Joseph Bongiorno

In his long and varied career double bassist Joseph Bongiorno served as principal bass for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Westchester Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater and was a tenured member of the New York City Opera Orchestra and Mostly Mozart Festival. He recorded West Side Story under the baton of Leonard Bernstein and as a busy studio musician recorded over 50 film scores and served as “house” bassist for Phillip Glass’ studio.

A graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Homer Mensch, Mr. Bongiorno was named full time faculty at NYU in 2006 where he was Director of Orchestras for 10 years and continues to teach double bass and chamber music. He regularly consults for other educational institutions and directs high school and college orchestra clinics.

As a member of the Knights Orchestra he appeared on the recently released recording of Oswaldo Golijov’s AZUL with SPCO bassist Zachary Cohen.