Music Center

Claudia Eliaza has training in providing music therapy for individuals and groups in a wide range of settings and ages, including: Adult Day Treatment, Children with Special Needs, Early Intervention, Elders with Dementia, Children with Autism, Children/Youth with life threatening illness and Typical Students in Enrichment Programs. She has worked in residential settings, specialized social service centers, daycare and afterschool programs. Claudia graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music with a Bachelors Degree in Music Therapy. Having been around music all of her life, Claudia enjoys creating music with those she is fortunate to work with. She most recently returned from her second trip to Kenya Africa, where she worked with youth and young adults bringing the concepts of inner peace, empowerment and awareness through music, photography and mediation. Claudia is also an established jazz vocalist and performs regularly in Boston and Internationally. She has performed and worked with some of the jazz world’s biggest stars including Nancy King, Barbara Morrison, Frank Foster, and Roy Haynes. With outstanding success, Claudia has toured within the US, Dominican Republic, Switzerland, England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and continues to tour throughout Russia. Claudia’s style draws from the deep legacy of Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Funk, Haitian, Latin and African rhythms. Being influenced by Shirley Horne, Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker, and Nina Simone, Claudia continues to keep the traditions if these jazz legends alive.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

“Miss Jenn” has studied various forms of dance including ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern, tap, Latin and theatre for over 25 years, receiving her primary instruction from Genevieve Severens. She is Assistant Director of the School Outreach & SummerARTS programs at Community Music Center of Boston and teaches dance and drama to more than 300 children each week in the Boston Public Schools in addition to studio teaching at North Reading School of Ballet & Wilmington Dance Academy. Jennifer is certified in group exercise by AFAA and is also a licensed Zumba instructor.  Her graduate work at Lesley University in Elementary Education specialized in creative arts in learning.  Her passions for both the performing arts and fitness inform her teaching each and every day.

Most recently, Jennifer performed with the Lexington Women’s Dance Ensemble.  She worked for several years with the Albany Berkshire Ballet as rehearsal mistress for “The Nutcracker” and often stage manages productions for local dance groups.  She is delighted to share the joy of dance with her students and strives to make her classes creative, safe spaces for dancers of all ages and abilities to explore and enjoy movement.

Trisha earned her BFA in Performance from Hofstra University and a MA in Theater Education from Emerson College. She first joined the Music Center in the summer of 2001 as the drama teacher for Summer Arts and continued in this role until January 2016 when she took on the role of Co-Director of the program.  In addition to her summer work, she has been teaching drama in schools for 15 years in the Boston area.  She has taught Kindergartners and 1st graders at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School through CMCB’s School Outreach Program and has taught drama to 6th through 9th graders at The Pike School in Andover since 2002.   She specializes in playmaking, Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed Techniques and Applied Drama.  She recently started a Theater and Social Justice group at The Pike School that creates short dramatic pieces and tour schools around the area.

Miguel holds a B.M. in Music Business From the University of Massachusetts Lowell and enjoys a multi faceted career as performer, teacher and administrator.
He started studying classical piano at a young age and, through his studies, has branched out to Jazz and contemporary music while also dabbling as a conductor/music director. Miguel looks forward to honing his keyboard skills and engage with the community while working at the CMCB.

Javier Rosario was born in the Dominican Republic on October 10, 1986. His fascination for sounds took him on a wonderful journey since an early age, starting his first serious studies on violin at the age of 10, switching to guitar by the age of 16. Two years later, he was awarded the first Michel Camilo Scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2009.  Since his 2006 arrival in Boston, he has performed with many artists including Joe Lovano, Phil Grenadier, Vardan Ovsepian, Jeff Galindo, John Lockwood, Matt Savage, Fernando Michelin, Fernando Huergo, Pablo Bencid, Brooke Sofferman, Bret Willmott, Eugene Friesen, Leo Genovese, Bob Weiner, Dan Meron, Winston Maccow, Nikolas Anadolis, Berklee All-Stars, Fenway Back Bay Brass Orchestra, among others. He also studied under master guitar instructors Mick Goodrick, Tim Miller, Bret Willmott, Joe Morris, and David Patterson, as well as improvisation with renowned educator Hal Crook, and Grammy award winning pianist, composer and bandleader Michel Camilo.  In the Spring 2010, Javier was awarded with the Presidential Scholarship, Ambassador Assistantship and the Experiential Education Assistantship at the Longy School of Music of Bard College earning a masters degree with focus on performance, composition and teaching in the Spring 2012. Javier is recognized as a leader, not a follower with a wonderful imagination and exceptional guitar playing. His life and music do not compromise. An impressive, groundbreaking and very intense new talent in the Jazz world.

-“I believe Javier has a great talent and potential to become one of the key players in the Jazz world.” — MICHEL CAMILO

-“He’s sure to be known as part of the future generation by his command of voicings and expression as a serious musician.” — MICK GOODRICK

-“Javier continues to grow and become himself a wonderful musician who’s tireless in his pursuit for excellence.” — JOE LOVANO

-“Javier Rosario is a creative and hard-working musician, constantly charting new musical territory through his dark and intense playing style.”-MATT SAVAGE

-“Javier is in that new generation of extraordinarily talented guitar players, and I’m confident we’ll be hearing more and more of him in the future.” –BRET WILLMOTT

A multi-instrumentalist and singer, Ms. Sollogub performs on and teaches Appalachian dulcimer, recorders, tinwhistle and guitar. She has studied conducting at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell and also with conductor Joshua Jacobson and has completed two levels of Dalcroze Eurythmics at Longy School of Music. Ms. Sollogub has published two books: “Shiron L’Shalom,” a source book of Jewish music for peace education, and “A Dulcimer Portfolio,” original and traditional tunes for the advancing mountain dulcimer player. She has led classes in general music, recorder and chorus at five Boston Public Schools.

In addition to performances across the United States and Europe, Mr. Yenger taught at Louisiana State University and a Magnet High School for the Performing and Academic Arts. Frequently requested as an adjudicator and lecturer on music and the humanities, he has served as a faculty member for summer music festivals including the prestigious music camp in Haiti, and is the founder of Chamber Music at Corrynmore House, a summer music festival on the island of Achill in Ireland. In addition to piano performances, he is a specialist in vocal and chamber music coaching, and is establishing himself as a composer.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Dr. Amy Sue Dombach holds degrees in flute performance from Oberlin  Conservatory (B.M.) and Boston University College of Fine Arts  (M.M. and D.M.A), where she studied under the guidance of Michel  Debost, Kathleen Chastain, Leone Buyse, Doriot Dwyer, Linda Toote,  and Marya Martin. As a member of Phi Kappa Lambda and a Dean’s  Scholar, her doctoral research focused upon the development of the flute concerto in 20th-century America. She has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral player, teacher, and clinician in  Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maine, Texas, and Italy. She joined the CMCB faculty in 2008.

Anne Lemos Edgerton is a trained musician and dancer. She holds a MALS  in Composition from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and a Dalcroze Degree and Certificate from the Longy School of Music. She has been teaching dance for over 25 years and Dalcroze Eurhythmics for 15 years. In addition she is a choreographer who has created multiple dance pieces for the past 25 years while choreographer-in-residence for the Moving West Repertory Dance Theatre based in Framingham.

Joe Hartigan is a percussionist living in the Boston area, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with dual degrees in Music Education and Music Performance. Joe started at CMCB as a student in middle school pursuing his love of drums and percussion. He made the switch to faculty when he joined the SummerMUSIC program as the rhythm instructor which he has done for the past 6 years. Joe has been a member of the CMCB school outreach team since the fall of 2014 and specializes in percussion, bucket drumming and general music. Joe is also involved at CMCB teaching drumming in the early childhood program, teaching private percussion lessons and leading ensembles. He is also an active performer, playing throughout Massachusetts and the New England area in orchestras, marching bands, jazz combos and various other popular music groups. He maintains a private studio practice and continues to spread his love and knowledge of music to as many students as possible.

