Concert honoring Tony Leonardi to be held at YSU

The Tony Leonardi Legacy Alumni Reunion Tribute Concert will be held 7 p.m., Saturday, July 18, at Youngstown State University’s Ford Theater in Bliss Hall. Paula Leonardi Ducato organized the concert, a follow-up to the 2023 sell-out show she produced, to pay tribute to her father, the late Tony Leonardi, former director of YSU’s jazz studies program, and provide him with the congratulatory send-off retirement concert he never had before his untimely passing in 2001. 

The concert features the talents of more than 40 YSU alumni musicians from across the country, who studied with Leonardi and were members of his nationally acclaimed, award-winning jazz program at YSU.

Among the many outstanding musicians participating in the July concert are Grammy award-winning, internationally acclaimed trumpeter, composer and chair of the jazz studies department of Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Warren, Ohio native, Sean Jones; Grammy-nominated pianist, composer and assistant professor of Jazz Piano and African American Studies at the University of Georgia's Hugh Hodgson School of Music, Youngstown native, James Weidman; and award-winning composer, arranger, conductor, bandleader, author and professor at Eastman School of Music in New York City, Struthers, Ohio native, Dave Rivello.

Leonardi’s jazz program at YSU’s Dana School of Music began as an idea among a group of musicians who jammed together under his direction. The concept evolved into an accredited collegiate program that was ranked as one of the top in the country. The group of musicians who will perform at the concert in July represents 32 years of YSU jazz under one roof and is a celebration of the Leonardi era at YSU.

As director of the jazz studies program, Leonardi brought a host of internationally renowned jazz musicians to YSU to work and perform with his students including Chuck Mangione, Kenny Burrell, Stan Kenton, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Pepper Adams, Jiggs Whigham, James Moody, Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Marvin Stamm, Bob Mintzer, Jamey Aebersold, Eddie Daniels, Joanne Brackeen, Sal Nistico and many others. Many of Leonardi’s students who will perform at the concert have gone on to enjoy successful careers as performers, composers, arrangers, band leaders and teachers.

Before embarking on his career at YSU, Leonardi played with legendary performers including Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Buddy Rich and Stan Kenton. He toured the U.S. and Europe with various jazz groups, including his own quintet, The Jazz Explorers, and as a member of the Woody Herman Orchestra. He appears on four albums with Woody Herman.

Tickets are available at ysu.tix.com. For more information about Leonardi and his musical achievements, please visit YouTube and Facebook.

About Tony Leonardi

Tony Leonardi was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. As a young man, he served in the military, then attended Ithaca College in New York before launching his music career. Over the years, he played with legendary performers including Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Buddy Rich, and Stan Kenton. Leonardi toured the United States and Europe with various jazz groups, including his own quintet, The Jazz Explorers, and as a member of the Woody Herman Orchestra. He appears on four albums with Woody Herman.

Leonardi enrolled as a student at Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University in 1968. Shortly thereafter, he and a group of students began to organize jam sessions and, at some of the students’ urging, he began the process of starting what would eventually become a nationally acclaimed and formally accredited jazz program at YSU.

Leonardi received a Bachelor of Music from YSU in 1971, graduating summa cum laude. In 1976, at the Wichita Jazz Festival, the jazz ensemble established itself as a nationally acclaimed, award-winning jazz ensemble that put YSU on the map, sweeping awards and top ratings in every category. Leonardi received his master’s degree in music in 1979 and that same year was hired as full-time faculty at YSU.

As the director of the jazz studies program, Leonardi brought a host of internationally renowned jazz musicians to YSU to work and perform with his students including Chuck Mangione, Kenny Burrell, Stan Kenton, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Pepper Adams, Jiggs Whigham, James Moody, Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Marvin Stamm, Bob Mintzer, Jamey Aebersold, Eddie Daniels, Joanne Brackeen, Sal Nistico, and many others. Many of Leonardi’s students have gone on to enjoy successful careers as performers, composers, arrangers, band leaders and teachers.

Among the awards received during his time at YSU, Leonardi received an Outstanding Service to Jazz Education award at the 1977 National Association of Jazz Educators convention and was voted Jazz Educator of the Year in 1986. He received two Distinguished Professor awards, in 1990 and 2001. In 2008, he posthumously received the prestigious Heritage award.

From the early 1980s through the late 1990s, Leonardi directed, recorded, and released nine albums with the YSU Jazz Ensembles. The 1991 album, "Things to Come," earned national acclaim and received an Outstanding Performance DownBeat Student Music Award from DownBeat American music magazine. Recorded for SPI Records, the album highlighted the exceptional quality of the Dana School of Music’s jazz curriculum and featured an accomplished roster of YSU student musicians.

Leonardi’s last year before retirement ended early when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Upon his passing in July 2001, interim director of Dana School of Music, Ted Perkins, said, “The Dana School of Music has lost a master teacher and outstanding musician with the passing of Tony Leonardi. His successes at Dana are legendary and his students are very much devoted to him. Under his guidance, the Dana jazz program developed a national reputation and a tradition of excellence.”

In an article published by The Youngstown Vindicator shortly before Leonardi’s passing, he was quoted as saying, “A large part of my success is due to the high quality of students that I have been blessed with; quality not only in terms of talent but quality in terms of who they are."