Vinny Golia, the internationally noted multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader has become an important contributor to the vanguard of creative music.
As a composer he fuses the rich heritage of jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions. As a performer, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States in ensembles varying dramatically in size and instrumentation. Putting down the paint brushes of a visual artist in 1971, Golia devoted himself full-time to music and has since evolved into one of the world's most celebrated creative jazz artists. At the forefront of improvised music, he plays twenty different woodwinds, plus various ethnic aerophones.
In 1977 Vinny formed his own recording company, Nine Winds Records, since then his label has specialized in music from the West Coast of North America. His own records and CD's on that label have received awards of merit and praise. Almost every year his records have been picked by critics and readers of music journals for their "ten best" lists, as an instrumentalist, Golia usually places in the downbeat critics' poll on a variety of woodwinds. In 1990 he was the winner of the Jazz Times TDWR award for Bass Saxophone. Golia has also contributed original compositions to Ballet and modern dance works, video, theatrical productions, and the films, Three Men and a Job, Serpent's Lair, Troublebound, Phaedra, and Blood and Concrete.
His performing film credits include Three Men and a Job, Serpent's Lair, Troublebound, Blood and Concrete, Joe's Rotten World, Heatwave, Star Trek IV, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation, and The Lost Boys to name a few. Golia was a featured artist in the journal Perspectives in New Music and is a frequent guest performer on the Monday Evening Series at the L.A. County Museum, which presents contemporary classical music. Recently he contributed original music to the museum's video production "Jacob Lawrence, an Intimate Portrait". The 1989 issue of the German Annual Jazz Research Book was devoted to his work, and he has also been featured in many other music magazines. Vinny has premiered new works for soprano saxophone, contrabass clarinet, bass saxophone, and bass flute by Tautenhahn, Henry Brandt, Rapson, and Hirschman.
As a composer Golia has received numerous state and national grants in composition and performance for his own works. In 1982 he created the on-going 26 piece Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber group and jazz orchestra. As an educator, Vinny has lectured on music, improvisation, Jazz history, record manufacturing and self-production in a variety of formats, ranging from radio broadcasts to workshops and residencies at various music festivals, high schools, and universities, throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1995 he was invited to present a course in the study of improvisation at the prestigious Art Center in Pasadena California.
Vinny has been a featured performer with Anthony Braxton, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Horace Tapscott, Bertram Turetzky, George Lewis, Barre Phillips, The Rova Saxophone Quartet, Patti Smith, and George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, amongst many others.