Liza received her undergraduate degree in music composition and her graduate degree in ethnomusicology. She worked as an accompanist and composer in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Boston in 1998. In Boston, Liza trained with Music Together and has been working professionally with children for the past 15 years. Liza also teaches piano privately at her home studio in Somerville where she lives with her husband and daughter. In 2009, she created Wild Tales, a children’s theater program, which she continues to direct. Visit her website at lizakitchell.com

Nicole Parks, born in Minnesota, moved to Boston in September of 2010 to attend The Boston Conservatory where she is currently working toward a Master’s Degree under the tutelage of Sharan Leventhal. She began playing violin at the age of 11 in the public school system in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Until her move to Boston, she stayed active in the school systems. She has acted as President and Associate Concertmaster of the St Olaf Orchestra. Nicole is an avid orchestral and chamber musician as well as conductor. In Minneapolis, she was part of numerous local orchestras including the Metropolitan Symphony, Mankato Symphony, The Northern Symphony Orchestra and acted as Concertmaster and soloist with the Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra and the Anoka Community Theater’s Pit Orchestra. She was co-founder and violinist in the Urthema String Quartet, a group dedicated to performing classical music alongside other genres.  She founded and music directed The Lirica Chamber Ensemble, a group of musicians under 30 who shared a passion for making high quality music without the stereotypes of professional organizations. She has a propensity to take risks with musical ventures which has given her many opportunities for performance and outreach that have given her a high level of diversity. She is currently a freelance violinist in the Boston area and faculty member at CMCB.

Javier Rosario was born in the Dominican Republic on October 10, 1986. His fascination for sounds took him on a wonderful journey since an early age, starting his first serious studies on violin at the age of 10, switching to guitar by the age of 16. Two years later, he was awarded the first Michel Camilo Scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2009.  Since his 2006 arrival in Boston, he has performed with many artists including Joe Lovano, Phil Grenadier, Vardan Ovsepian, Jeff Galindo, John Lockwood, Matt Savage, Fernando Michelin, Fernando Huergo, Pablo Bencid, Brooke Sofferman, Bret Willmott, Eugene Friesen, Leo Genovese, Bob Weiner, Dan Meron, Winston Maccow, Nikolas Anadolis, Berklee All-Stars, Fenway Back Bay Brass Orchestra, among others. He also studied under master guitar instructors Mick Goodrick, Tim Miller, Bret Willmott, Joe Morris, and David Patterson, as well as improvisation with renowned educator Hal Crook, and Grammy award winning pianist, composer and bandleader Michel Camilo.  In the Spring 2010, Javier was awarded with the Presidential Scholarship, Ambassador Assistantship and the Experiential Education Assistantship at the Longy School of Music of Bard College earning a masters degree with focus on performance, composition and teaching in the Spring 2012. Javier is recognized as a leader, not a follower with a wonderful imagination and exceptional guitar playing. His life and music do not compromise. An impressive, groundbreaking and very intense new talent in the Jazz world.

-“I believe Javier has a great talent and potential to become one of the key players in the Jazz world.” — MICHEL CAMILO

-“He’s sure to be known as part of the future generation by his command of voicings and expression as a serious musician.” — MICK GOODRICK

-“Javier continues to grow and become himself a wonderful musician who’s tireless in his pursuit for excellence.” — JOE LOVANO

-“Javier Rosario is a creative and hard-working musician, constantly charting new musical territory through his dark and intense playing style.”-MATT SAVAGE

-“Javier is in that new generation of extraordinarily talented guitar players, and I’m confident we’ll be hearing more and more of him in the future.” –BRET WILLMOTT

María Doreste Velázquez was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, and studied classical piano and Musicology at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. Simultaneously Maria studied two years of Composition and she graduated from her Master’s in Music Education at the Boston Conservatory last winter.

Maria Doreste has taught in private institutions, developing curriculum for the youngest grades, and supervising music programs as part of the Musica para Todos company instructors’ team (Spain). She has also worked for the Brookline Public Schools and in the Boston Publics Schools as part of the Outreach Program of the Community Music Center of Boston, developing lessons that reinforce multicultural aspects of our society.

Recipient of the Promising Music Educator Award 2014 by the MMEA (Massachusetts Music Educators Association), Maria is convinced that we should be able to teach music to each student, facilitating deep musical opportunities as well as building a trustful environment where they grow as performers and human beings. She believes music has the power to transform individuals, to help them express themselves and to find who they are.

