Dr. Stephen Gorgone

Dr. Stephen Gorgone is a professional violist, violinist, piano accompanist, music teacher, NYSSMA Adjudicator, and Feldenkrais Practitioner based on Long Island. As a violist, he has played in the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra. He was a winner of the SUNY Orange Concerto Competition and a Finalist in the Ithaca College Concerto Competition. A founding member of the Whitman String Quartet, he has participated in the Emerson String Quartet Institute and the Philip Setzer String Quartet Intensive while performing throughout Long Island as part of North Shore Pro Musica and the Three Village Chamber Players. As a freelance musician, he has also played violin and viola with Viva Strings NY, Consonance Music Ensembles, West Islip String Ensemble, Ithaca Free Concerts, the Dorian String Quartet, and more. In addition to accompanying student recitals, he is a Piano Accompanist at the Middle Country Central School District (MCCSD). Throughout his career, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Kodak Hall, Corning Museum of Glass, and other venues. 

He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Viola Performance from Stony Brook University and has Masters and Bachelors degrees in Viola Performance (summa cum laude), as well as a Bachelors in Mathematics (summa cum laude and the Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for the highest GPA) and Suzuki Violin training from Ithaca College. He was also a participant in the Karen Tuttle Coordination Conference in New York City and a Teacher Assistant, Orchestra Librarian, and Counselor at the New York Summer Music Festival in Oneonta, NY.

Primary viola teachers include Nicholas Cords, Lawrence Dutton, Matthew Lipman, David Quiggle, Carrie Reuning-Hummel, Cassandra Sulbarán, Debra Moree, Noriko Herndon, and Emily Faxon Gallo. Influential chamber music coaches include the Emerson String Quartet and David Finckel, Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, Charis Dimaras, and Nicholas DiEugenio. Conductors include Jens Bachmann, Kelly Corcoran, James Fellenbaum, Andrew Grams, Alan Kay, Eduardo Leandro, Timothy Long, Lanfranco Marcelletti, Jeffrey Meyer, Jeffrey Milarsky, Larry Rachleff, Steven Reineke, Charles Schneider, and Toshiyuki Shimada. Piano teachers include Ayako Tsuruta, Peter Miyamoto, Ronald Johnson, and Celia Herman. He has also participated in masterclasses with Susan DuBois, Jeffrey Irvine, Lynne Ramsey, Karen Ritscher, John Vaida, Miranda Sielaff, Surai Balbeisi, Emily Yaffe, Guillaume Pirard, Calvin Wiersma, Kyle Armbrust, Duance Rosengard, Brett Deubner, Peter Wiley, Steven Tenenbom, Ida Kavafian, and ensembles including the Formosa Quartet, Blakemore Trio, Catalyst Quartet, and New Zealand Quartet.

In addition to maintaining a private studio of violin, viola, cello, and piano students, he is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Hofstra University where he teaches violin lessons, viola lessons, and coaches piano/string chamber music. He has also taught undergraduate chamber music and technique lessons, music theory, and music education classes both at Stony Brook University and at Ithaca College. Stephen Gorgone is also a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and teaches the only weekly Awareness Through Movement classes based in Suffolk County while offering private Functional Integration lessons throughout Long Island. He also teaches Feldenkrais for Musician workshops through Stony Brook University and New York State Council of Administrators of Music Education (NYSCAME).

Professional memberships include the Feldenkrais Guild of North America, National Association for Music Education, New York State School Music Association, Suffolk County Music Educators Association, Suzuki Association of the Americas, Pi Kappa Lambda (music honor society), Phi Kappa Phi (honor society), Pi Mu Epsilon (mathematics honor society), and Oracle Honor Society.