Paul Fonfara
Clarinet, Saxophone, Guitar
Clarinet, Saxophone, Guitar
Paul Fonfara is a musician, composer, teacher and all-around nice guy. He has been teaching clarinet, saxophone and guitar for over 20 years now, and still finds it exciting, engaging, and new every time. While he covers the basics and making sure that every gets a solid foundation of technique, he also focuses on ear training and understanding the logic of music. That way, students become musicians, not just instrumentalists and can take these ideas to whatever musical situation they find themselves in down the road.
Paul has toured numerous times throughout the US, Europe and Canada as both as a member of various bands and as a soloist in just about any context one could think of. He has performed live on NPR, the BBC, MPR, Central Park in NYC, The Guthrie, Square Lake Festivals, big European festivals, and in front of 2 people in bars. While living in Denver, Paul was a member of DeVotchKa, Woven Hand/16 Horsepower, and The Denver Gentlemen. Since moving to Minneapolis, Paul has been very busy playing with the Spaghetti Western String Company, The Brass Messengers, Bookhouse Trio, King Baron. and work on silent movie scores with Dreamland Faces and the Poor Nobodys. Paul often tours internationally with Jim White and as an opener to Cloud Cult, Wilco and Lucinda Williams. All the while, as a songwriter, Paul fronted his own band Painted Saints and recorded four albums. He also gigs regularly as a working jazz player around the Twin Cities.
As a composer, Paul has received 2 Artist Initiative and 2 Creative Support grants from the MN State Arts Board and been commissioned by the Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin and the Mojave Project in California. His last record was given a 4-star review in Downbeat magazine, the pre-eminate source for jazz. Having more recently turned to film, Paul has co-scored The Deep End (Hulu), My Daughter's Killer (Netflix) and writes production music for NBC Universal including re-release of Northern Exposure. One of his pieces was used in Modern Love (Amazon) and Paul's playing can be heard in El Camino - A Breaking Bad Movie and Glass by M Night Shyamalan. Paul is also a fan of long-winded bios with many abbreviations.
Paul has toured numerous times throughout the US, Europe and Canada as both as a member of various bands and as a soloist in just about any context one could think of. He has performed live on NPR, the BBC, MPR, Central Park in NYC, The Guthrie, Square Lake Festivals, big European festivals, and in front of 2 people in bars. While living in Denver, Paul was a member of DeVotchKa, Woven Hand/16 Horsepower, and The Denver Gentlemen. Since moving to Minneapolis, Paul has been very busy playing with the Spaghetti Western String Company, The Brass Messengers, Bookhouse Trio, King Baron. and work on silent movie scores with Dreamland Faces and the Poor Nobodys. Paul often tours internationally with Jim White and as an opener to Cloud Cult, Wilco and Lucinda Williams. All the while, as a songwriter, Paul fronted his own band Painted Saints and recorded four albums. He also gigs regularly as a working jazz player around the Twin Cities.
As a composer, Paul has received 2 Artist Initiative and 2 Creative Support grants from the MN State Arts Board and been commissioned by the Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin and the Mojave Project in California. His last record was given a 4-star review in Downbeat magazine, the pre-eminate source for jazz. Having more recently turned to film, Paul has co-scored The Deep End (Hulu), My Daughter's Killer (Netflix) and writes production music for NBC Universal including re-release of Northern Exposure. One of his pieces was used in Modern Love (Amazon) and Paul's playing can be heard in El Camino - A Breaking Bad Movie and Glass by M Night Shyamalan. Paul is also a fan of long-winded bios with many abbreviations.