Currently, Maria is a piano instructor in the Autism Spectrum department at Boston Conservatory, a General Music and Early Childhood Music instructor for the Community Music Center of Boston & The Children Music Center of Jamaica Plain, and a piano instructor with the Baro-Doreste piano studio.

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In addition to a busy freelance career in settings ranging from jazz and blues to electronic and orchestral music, Mr. Gabriel leads his own ensembles performing original music throughout New England. His debut recording, Blueprints, was released by Creative Nation Music Productions (www.cnmpro.com) in February 2005. He is a former student of Donald Palma and Charlie Banacos. He is on the faculty of UMass-Lowell.

Active performer and composer in Jazz, Blues and Funk genres. In addition to playing and recording two CD’s with his own trio, Mr. Giordano also performs with the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra, Maria DeMaio and The Fellas, and others. Private lessons focus on playing fundamentals, transcriptions and working with the students individual strengths and goals. Mr. Giordano is currently a faculty member at The All Newton Music School, and has previously taught at the Ted Herbert Music School in Manchester, NH.

www.mikegiordano.net

A native of Mexico, Santiago Diaz began playing guitar at the age of 13 at the National School of Music in Mexico City and made his first public recital two years later at the Sala Huehuecóyotl. Acclaimed for his lyrical and passionate performances, Mr. Diaz is one of the leading virtuoso guitarists of his generation and is an active concert guitarist in both Mexico and the United States. The Boston Globe wrote “He’s a really spectacular player. The combination of his technique and his passionate performance is really not to be missed”…”A player with flair, lyricism, and technical finesse”. According to the guitar figure Joaquín Clerch “Santiago is a young virtuoso who possesses a secure technique, a beautiful sound and an imaginative and sincere musicality”. Moreover, legendary guitarist Eliot Fisk said “He is an extraordinary young virtuoso with a solid technique, unique artistic interpretation and superb musicality”. In addition, renowned guitarist David Leisner said, “He is blessed with a strong, perfectly natural musical instinct and with an impressive technical facility on the guitar”.

Highlighted performances include solo recitals at the Hall of Ideas in Boston, the Newport Art Museum in Newport RI, Masters of the Future Concert Series in Newport, the Boston Athenaeum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, First Church as part of FirstNight Boston, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Universidad de Guadalajara in Mexico, the Merida International Guitar Festival in Mexico, and a solo recital at the Manuel M. Ponce Hall in Mexico City as part of the Bellas Artes Guitar Cycle. Mr. Dìaz had his solo debut inJordan Hall in June of 2007, to great success, as part of the prestigious Boston GuitarFest directed by guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk.

Future engagements include concerts with the Mexico City Chamber Orchestra, the Queretaro Camerata Orchestra, recital at the Ocampo Theater in Cuernavaca as part of the Morelos International Guitar Festival, and a solo recital at the Les Cordes Pincees International Guitar Festival in Morocco.

Mr. Diaz received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in guitar with distinction in performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with David Leisner and Eliot Fisk. Both degrees were possible thanks to scholarships granted by the same institution.

Phil Sargent has worked with a number of prominent musicians including David Liebman, Jerry Bergonzi, John Lockwood, Fernando Huergo, Bruno Raberg, Bob Moses, Matt Wilson, Phil Grenadier, Yosuke Inoue, Thomson Kneeland and others. He studied at the University of New Hampshire and in New York City with critically acclaimed guitarists Ben Monder, and Brad Shepik. Phil leads his own group whose compositions draw from a variety of influences, most prominently the odd meters and eastern tonalities of ethnic Balkan music and modern jazz improvisation. Phil released his first recording (For Carl) in 2002. His 2010 release (A New Day) has received critical acclaim. In addition to writing for his own group he composes and has released recordings with the genre bending groups Iskar and The Industrious Noise Trio. Phil also performs nationally as a sideman in the Sonic Explorers, Bruno Raberg Nonet, Rick DiMuzio Quintet, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol Jazz Orchestra, John Funkhouser Quartet, Brooke Sofferman Perspective, and a variety of other ensembles ranging from straight ahead jazz to the avante-garde.

