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Saxes and Clarinets
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Quintet and Orchestra. He has gigged locally with numerous musicians including baritone sax great Gary Smulyan and many singers including Marion Groves, Ann Maggs, Jill Connolly, Carol Abbe Smith, Vivian Caputo and Barbara Ween.
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He was born in Utica, NY and began studying classical clarinet at the age of 8 performing Mozart and Brahms sonatas locally and in state competitions. At 14 he acquired a tenor saxophone and began to play jazz in the high school dance band and with friends. In college, he co-founded the Union College Jazz Workshop with quintet and big band. After graduation, he ceased performing for 12 years, resuming when two of his science students at Amherst College encouraged him to play with the college jazz ensemble.
A Professor of Biology and of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Amherst College, he holds a degree in chemistry from Union College (NY), MA and PhD degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in Zoology. In addition to his science teaching, he has for many years taught a freshman seminar course called Thinking Through Improvisation.
Reedman Dick Poccia has played in jazz groups in Western Massachusetts for 30 years,
recording with the Valley Big Band, Jeff Holmes Big Band, and the Lowe-Jaffe
Repertory Big Band and the Monadnock Chorus. He is currently a member of the
Amherst Jazz Orchestra, Lowe-Jaffe Big Band, Secondary Messengers, Never Been to
Spain, LaCreacion Latin Big Band, Reflections Chamber Jazz Trio, Moment's Notice
and theEclectic Jazz Quartet and also plays with the Berkshire Jazz Underground and
Interplay. He has performed in back up bands for the Temptations, Ernie Watts,
Claudio Roditi, Yusef Lateef, John Abercrombie, Steve Turre, Al Cohn, Peter Erskine,
John Fedchock, Karrin Allyson, Sheila Jordan, Martha Reeves, Mary Wilson and the
Ringling Brothers Circus.
The versatile musician has twice toured Russia playing in Moscow and at the White
NightsJazz Festival in St. Petersburg. He has performed at Sculler’s, the Morocco,
Sandy’s,Berklee School of Music, the Philharmonic Jazz Center in Petersburg, the
Estrada StateTheater in Moscow, and DOCKS television program in Lisbon. He has
played with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Festival Orchestra with
Gunther Schuller at Amherst College, the swing big band The Abletones, The Valley
Jazz Divas and the Afro-beat band Fenibo. He was guest soloist with the La Forza
Chamber Orchestra in Phoenix in 2013 performing Frank Darmiento's Concerto for Jazz
Dominic Poccia
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