The Department is excited to welcome Gina Cuffari as our new bassoon faculty starting Fall 2023. Following the retirement of beloved faculty member Frank Morelli, we are thrilled to have someone who is both an alumna of the doctoral program at SBU and an incredibly active member of the New York music community! Read more about Gina below!
Gina Cuffari Biography:
Gina Cuffari is a dynamic and versatile musician who performs a variety of roles in the New York City area as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, soloist, new music advocate, and educator. Praised for having a “sound that is by turns sensuous, lyric and fast-moving” (Palm Beach Daily News), Gina is Co-Principal Bassoonist and an Artistic Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. For over fifteen years, Gina has performed and recorded throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia with this prestigious ensemble. Gina is also the Associate Principal/2nd Bassoonist of the Riverside Symphony and a member of Sylvan Winds, Trio Cabrini and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. She is a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a frequent performer with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Composers Orchestra, the Knights, and more. An avid fan of musical theater, Gina has played in recent Broadway productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Sunset Boulevard, My Fair Lady , and Into the Woods as a substitute bassoonist.
Gina has been a longtime collaborator with the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound –performing as a bassoonist, vocalist, and keyboardist – and has worked with many composers over the years, premiering a plethora of new works with the group. In an ongoing personal project, Gina has commissioned and premiered works that combine her two passions – singing and playing the bassoon – into one performing experience. Composers writing for her include Jenni Brandon, Sunny Knable, Gregg August, and Allison Loggins-Hull.
As an educator, Gina has taught at Western CT State University and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Bassoon at New York University. She is a frequent guest clinician at Bard College for The Orchestra Now and teaches masterclasses and “Singing Through Your Instrument” workshops throughout the country. She spends her summers teaching and performing at the Mostly Modern Festival at Skidmore College.
Gina earned her BM from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, MM from Manhattan School of Music and DMA from Stony Brook University. Her fantastic teachers include Kathleen Reynolds, William Winstead and Frank Morelli.