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Dima Mondello
Dima Mondello (Born September 27, 1960), is a saxophonist, composer and producer. Being of Italian decent, (his mother from Naples, father from Sicily) and born in England he is Anglo/Italian. He lives in his adopted hometown of Celle/ Germany just outside Hanover. He is known for his saxophone solo on "Sweet Home Chicago" on the album "Route 66 - The Great Originals.

Early Life
Dima Mondello was born in Bedford, England and started playing the saxophone at the age of 15 whilst attending St. Gregory's School in his home town. After finishing school at 16, he spent 5 years as a hairdresser obtaining a masters diploma. In 1981 he decided to end his carrier as a hairdresser to join the British Army as a musician where he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment. In 1986 he attended the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall in London where he mastering the saxophone under the direction of Professor Paul Harvey. It was during his time at Kneller Hall that he also learnt to play the flute and clarinet as well as conducting and composition. After returning to his battalion he was promoted to Lance Corporal. In 1988 he decided to leave the Army to pursue a career as a freelance musician.

Breakthrough and Freelance
It was't until 1994, that he made his breakthrough as guest sax soloist on the R'n'B album "Route 66 - The Great Originals, with the song "Sweet Home Chicago". which was produced by Warner Music and LEE Jeans (EAN. 9548-32631-2), since which has become a collectors album.

In 2000 Mondello formed a trio to feature at the EXOP 2000 in Hanover. This was followed by prestigious events such as The Red Carpet Gala in Berlin where he was the warm up act for Liza Minnelli, and touring Germany. During one of the tours Mondello met the former Ike and Tina Turner bass player, Reggie Worthy. A few months later Worthy invited Mondello to tour with him. Mondello toured with the Worthy Band for two years. After leaving the band he worked as a freelanced musician again performing saxophonists Herb Geller and Lee Konitz, flamingo guitarist Rafael Cortès, Janice Harrington, Chloe Agnew from Celtic Woman, harmonicist Renè Giessen, opera singer Latchezar Pravtchev and guitarist Christof Stein-Schneider, from Fury And The Slaughterhouse.

VDMplus Award
During the mid 2000's Mondello started working as a music producing and composing music for a children's audio book called Ailina. and in 2018 was awarded the Verband Deutscher Musikschaffender (Association For German Music) VDMplus Award for the best CD-Sampler for the album "Sehnsucht' featuring Sabrina Maria, for which Mondello wrote the songs.

Film Music Ensemble
In 2019 Mondello decided to move away from jazz and pop and team up with classical pianist Maike Jensen. Mondello re-arranged film scores for saxophone and piano keeping within a classical style. After one year of touring, they formed the Oscar's Film Music Ensemble, comprising of stings, drums, piano, bass, marimba, percussion and Mondello as front line sax. Although, it turned out turned to be very successful, copyright issues with the Academy of motion pictures, art and science lead to Mondello leaving the ensemble and start his own film music ensemble called Pava Mundi.

GEMA scholarship - Debut Album
In 2023 Dima Mondello was given a GEMA scholarship to produce an album to be called "Smooth Latin" (EAN.4020796491161). For the recording he called upon the pianist Zoltán Konta, basist Frank Itt, drummer Athanasios "Zacky" Tsoukas, percussionist PiTTI Hecht and put together a string section of members from the NDR radio orchestra. All 10 instrumental arrangements were by Mondello. 6 of the 10 instrumentals were composed by Mondello.

Accolades
His artistry as a saxophonist earned him a place in the 2000 edition of the reference encyclopaedia "Who's Who In The World", and in 2018 was awarded the Verband Für Deutscher Musik (Association For German Music) VDMplus CD-Sampler Award for the album "Sehnsucht' for which he wrote the songs for and produced featuring the singer Sabrina Maria.

Opera - Hermann
In January 2023, Mondello met up with librettist Grit Hübel to start composing the opera HERMANN, based on the life of Arminius.