After studying Jazz Performance and Composition at the University of New Hampshire Phil has since enjoyed a full roster of private students in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In addition, Phil has been an active clinician, teaching improvisation and performance master classes at various colleges and high schools throughout New England.

www.philsargentmusic.com.webloc

In addition to a busy freelance career in settings ranging from jazz and blues to electronic and orchestral music, Mr. Gabriel leads his own ensembles performing original music throughout New England. His debut recording, Blueprints, was released by Creative Nation Music Productions (www.cnmpro.com) in February 2005. He is a former student of Donald Palma and Charlie Banacos. He is on the faculty of UMass-Lowell.

Flutist, composer, author and educator Fernando Brandão is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has performed extensively as a bandleader, sideman, chamber musician and as a soloist with many ensembles and prominent orchestras both in Brazil and the US.

His new album,  Sem Tradução (Without Translation) features nine original songs with Marcella Camargo as the lead singer and 14 prominent musicians from the Boston area. His vocal and instrumental compositions are centered mostly around Brazilian styles including choro, samba, bossa, ijexá, and baião, and feature traditional and contemporary language and arrangements. With precise technique and refined sound, his interpretations on concert, alto, bass flutes and pífanos combine jazzy improvisations to a truly Brazilian language and sound.

He leads the Fernando Brandão Ensemble, which has recently been featured at the First Cambridge Jazz Festival, and the Isabella Gardner Museum. He also leads the group Alma, the gafieira band Bohemia Carioca, and he is an active member of the groups Pablo Ablanedo Octet, Trio Choro Brasil, Sergio Brandão & Manga Rosa and Teresa Inês Quintet. He has also played or recorded with Oscar Castro-Neves, Rosa Passos, Luciana Souza, Kris Adams, John Stein Quartet, Leandro Braga, Maria Teresa Madeira, Emmanuel Music Orchestra with conductors Criag Smith, Seiji Ozawa, and pianist Russell Sherman.

Mr. Brandão is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and a faculty member of the Community Music Center of Boston. A leading educator in Brazilian music, he has given many lectures about its music styles, history and composers, and he is the author of the play-along book Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception, published by Advance Music. His compositions have been recorded by Choro das Três, guitarist Almir Cortes and New World Guitar Trio. He was the first prize winner of several national music competitions in Brazil, and the 1991 Pappoutsakis Flute Competition in Boston.

Originally from the great state of NH, drummer Andy Fordyce currently resides in Cambridge and is a doctoral candidate in Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory. His band Talk Listen Door explores improvisation-infused experimental songwriting and can be heard performing in the Boston area. In addition to his musical interests, Andy can be found tinkering with old 1970s mopeds and perfecting his tomatillo salsa recipe.

Active performer and composer in Jazz, Blues and Funk genres. In addition to playing and recording two CD’s with his own trio, Mr. Giordano also performs with the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra, Maria DeMaio and The Fellas, and others. Private lessons focus on playing fundamentals, transcriptions and working with the students individual strengths and goals. Mr. Giordano is currently a faculty member at The All Newton Music School, and has previously taught at the Ted Herbert Music School in Manchester, NH.

www.mikegiordano.net

Mr. Lawrence is both a composer and performer. He has written numerous works for flute and other mediums in the contemporary idiom. He has appeared as soloist with such jazz greats as Quincy Jones, Eubie Blake and the late Duke Ellington. He is also very involved in presenting avant garde jazz. He was presented with the Marilla MacDill prize for excellence in teaching and community service.

Dr. Shamu has taught trumpet, presented master classes, and directed ensembles in the Boston Public Schools, at Boston University and its Tanglewood Institute, and at other universities and summer festivals across the country. He has taught classes in Brass Pedagogy and Methods at Boston University; Music History, Music Theory, and Intensive French at Harvard University.

