Bencriscutto, Frank

Dr. Frank Peter Anthony Bencriscutto was known as a conductor, educator, and composer. He was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Bencriscutto joined the University of Minnesota faculty as Director of Bands and Professor of Music after receiving his Doctorate of Musical Arts. He was elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Association in 1966. As part of a cultural exchange program, the University of Minnesota band toured the USSR for seven weeks in 1969, with a final performance at the White House. Dr. Bencriscutto was an avid jazz musician, performing on saxophone and clarinet, and is credited with introducing jazz into the music curriculum at the University of Minnesota. He retired as Director of Bands in 1993 and soon joined the faculty at the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo, Japan as a visiting professor and conductor of the wind ensemble until 1996. Dr. Bencriscutto was posthumously awarded the 1997 Medal of Honor by the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic.