Marco Pignataro
Position
Managing Director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute
Biography
Marco Pignataro is an Italian multitalented saxophone player, composer, educator, and program director based in Boston. Alongside Danilo Pérez, he currently leads the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), the premier world jazz center of musical creativity at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Pignatoro has performed extensively across Europe and the Americas in jazz festivals and international music venues, sharing stages and clinics with artists such as Joe Lovano, Eddie Gomez, Joanne Brakeen, Rufus Reid, John Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Ben Street, Antonio Sanchez, Billy Drummond, Terri Lyne Carrington, Clark Terry, Billy Hart, Ivan Lins, and Jon Faddis, among others.
His debut CD, Sofia's Heart, was produced by jazz legend Eddie Gomez. His 2018 release, Almas Antiguas (Zoho Music), was selected as one of the best albums of 2019 by DownBeat, which gave it a 4.5-star review. Almas Antiguas was featured on CNN en Español and Jazz at Lincoln Center. His song "Letter to My Son" was a finalist in the 2019 International Songwriting Competition. As a sideman, Pignataro appears in the critically acclaimed CD Per Sempre (BFM Jazz) by the Eddie Gomez Quintet as well as on several other albums.
Pignataro's own music is soulful, evocative, and powerful, blending modern jazz with shades of Mediterranean, folk, and Latin influences. His latest projects include the virtual jazz concert Passione-Canto Italiano, featuring John Patitucci, Alan Pasqua, Adam Cruz, and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, two recent releases for Zoho Music are Pignataro’s Dream Alliance's “Awakening,” featuring Kenny Werner, Nadia Washington, and Devon Gates (April 2022), and "Chant for Our Planet," featuring Joe Lovano, Terri Lyne Carrington, John Patitucci, among others (June 2022).
Pignataro was the director and founder of the Jazz and Caribbean Music Department and served as the chair of the Jazz Saxophone Department at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. As a dedicated music educator, he also participated as a board member of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE), served as the president and founder of the IAJE Chapter of Puerto Rico, and worked as faculty in the University of Veracruz International Summer Jazz Seminars. Pignataro's column, "Style & Influence," was regularly featured in the quarterly magazine Jazz Improv. He served as the artistic director for the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival until 2019 and he currently serves as an advisory board member for JazzBoston.
Pignataro is a Vandoren performing artist and endorser for Mauriat saxophones and Applied Microphone Technology.