Joseph Contino UMASS-Amherst Music Department Clarinet, Sax, and Flute 1950-1984

Joseph Contino (1922-2000) was a distinguished member of the UMASS-Amherst Music Department from 1950 to 1984.

Professor Contino was a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and received his master’s degree in Music from Columbia University.

Professor was the Director of the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band from 1950-1963 and also taught Clarinet, Saxophone, and Flute from 1950-1984.

The Author of this essay, was an instrumental performance major as well as an instrumental music education major at UMASS-Amherst between 1967 and 1972.

As an instrumental music education major, Applied educational courses that revolved around the clarinet, saxophone, and flute were required courses.

The Author of this essay had the good fortune of having Professor Joseph Contino as the

instructor for Applied clarinet, saxophone, and flute.

Professor Contino had a marvelous disposition coupled with a droll sense of humor. Professor Contino always greeted music students by name and always seemed to genuinely interested in hearing about his students favorite musical pursuits. It was clear to all who encountered Professor Contino at UMASS that he loved everything about UMASS-Amherst and attended as many student musicalperformances as he possibly could.

Professor Contino also performed from time to time quite capably with the UMASS-Amherst Music Faculty Wind Quintet at Faculty Recitals.

Professor Contino seemed to have a particular ‘fascination’ with the word ’embouchure‘. For some reason, it really annoyed, just a little bit when someone mispronounced the word ’embouchure’.  Consequently, in order to annoy Professor Contino, the Author of this essay frequently deliberately mispronounced embouchure as ‘AHM-BRA-SURE’!
A typical exchange during many Applied Music Course’s that Professor Contino taught:
Professor Contino: “Bob – please pronounce ’embouchure’ correctly!”
Bob: “Professor Contino, I believe I am pronouncing ‘AHM-BRA-SURE’ correctly. Please correct me again.”

After at least 20 times over multiple classes, Professor Contino would just smile. However, Professor Contino endlessly would try to correct the Author of this essay’s deliberate pronunciation of ‘AHM-BRA-SURE’ to embouchure.

Professor Contino provided excellent and extremely well organized training materials suitable for the beginner students assigned to Professor Contino’s Applied clarinet, saxophone, and flute courses.

The author of this essay alway enjoyed each of these classes and got a lot of them and ultimately was awarded Straight A’s in each of these three courses by Professor Contino.

The main difficulty the Author of this essay had was with the embouchure that Professor Contino prescribed for clarinet in particular.

Professor Contino would have the students practice forming a particularly exacting embouchure formation in front of a mirror. And, the use of this embouchure provided the Author of this essay an endless series of squeaks and squawks that never seemed to go away. However, saxophone went better than clarinet as far as tone production.

The Author of this essay particularly enjoyed the applied flute course that Professor Contino taught. The Author of this essay thought that the flute embouchure, breathing, and tonguing were rather similar to the trumpet.

In fact, around 1970, the Author of this essay purchased a used student model flute at a garage scale and practiced the flute on his own. And, the Author developed enough skill to perform some easier jazz like licks in a rock band he was performing in.

Professor Contino really enjoyed instrumental music in particular and attended most if not all of this Author’s numerous student solo trumpet recital’s as well as brass ensemble performances including the Author’s senior graduation trumpet recital event.

Professor Contino was a fine fellow and the UMASS-Amherst Music Department was fortunate to have retained someone with his skills and dedication for such a long period of time.