Saporito, James

Percussionist who attended the Eastman School of Music and was a member of the Eastman Marimba Band before going on to a successful career as a free-lance musician.

On 12^th August 1978, he and Patrick Hollenbeck performed Theodore Antoniu’s “Reel” in the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood as part of the Festival of Contemporary Music.

He appeared in the television special, Robert Klein on Broadway, in 1986.

In 1988, he became the principal percussionist of the New York Pops. Other groups with whom he has worked include the American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra.

He participated in a pair of concerts at Greenwich House Music School in 1992 that featured Paul Bowles’ “Picnic Cantata”, the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’s “Le Quattro Stagioni dalla Cucina Futurismo”, Andre Messager’s “L’amour Masque”, Francis Poulenc’s “The Story of the Barber” and the world premiere of James Sellars’ “Beulah in Chicago”.

On 13^th November 1992, he took part in the New York Festival of Song at Weill Recital Hall. The program included “Can You Love?” by Leonard Bernstein, “Epistolary (N.Y. Review of Books, Box 7929)” by Joelle Wallach, “Is it Dirty?” by Christopher Berg & Frank O’Hara, “Let’s Take a Walk in the City” by Ned Rorem, “Litany” by John Musto, “Penny Candy” and “Stay in My Arms” by Marc Blitzstein, and “The Total Stranger in the Garden” by William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein.

He and pianist Michael Barrett and fellow percussionist James Baker interpreted Bela Bartok’s “Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion” at the Moab Music Festival in 2002.

On 14^th April 2009, he helped accompany Barbara Cook in her cabaret show, “Here’s to Life” at Feinstein’s in Loews Regency. The song list featured “Chicken Today and Feathers Tomorrow” by Johnny Marks, “Give Me the Simple Life” by Rube Bloom & Harry Ruby, “Goodbye, John” by Edward Eager & Alec Wilder, and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Cole Porter.

He performed similar duties for Debby Boone in her cabaret show, “Swing This” in Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College on 25^th March 2012.

His stage credits do not end there, however: On Broadway, he was in the orchestra pit for productions of The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Fosse, The Goodbye Girl, Jekyll & Hyde, Jumpers, Little Women, Sunset Boulevard, The Wedding Singer, and A Year with Frog and Toad.

Recordings on which he appears include: At Home with Friends by Joshua Bell; Better Days with Karen Mason; Combo Platter by Marimolin; A Different Road by Rhonda Stisi; Easy Living by Ann Hampton Callaway; Gershwin by Fazil Say; Handel’s Messiah Rocks by A Joyful Noise; I’m Ready by Lucky Peterson; Kiss on Wood with Maria Bachmann & Jon Klibonoff; Leonard Bernstein’s New York with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; My Way Home by Kathie Lee Gifford; Out of This World by Maureen McGovern; Pentimento with Kenny Ascher & Dick Sarpola; Revisiting the Silver Screen by Albert Regni; Sketches of Coltrane by Byron Olson; and, Way Back to Paradise by Audra McDonald.

He can also be heard on the soundtracks of The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Everyone Says I Love You, Everything is Illuminated, Oscar & Steve, and The Spanish Prisoner.

In the field of education, he has served on the faculty of New York University in Steinhardt and given master clinics at the State University of New York in Purchase.

Sources:

Saporito, James

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