Joe Negri, private instructor in jazz guitar, received a 2013 ASCAP Plus award to be distributed in 2014. ASCAP (the American Society of Composers and Performers) licenses the music of a wide variety of artists from chart topping pop stars to contemporary classical composers. The ASCAP Plus Awards are given to artists whose work is judged to be artistically significant by an independent panel of experts without regard to the music’s commercial success.

A legend of Pittburgh’s jazz scene, Negri’s multifaceted career has encompassed extensive work as a jazz guitarist, an actor (as Handyman Negri on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood), and as a composer of choral works such as his Magnificat and jazz mass, Mass of Hope. Negri is a dedicated educator as well, maintaining guitar studios at Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, and here at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Congratulations to Joe Negri on this well-deserved ASCAP Plus Award.