He performs regularly with the Orchestra of Opera Boston, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and several other groups in New England. Also an active chamber musician, he is a founding member of Boston’s Riverside Brass. He has appeared as a soloist at the Music Center’s Kleshinski Concert Series, throughout the United States, and in Europe.  A versatile player, Geoff spent several years performing and recording as a member of the reggae band Pressure Cooker, has played for countless musical show productions—and just about everything in between. His teachers include Terry Everson, Mark Gould, Stephen Jones, Timothy Morrison, and Pierre Thibaud, with whom he studied for several years after coming to Paris on a Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship.

More information—including a calendar of upcoming performances—may be found at gshamu.com.

Mr. Shea has been playing piano and composing professionally for two decades. He spent 1975-87 as house pianist at the legendary El Chapultepec Club, backing such great artists as Eddie Harris, Jerome Richardson and Joe Turner. He worked regularly with the Brazilian Band, Bridges, and Denver’s premiere salsa group, Conjunto Colores. In 1987 he moved to Boston, where he played with the late blues singer Jellybelly, the Artie Shaw Band, and the Either/ Orchestra. Mr. Shea has composed new concert music including “Wyoming,” an orchestral fantasy recorded for MMC Records by the Slovak Radio Orchestra. He writes, records and tours with his own ensemble, the Michael Shea Quartet. Their most recent CD, ‘Last Night While You Slept,’ is now available.

Ms. Kendrick is a versatile composer and vocalist. She has written operas, song cycles, a musical, chamber works, choral works, and music for film. Recent venues include the Longy SeptemberFEST concert series, the Ebell of Los Angeles, and Boston’s Birth of a Musical Festival. She has received a Subito grant from the American Composers Forum, ASCAPLU$ Awards, and several awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Ms. Kendrick is the OPERAtunity outreach program instructor with Opera Providence, the Senior Voice Teacher at the SMARTS Summer Institute, and the music director at First Parish Medfield. She is a recent graduate of the Longy School of Music where she studied composition with John Howell Morrison. For more info, you may visit her website at www.evakendrick.com.

Claudia Eliaza has training in providing music therapy for individuals and groups in a wide range of settings and ages, including: Adult Day Treatment, Children with Special Needs, Early Intervention, Elders with Dementia, Children with Autism, Children/Youth with life threatening illness and Typical Students in Enrichment Programs. She has worked in residential settings, specialized social service centers, daycare and afterschool programs. Claudia graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music with a Bachelors Degree in Music Therapy. Having been around music all of her life, Claudia enjoys creating music with those she is fortunate to work with. She most recently returned from her second trip to Kenya Africa, where she worked with youth and young adults bringing the concepts of inner peace, empowerment and awareness through music, photography and mediation. Claudia is also an established jazz vocalist and performs regularly in Boston and Internationally. She has performed and worked with some of the jazz world’s biggest stars including Nancy King, Barbara Morrison, Frank Foster, and Roy Haynes. With outstanding success, Claudia has toured within the US, Dominican Republic, Switzerland, England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and continues to tour throughout Russia. Claudia’s style draws from the deep legacy of Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Funk, Haitian, Latin and African rhythms. Being influenced by Shirley Horne, Sarah Vaughan, Chet Baker, and Nina Simone, Claudia continues to keep the traditions if these jazz legends alive.

Christopher Perry is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a degree in music therapy.  Whether working with adults with developmental disabilities, children with special needs, Early Intervention, or children with autism, Christopher has a passion for connecting with others through music.  He has experience practicing music therapy with groups and individuals, in classrooms, homes and community spaces.

Nancy Lob has a B.S. in Education with a major in Health, Physical Education and Dance. For many years she has studied the art of movement with dance pioneer Barbara Metler, whose approach encourages movement improvisation and dance as an expressive art activity for all ages and abilities. Between the years of 1980 and 1992, Ms. Lob directed the Musicare Program, which provided creative movement for seniors in hospital programs and residence facilities throughout Boston. She currently is leading creative dance groups for older adults and supervising practicum students in expressive arts therapies from area colleges and universities.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Carrie is a vocalist, composer, and educator hailing from Chicago, Illinois. She moved to Boston in 2014 to pursue a master’s degree in jazz vocal performance at the New England Conservatory and is currently in her second year of the program. At NEC, Carrie studies under the direction of Dominique Eade, Anthony Coleman, and Ran Blake.  When she isn’t in school, Carrie leads a band that performs her original jazz, rock, and avant-garde compositions. Carrie is the recipient of three downbeat awards: “Outstanding Jazz Performance,” “Outstanding Blues/Pop/Rock Performance,” and “Outstanding Original Composition for Jazz Small Group

