Wells School of Music Professor Honored with E. Riley Holman Memorial Faculty Award
Composer-arranger-saxophonist Jonathan Ragonese, professor and director of jazz studies
in the University’s Wells School of Music, was honored with the E. Riley Holman Memorial
Faculty Award at December’s commencement ceremonies.
The award recognizes his expertise in demonstrating innovative teaching techniques that foster student creativity. He has taught at the University since 2020.
As a saxophonist, Ragonese has performed and recorded with a wide array of musicians including Steve Wilson, David Liebman, Jon Faddis, The Sirius Quartet, Gideon Alorwoyie, the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Tim Warfield, Tin Can Buddha and Steve Rudolph. As a composer his works have been commissioned and premiered by the New York Film Festival, saxophonist Steve Wilson, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Harrisburg Symphony, the Righteous Girls, and the Harrisburg Youth Symphony as well as West Chester, Bucknell, and Messiah universities.
He was commissioned by the Film Society of Lincoln Center to compose a new film score for German director G.W. Pabst’s iconic 1929 film Pandora’s Box, which premiered at Alice Tully Hall in October 2017, with Ragonese conducting a 17-piece ensemble. In 2014 Ragonese premiered his “Not-this” for two saxophones at Carnegie Hall. His “Concerto for Saxophone and Wind Ensemble” was premiered in 2021, and in April of 2022 portions of “Letters from an unknown woman to an unknown people,” a double concerto for trumpet and marimba, was premiered by William Stowman and the Messiah University Symphony Orchestra. Active educational endeavors include lectures, writings, and the development of Music Before Words, a music program for infants with educator Renee Bock. His first recording, Ardent Marigolds, was released in 2013, a duo with Steve Rudolph. He released two men, singing, a duo album with saxophonist Tim Warfield in 2018.
He earned both his bachelor of music in jazz saxophone and his master of music in composition from the Manhattan School of Music.
Learn more about Jonathan Ragonese.
Visit the Wells School of Music.