Frank Abbinanti
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Frank Abbinanti (b. 1949, Chicago, Illinois). American composer of primarily chamber, vocal and piano works that have been performed in Europe and North America; he is also active as a pianist and trombonist.
Mr. Abbinanti studied trombone privately with Frank Crisafulli on a scholarship from 1964-68, but studied piano at the American Conservatory of Music. He then studied composition and performance art with Richard Teitelbaum and piano with Frederic Rzewski at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he earned his BA and served as an assistant to both. He finished his studies in composition with Ralph Shapey at the University of Chicago, but later studied privately with Ben Johnston in Chicago in 1984-85.
As a soloist, he has performed euphonium, piano, trombone, and tuba works by Luciano Berio, Michael Denhoff, Franco Donatoni, Ivan Fedele, Allain Gaussin, Hans-Joachim Hespos, Luigi Nono, Folke Rabe, Giacinto Scelsi, Annette Schlünz, Gerhard Stäbler, and Iannis Xenakis, among others. He now plays euphonium with the Banda Napoletana in Chicago.
He is also active in other positions. At the University of Illinois, he and his wife Ruth, a flautist, founded the Modern Music Workshop in 1972. He has organized a memorial concert to Cornelius Cardew and has supervised the production of events for numerous soloists. He served as music advisor to the Italian Cultural Consulate in the early 1990s and as assistant conductor to the Citywide Orchestra[[1]] in Chicago from 1991-95. In addition, he hosted the NEMO festival in Chicago in 1997, with Pierre Boulez as advisor and performances by Ensemble Modern, and is a board member of the Echo Performing Arts Orchestra[[2]], a nonprofit organization in California. He has written several articles, as well as the book Dialogues, creating music (2005, Frog Peak Music)[3].
He taught as a seminar lecturer at the University of Chicago from 1998-2004. He has also lectured throughout the USA, as well as in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Spain.