Horn player Neil Godwin is an active chamber musician, orchestral performer, and pedagogue. Neil is a member of the Anemoi Woodwind Quintet, the Serenata Chamber Musicians, and the Garder Museum Chamber Orchestra. Additionally he freelances with orchestras and ensembles throughout New England. Neil’s principle teachers include Eric Ruske, Dennis Behm, and Dr. Gary Greene on horn and Dr. Jay Dean and Dr. Timothy Koch in conducting. In addition to maintaining a private horn studio, Neil assists in the continued growth of the CMCB wind ensemble program.

In addition to the CMCB Chamber Orchestra, Mark Miller conducts the Boston University All-Campus Orchestra and is an assistant conductor of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO). Also a clarinetist, he is principal clarinetist of the Cape Cod Symphony, Plymouth Philharmonic, and the Simon Sinfonietta, and is a member of the wind quintet Arcadian Winds. Mr. Miller currently teaches clarinet at St. Mark’s School and at Foxboro High School, where he also conducts the clarinet choir. He has been commissioned to write many substantial works for Foxboro’s performing groups, and his other compositions and arrangements have been widely performed. More at www.markmillermusic.com.

Karl Ørvik has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Norway and South Korea. A violinist with both the Boston Public Quartet and Trio Klaritas, he has also performed as a concerto soloist, concertmaster and section violinist with numerous orchestral ensembles. Mr. Ørvik is a dedicated teacher who works easily with students of all ages and abilities. He is a member of the violin/viola departments at the Community Music Center of Boston, the Waldorf School of Lexington, and the Dedham School of Music, and in summers, he teaches at Point Counterpoint in Vermont and the Youth and Muse Festival in Boston. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he has been published in the ASTA Journal, and is the author of New Scale Method, an innovative scale method book for advanced violinists. A native of Canada, Mr. Ørvik has studied with many distinguished violinists and chamber musicians, including Roman Totenberg, Stephen Majeske and Calvin Wiersma, and members of the Muir, Cleveland, Cavani and Fine Arts string quartets. He holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Lawrence University, and in January of 2012 he received his DMA from Boston University.

Nicole Parks, born in Minnesota, moved to Boston in September of 2010 to attend The Boston Conservatory where she is currently working toward a Master’s Degree under the tutelage of Sharan Leventhal. She began playing violin at the age of 11 in the public school system in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Until her move to Boston, she stayed active in the school systems. She has acted as President and Associate Concertmaster of the St Olaf Orchestra. Nicole is an avid orchestral and chamber musician as well as conductor. In Minneapolis, she was part of numerous local orchestras including the Metropolitan Symphony, Mankato Symphony, The Northern Symphony Orchestra and acted as Concertmaster and soloist with the Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra and the Anoka Community Theater’s Pit Orchestra. She was co-founder and violinist in the Urthema String Quartet, a group dedicated to performing classical music alongside other genres.  She founded and music directed The Lirica Chamber Ensemble, a group of musicians under 30 who shared a passion for making high quality music without the stereotypes of professional organizations. She has a propensity to take risks with musical ventures which has given her many opportunities for performance and outreach that have given her a high level of diversity. She is currently a freelance violinist in the Boston area and faculty member at CMCB.

Ms. Underhill teaches at the South Shore Music Center and Boston College as well as serving as Manager for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (GBYSO) and Director of Instrumental Music at St. Mark’s School. She has performed with the Moody Blues, Placido Domingo, Tony Bennett and the Panamanian Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Harvard University Mozart Society Orchestra, GBYSO, and the Little Orchestra of Victoria. She has also performed in Minneapolis, Chicago, Holland, New York City and St. Petersburg, Russia. She is also a member of Alea III. She has developed a cataloguing system for ethnic recordings with composer Martin Bartlett and has organized Gunther Schuller’s personal collection. She is the recipient of the 2001 Kay Logan Award for her development of the chamber music program at GBYSO.

