Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Our Summer 2024 Guest Lecture series chronicles the global musical evolution that took place in the late 1960s, beginning with the Summer of Love in 1967, journeying through the psychedelic movement in 1968, and culminating with Woodstock in 1969.
Our journey concludes with “Three Days of Peace and Music”—Woodstock, the legendary music festival. We will look at the performers for each day (and discuss some who didn’t make it), watch some of the iconic scenes, and discuss the curious fact that while the festival is named for the town of Woodstock, NY, it didn’t take place there. While we won’t have “breakfast in bed for 400,000”, we will have an engaging time seeing how a pro-Vietnam dairy farmer, who was according to one of the promoters, “the antithesis of what the Woodstock festival stood for” became forever known as the hero of the festival.
Instructor
Dr. Dan Puccio
Dr. Daniel Puccio is a Phoenix based composer/arranger, multi-instrumentalist and educator. A musician comfortable in multiple genres, he has performed with such notable artists as the Temptations, the Four Tops, Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Jerry Lewis, Bernard Purdie, Jay and the Americans, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and The Doo Wop Project. He is one of the original members of the Bobby Streng Saxomble, and is a prominently featured soloist on the group’s premier recording, “Live At The Firefly”. Most recently, Dr. Puccio was a featured performer at the 2019 Amigos de Jazz festival in Santiago de Cuba. He is the founder of the Positivity Project—a series of mixed media collaborations using music, live video and dance. Additionally, Dr. Puccio has taken part in several shows at Phoenix Theatre, most notably performing on Tenor Banjo for 2017’s production of The Scottsboro Boys.
As an educator, he has served as Faculty Instructor of Saxophone at the Interlochen Arts Camp, and as a clinician for the University of Michigan Jazz Festival, the Highland Jazz Festival and the Crystal City Jazz Festival in Corning, NY. He has also been a featured guest artist and clinician with the University of Richmond’s Cuban music ensemble and was recently invited to give a guest lecture Arizona MusicFest’s series, “Music Alive in Suite A-5” on the history of the banjo.
Dr. Puccio is currently a member of the music faculty at both Mesa and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges, and teaches privately at Desert Ridge Music Academy in Phoenix, AZ. He has previously served as the director of Sound and Recording for the Arizona State University School of Music, instructor of Woodwinds with Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Marching Band, and was the Director of the widely acclaimed ASU Dixie Devils.
He holds degrees in Improvisation, Music Education, and Saxophone Performance from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, the University of Michigan, and Arizona State University.
Dr. Puccio exclusively plays Deering Banjos, Shubb Capos, and Kazoobie Kazoos