THE BIG BROADCAST! Streams From Mount Holyoke March 11. 

The Jazz Ensembles of Mount Holyoke College present the 17th edition of The Big Broadcast! on Friday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m.

The Big Broadcast is a 75-minute tribute to the 1940's radio show, created by and directed by Mark Gionfriddo, featuring the Mount Holyoke College Big Band, Vocal Jazz, and Chamber Jazz Ensembles performing well-known tunes from the swing era and the American songbook. Former 22News anchor Brenda Garton-Sjoberg, and currently full-time faculty in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts at Western New England University, makes her debut as emcee "Julie Graham."

Mount Holyoke College music faculty member Mark Gionfriddo originally created The Big Broadcast! for a small cabaret group he directed and incorporated into the concert season at Mount Holyoke College. It has since been designated as a Signature Event at the college.

The Big Broadcast, according to Gionfriddo, is reconfigured again this year for challenging times and will be streamed on Zoom. "We've got a series of songs from the golden age of radio, along with some radio commercials of the day. Music featured at this year's event includes Gershwin's "S'Wonderful"; "I've Heard That Song Before," made famous by Harry James & Helen Forrest; Etta James' "At Last"; and the Andrews Sisters hit, "Bounce Me Brother With A Solid Four."

Mark Gionfriddo, creator and director (and "Matt Morgan") of The Big Broadcast! is well-known to area concertgoers as a piano soloist, coach/accompanist, composer/arranger, conductor and music director. A versatile musician, Mark's knowledge of diverse repertoire includes classical, jazz, rock, and popular music. Mark has been based at Mount Holyoke College since 1986 where he is Coordinator of Piano Studies for the Department of Music as well as Director and Founder of the Jazz Ensembles. In addition, Mark is Catholic Music Director and conducts the Abbey Chapel Singers for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.

In 2000, Mark accompanied Garrison Keillor on the Chapin Auditorium stage in a New England Public Radio benefit show, and he conducted the MHC Big Band in 2006 during two episodes of the popular NPR public radio quiz show "Says You!" During the summer, Mark was resident music director for Berkshire Theatre Group for their productions of Peter Pan, Seussical the Musical, Mary Poppins, Beauty and The Beast, A Christmas Carol, The Music Man, Tarzan, Shrek the Musical, and the Neil Ellenoff Musical Mondays series. Mark's production of A Class Act also appeared off-Broadway at the Robert Moss Theatre.

A few years ago, Mark rejoined the internationally renowned Young@Heart Chorus as pianist and arranger, a post he originally held from 1992-1998. He is also co-author of Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night, a book about Holyoke's Hart-Lester H. Allen and the Ponzi scandal, on the Epigraph imprint.

Brenda Garton-Sjoberg ("Julie Graham") is a full-time faculty member in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts at Western New England University. She co-founded the WNE Student Media Festival and directs the university's Study Abroad Program in Sorrento, Italy, where she teaches every summer.

Brenda is a former evening television news anchor who worked at 22News, WWLP-TV, for more than 13 years and also reported and anchored at three other TV stations in the Northeast and Midwest. She is a native of Columbus, Indiana, and a graduate of Ball State University, receiving a bachelor's degree in telecommunications, and Quinnipiac University, receiving a master's degree in journalism. Brenda and her husband, John Sjoberg live in Longmeadow and have two adult sons, Stefan and Bo, both graduates of the WNE School of Law.

Brenda is looking forward to playing the role of "Julie Graham" and going back to the 1940s and the Golden Age of Radio. She imagines that if she were alive then, that she would have been a radio broadcaster.

Performance sponsors confirmed to date of The Big Broadcast! are: Mount Holyoke College, Prime Magazine, and WWLP-22News & The CW Springfield.

The concert will be recorded live and streamed on the Mount Holyoke Zoom platform on Friday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at mhcjazz.ticketleap.com. Additional information is available on the Jazz Ensembles of Mount Holyoke College Facebook page and also at their web page: www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/music/big-broadcast.

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