Music Director Lutz Rath has announced the 56th season of the Washington Square Music Festival, taking place June and August on the Main Stage in the center of WashingtonSquarePark.  All three concerts are free.  The Festival is under the auspices of the Washington Square Association, Inc. Seating is first come, first served.

Free and open to all; seating area opens at 7:30pm.

Washington Square, stage at Garilbaldi Plaza, south of Fifth Avenue

Rainspace: NYU’s Frederick Loewe Theatre, 35 West 4^th Street

Soloist:  Robert Bonfiglio, harmonica

Claude Debussy  Reverie for harmonica and orchestra (arr. By Robert Bonfiglio)

Gustav Mahler  from Symphony # 5

Adagietto for strings and harp

Heitor Villa Lobos

Harmonica Concerto

JP Saxe New Works (New York premiere)

Peter von WinterSeptet for winds & Strings

Called “the Paganini of the Harmonica” by The Los Angeles Times, Robert Bonfiglio has performed internationally at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Gewandhaus, Teatro Colón, KennedyCenter, Boston Symphony Hall, and LincolnCenter.  Mr. Bonfiglio has appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning,” “CBS Morning Show”, and Garrison Keillor’s “American Radio Show”.  He performed recent debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the National Symphony at KennedyCenter, and the Louisville Orchestra.  This season includes the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto with the Galicia Symphony under Enrique Diemecke plus a tour with Musica Vitae in Sweden and the Rockford Symphony in the USA, as well as performing it in his debut with the Washington Square Music Festival.

Robert Bonfiglio has appeared as a soloist with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, John Williams, and the Boston Pops on PBS, John Mauceri, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, among others.  At CityCenter he performed Vilem Tausky’s “Concertino” for Harmonica and Chamber Orchestra while Cynthia Gregory and Fernando Bujones danced the pas de deux choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett.

His first RCA recording, with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Orchestra, featuring the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto, was released to critical acclaim; he has performed this Concerto over 350 times with major orchestras worldwide.  Bonfiglio has recorded on the RCA, Arista, CBS, Sina Qua Non, High Harmony, and QVC Labels.  He performed on the Grammy winning recording, “Ragtime”.

J.P. Saxe is an up and coming multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, lyricistand singer who is the grandson of esteemed cellist János Starker.  Recent venues include clubs and concert halls in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto.

Organized by the Washington Square Music Festival. For further information please call: 212-252-3621 or visit www.washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org