Joe Viola (jazz musician)

Joe Viola (born June 25, 1920 in Malden , Massachusetts , † April 11, 2001 in Stoneham , Massachusetts) was an American jazz saxophonist and oboist.

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Viola learned to play the saxophone from his older brothers who were musicians in the Boston area. After graduating from high school, he became a member of Ben Pollack's band and a student of Benny Kanter . During the Second World War he played for four years in a band in the US Army .

After the war he studied composition with Larry Berk and oboe with the oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra , Fernand Gillet . In 1946 he began to teach theory, composition, saxophone, clarinet and flute at Berks Schillinger House , the later Berklee School of Music . His students at the time included Herb Pomeroy , Ray Santisi , Charlie Mariano , Dick Nash, and Quincy Jones .

In 1955 Viola went to France to study with the saxophonist Marcel Mule . On his return to Berklee, he began to write his three-volume textbook The Technique of the Saxophone , the first volume of which was published in 1960. After the Berklee School became the Berklee College of Music , Viola became head of the woodwind department.

In addition to teaching, he worked with musicians such as Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne , but also orchestras such as the Shubert and the Colonial Theater Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra . In Berklee he founded a saxophone quartet with John LaPorta , Harry Drabkin and Gary Anderson .

After retiring in 1985, he was appointed Chair Emeritus of the Woodwind Department at Berklee College and continued teaching until 1996. At a concert held in his honor in 1997, u. a. his students Jane Ira Bloom , Richie Cole , Donald Harrison , Javon Jackson , Tommy Smith and Bill Pierce .

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personal data
SURNAME	Viola, Joe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz saxophonist and oboist
DATE OF BIRTH	June 25, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Malden , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	April 11, 2001
Place of death	Stoneham , Massachusetts