Coast premiere with David Alan Miller and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also premiered works by Rodrigo, Arnold Black, Richard Einhorn, Eric Knight and Sir George Martin.

Robert Bonfiglio has appeared as a soloist with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, John Williams and the Boston Pops on PBS, John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, with Fabio Luisi and the MDR Orchestra at the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Theo Alcantara and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colón.

At City Center he performed Vilem Tausky's "Concertino" for Harmonica and Chamber Orchestra while ballet stars Cynthia Gregory and Fernando Bujones danced the pas de deux choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett.

BONFIGLIO has been a concerto soloist with leading orchestras around the world including the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestra of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Leipzig M D R-Radio Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Madrid Radio Television Española Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Estonia National Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, the Mexico City Philharmonic, as well as the Milwaukee Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Utah Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, the National Symphony at Kennedy Center, the Louisville Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

He has worked under such great conductors as Fabio Luisi, Fabio Mechetti, Giancarlo Guerrero, Lucas Foss, Eri Klas and Pinchas Steinberg, Gerard Schwarz, Lucas Vis, Jorge Mester, Theo Alcantara, Robert Bernhardt, JoAnn Falletta, Maximiano Valdes, Andrew Sewell, Bruce Ferden, Giséle Ben-dor, Christopher Wilkins, Enrique García Ascensio, Andrea Quinn, Kirk Trevor, Juan José García Caffi, Peter Jaffe, Arthur Fagen, David Alan Miller and Marvin Hamlisch.

His first RCA recording, with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Orchestra, featuring the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto, was released to critical acclaim; he has performed this Concerto over 350 times with major orchestras worldwide. Bonfiglio has recorded on the RCA, Arista, CBS, Sina Qua Non, High Harmony, and QVC Labels. He performed on the Grammy winning recording, "Ragitme."

ROBERT BONFIGLIO is playing contemporary music as well with American Composer, Paul Moravec, who just won the Pulitzer Prize for Composition, writing an American Harmonica Concerto for him. Lowell Liebermann is also writing a Harmonica Concerto to premiere in with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Robert Bonfiglio got his Masters degree in composition from Manhattan School of Music and BM from Mannes College of Music. He studied harmonica with Cham-ber Huang and was coached for 12 years by Andrew Lolya, the first flute of the New York City Ballet, during which time he studied the major works for harmonica and orchestra. Robert studied composition with Charles Wuorinen and Aaron Copland.

ROBERT BONFIGLIO is the Founding Director of the GRAND CANYON MUSIC FESTIVAL founded in 1984.

On January 29, 2010, he performed Henry Cowell's Harmonica Concerto (1962) with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center.