John Mastroianni
Jazz Lab Band, Jazz Saxophone
(860) 486-3728
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Personal website: www.mastymusic.com
John Mastroianni has performed as a professional musician since he was 15 years old. His talents as a saxophonist, woodwind doubler, composer, and arranger have led him to a diversity of musical experiences.
Mastroianni earned a bachelor of science degree in music education and a bachelor of music degree in jazz studies from the University of Bridgeport and a master of arts degree in jazz performance/composition from New York University. He has studied saxophone with Phil Woods, Dick Oatts, Joe Lovano, and Gary Klein, and composition with Jim McNeely, Bill Finegan, Tom Boras, and Neil Slater.
Mastroianni has performed, toured and recorded with artists such as Mel Lewis, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Smokey Robinson, Louie Bellson, Charli Persip and Supersound, Harvie Swartz, Jim McNeely, Jay Leonhart, Gerry Mulligan, Lew Anderson, Clint Holmes, Roger Kellaway, the Glenn Miller Band, Sonny Costanzo, Johnny Mathis, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow, Nick Brignola, the New England Jazz Ensemble, and many others! He also has performed with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Norwalk and Hartford Symphonies, and at the Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, Shubert, Palace, Goodspeed Opera House, and Oakdale theaters. Mastroianni also played in the orchestra for the Broadway (New York City) production of “Three Penny Opera.”
Mastroianni’s three recordings as a leader, entitled Cookin’ on All Burners (Stash), The Time Being (Jazz Alliance), and Live at the Silvermine (Jazzheads), have all earned him critical acclaim. He is also a featured soloist and composer/arranger on the New England Jazz Ensemble recordings, Version 3.0 (Brownstone), Storm Before the Calm (Sea Breeze), and A Cookin’ Christmas (Sea Breeze). Mastroianni is currently a performer and recording artist for the Jazzheads label (New York City).
In addition to being a free-lance musician, Mastroianni performs with his own quartet and leads his own 16-piece jazz orchestra, for which he composes and arranges all the music. Mastroianni’s music has been performed and recorded by his quartet and jazz orchestra, the Sonny Costanzo Big Band, the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, the New England Jazz Ensemble, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and many high school, college, and professional jazz ensembles throughout the United States. His big band charts are published by Walrus Music Publishing. Mastroianni has also written a piece for chamber orchestra and soprano saxophone which is published by Dorn Publications.
Mastroianni has taught at New York University, Albertus Magnus College, the University of Bridgeport, the New York State Summer School for the Arts, Bridgeport Central High School, and New Canaan High School. He is the director of bands at Hall High School in West Hartford and the founder and music director of the Young Artists Summer Jazz Workshop. In December 2002, Mastroianni was named by School Band & Orchestra magazine as one of 50 directors in the United States that “make a difference,” and in March 2004, Mastroianni was chosen by the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA) as the Secondary School Teacher of the Year.