STAMFORD MUSIC & ARTS ACADEMY
Fairfield County's Elite Conservatory Music Program
As one of the newest members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
Gina Cuffari has had multiple appearances in Carnegie Hall, and participated in many tours throughout the US, Europe and Japan. Gina is also a member of the Lincoln Center-based Riverside Symphony, and is a regular performer with the Westchester Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, and Iris Orchestra in Germantown, TN. In addition, she has made several appearances with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Ballet Theater, Stamford Symphony and New Haven Symphony. Broadway productions include Fiddler on the Roof and Sunset Boulevard.
As a chamber musician, Gina is a member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Sylvan Winds, and Quintet of the Americas. She has performed in NYC restaurants as part of the Tertulia ensemble, and has performed live music with silent films at Lincoln Center as part of the BQE Ensemble. She is a recent addition to the artist roster of the west coast-based Camerata Pacifica, a renown ensemble which performs throughout California. As a founding member of the Scarborough Trio – a flute, bassoon, and piano ensemble – she has performed extensively throughout the US, and has garnered top prizes at the Fischoff, Yellow Springs, and Artists International Competitions, resulting in her professional debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
Gina is also a champion of new music, and has performed with the Argento New Music Project, ACME, and has recorded the Schoenberg Wind Quintet and Stockhausen Zeitmasse for Albany Records with the Phoenix Ensemble. As a frequent collaborator with Alarm Will Sound, Gina has toured and performed with the group as bassoonist, contrabassoonist, pianist, and vocalist, and can be heard on their recent Splitting Adamsalbum (music of John Adams). Gina has premiered new works written for her two quintets, Sylvan Winds and Quintet of the Americas, and has commissioned and premiered solo works combining her two passions – bassoon and voice – at SubCulture NYC and Stony Brook University.
Gina is a passionate educator, and is on faculty at both New York University and Western Connecticut State University. She teaches lessons, coaches chamber music, and teaches classes including Reed Making, Bassoon Pedagogy, and Music History and Appreciation. She spends her summers teaching at NYU’s Summer Woodwind Institute.
Gina is an active member of the International Double Reed Society and has presented lectures and recitals at several conferences. As a co-host for the 2014 International Double Reed Society conference at NYU, Gina helped organize the largest IDRS event in its 43 year history – producing almost 200 concerts, lectures, masterclasses, workshops and special events in five days.
Gina is a graduate of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Manhattan School of Music, and recently completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University. She is grateful for her incredible teachers throughout the years – Kathy Reynolds, William Winstead and Frank Morelli.
