James Falzone

by Michael G. NastosChicago based clarinetist James Falzone is in the vanguard of modern players who use the wooden horn as their main instrument. Born September 1, 1971, his education began in earnest with his uncle, James DiPasquale, a tenor saxophonist and film composer. He introduced Falzone to fellow Chicagoan and saxophonist Rich Corpolongo, who became his first formal teacher, and introduced Falzone to the power of jazz improvisation. Further education took place with undergraduate studies at Northern Illinois University with clarinet instructor Melvin Warner who allowed classical and jazz studies to co-exist. After several years playing in Chicago, traveling and then getting married, Falzone headed for the New England Conservatory in Boston, earning a masters degree, was part of the Third Stream/Contemporary Improvisation program and was a student of Ran Blake and Hankus Netsky. Back in Chicago as a performer, he formed Allos Musica, a chamber jazz ensemble. Their projects have included notable guests as Steve Lacy, Richard Stoltzman, Jorrit Dijkstra, Theodore Bikel, Joe Maneri, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Ran Blake. Falzone is also a founding member of the French music ensemble Le Bon Vent, featured at the Maison de la Culture Festival in Montreal which broadcast the ensemble's live performance on Canadian Public Radio - one of only a handful of ensembles to do so. He has been a frequent lecturer on music at L'Abri Fellowship both in the U.S. and Europe and has presented master classes and workshops at Notre Dame University, Wheaton College Conservatory, Marquette University, Northern Illinois University and was recently a visiting scholar at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island where he assisted the Navy's Strategic Studies Group in thinking through how musical improvisation could shed light in the conflict with terrorism. Falzone is on the faculty at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois where he teaches courses in theory, composition, and world music, and is music director for Grace Church in Chicago, writing and performing liturgical creative improvised and composed music played for a relatively congregation every Sunday. In regards his compositions, Falzone's music has been performed by the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, the South Bend (Indiana) Orchestra, and the Human Connection New Music Ensemble. Projects he has developed or taken part in have been awarded grants from the Chicago Cultural Center, the Hillary Swing Fund for Creativity, Consulate General of the Netherlands, Rotary Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Vermont Arts Council.