Vincent Bonafede’s musical composition “Albany Suite” to debut in upcoming show
DELMAR – Retired high school music teacher and musician Vincent Bonafede recently composed the “Albany Suite”, a brand new musical piece dedicated to the living, working, and experiencing the sites and sounds of New York’s capital city.
Tuesday, April 2, Bonafede, with the assistance of volunteers from the Albany Area Senior Orchestra, will perform the four-movement work for the first time live at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church at 2 p.m. The concert is free to the public.
This will also mark the orchestra’s first concert appearance at the church. Those who are unable to attend the Delmar concert can watch it perform at the Cohoes Senior Center Tuesday, May 21 at 2 p.m.
Spectators can anticipate listening to the four-piece movements, “Towers On The Plaza”, “Busy State Workers”, “Tulips In Washington Park”, and “Down State Street”, in addition to popular songs including “Happy Trails”, “12th Street Rag”, “Sorry” (Justin Bieber), and “Under The Sea” from The Little Mermaid Disney movie in the family-friendly program.
Bonafede spent four months composing “Albany Suite”. He enjoys writing music and came up with the idea to compose the piece because he was looking for something to do since his last original composition “Troy Suite” ten years ago, and plus, it was the first opportunity for him to debut a new piece since covid.
Happy Scherer, a clarinet player and member of AASO praised Bonafede for his orchestra work and his interactions with the orchestra.
“Vince has a great touch with people, a lot of humor. This isn’t like a middle school orchestra where if you don’t sit up right or if you do something wrong, you’ll get yelled at.” Sherer said. “It’s a lovely group of people and the concerts are fun too.”
Bonafede, a Guilderland High School alum, composed the “light tuneful work” based on his time spent inside his grandfather’s shop, Vottis Pipe Shop, located on 11 South Pearl Street in the heart of Albany.
Mixed within his new compositions, he included famous hymns that listeners can expect to hear. In particular, “For The Beauty”, will be included in the movement, “Busy State Workers”.
“Since we play in a lot of churches, people will recognize it when we go to Bethlehem Lutheran. If there’s people in the church there, they’ll know that hymn because they sing it on Sunday morning. It gives me a basis of where to start from so I use the tune that somebody else wrote, but then do my own composition around it.” Bonafede explains. “It’s not just the arrangement of the tune, it’s totally composed.”
Bonafide will debut his composition to the public, and in particular, to children, individuals with disabilities, seniors, and troubled youth who have never heard an orchestra in their life. He is excited to hear it played live, he said.
Although he does not have any recordings of his compositions released as of yet, the composer has other works that are starting to percolate for next year.
Bonafede, who began taking piano lessons in second grade, said the instrument became the natural choice instrument for him to perform. He graduated from SUNY Fredonia and SUNY Potsdam and taught music both for Schenectady and Hoosic Valley CSD for 33 .
years until he retired from teaching.
He was the previous church organist and choir director at Lynnwood Reformed Church in Guilderland for 20 years and currently serves as the organist and choir director at Blooming Grove Reformed Church in Defreestville.
Bonafede became a member of AASO because his wife, a cello player, wanted to find a place to play the cello. Once he retired from teaching, she found the Senior Orchestra and he went to several rehearsals and played the keyboard. When the organization’s conductor retired, he took over and has served as its conductor for 14 years.
What Bonafede finds to be an important factor of the not-for-profit music organization is the realization that retired musicians need a place to be creative. The group provides seniors an opportunity to perform in an orchestra at nursing homes, senior centers, disability service centers, and special education schools.
“The retired people need some place to go. These people have been playing their instruments their whole life, so why stop now?” Bonafede said. “A lot of musicians had taken time off between high school and now, but it’s great to be back into it and play.”
Retired musicians who are interested in becoming a member of AASO and learn about its upcoming performances and rehearsals can go online at www.albanyareaseniororchestra.org or contact the organization’s president Dorothy “Dottie” Johnson at [email protected].