Matt Savage, has had a fifteen-year professional career as a jazz musician, bandleader and composer with ensembles of different size. He’s played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Chick Corea, the Ellington All Stars, Chaka Khan, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Watson, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Jason Moran, Arturo O’Farrill, John Pizzarelli, Joshua Redman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi and Donny McCaslin among others. Along the way, he’s recorded twelve albums as leader and one as collaborator. He is a Bösendorfer piano artist.

As a composer, Matt has garnered respect. He composed and recorded the score for a full-length documentary film,Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story. The movie, which premiered in 2014, chronicles the life of jazz alto saxophonist Frank Morgan. Additionally, Savage wrote almost all the songs on his twelve albums, several of which have been used in short documentaries, on web sites, in school music curricula and in government educational materials. Savage has toured worldwide and had many national media appearances including performances at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland, the Blue Note, Bohemian Caverns, Town Hall, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Scullers, the Jazz Standard, the Pantages Theatre, the Iridium, the Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Heineken Jazzaldia (Spain), the Costa Rica International Jazz Festival, the International VSA Arts Festival, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Japan, Curacao, Aruba and for the president of Singapore.

A graduate of Manhattan School of Music and Berklee College of Music, Matt balances his professional music career with teaching. He teaches at Community Music Center of Boston, and at Applied Behavioral Learning Services (an organization near Boston for children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities). Matt gives masterclasses and workshops domestically and internationally (in English and Spanish) as well as private piano lessons.

An award-winning teacher and pianist, Alexander Morollo has been seen in performances in the United States and Canada. He has performed at piano festivals, masterclasses, and competitions, both as a solo recitalist and chamber musician.   He began his training at the age of six under pianist and composer Dianne Rahbee. Other piano teachers include Phyllis Lehrer, Galina Gertsenzen, and Hugh Hinton; coupled with masterclasses with Dianne Anderson, Andrew Staupe, Ena Barton, James Goldswerthy, Andrius Zlabys, Andreas Klein, Marvin Blickenstaff, and Mykola Suk. Highly trained in music theory as well, he has studied with Paul Brust and Judy Ross.  Mr. Morollo has competed in the NEPTA Piano Competitions, won the Catherine Dower-Gold Performing Arts Award, and won First Prize in the Young Artists Piano Competition of Western Massachusetts and Connecticut in the highest division. Additionally, Mr. Morollo was the 2015 recipient of the Mary Ellis Smith Prize for ‘Excellence in the art of Piano Pedagogy’.

An avid teacher, Mr. Morollo maintains a private studio in Medway, MA and in addition to CMCB, holds positions on the piano faculty at The Starline Academy for the Performing Arts in Stoughton, MA, The North End Music and Performing Arts Center in Boston, Along with the Encore Music Academy in Franklin. Throughout his teaching career he has prepared students for proficiency exams in piano, sight reading, solfege, and music theory, along with the MTEL teacher certification test. During his undergraduate education at Longy, he was hired by the school to co-instruct graduate students in secondary piano through classroom instruction and private lessons. Several students of his have been accepted into Bachelor of Music programs themselves, most recently at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and Ithaca College in New York.

Performance Diploma, Longy School of Music;  Bachelor of Music, Emerson College;  Master of Music, Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Boston based harpsichordist Nickolai Sheikov began his first music lessons on the piano at the age of nine in his native country of Bulgaria. Later, he received professional music training at the L. Pipkov National School of Music in Sofia in piano performance, graduating cum laude in 1999. In 2000, after being awarded a full scholarship at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, Mr. Sheikov further perused his studies, receiving both Bachelor and Master degrees in Harpsichord Performance. His prime teacher and mentor there was harpsichordist John Gibbons. Upon graduating, Mr. Sheikov has been participating in a number of harpsichord master classes, both in Europe and USA, with Gustav Leonhard, Menno van Delft, Peter Watchorn, Jaap Schröder (chamber music) amongst others.  While the main focus of Mr. Sheikov’s repertoire is the music of the late 16 th , 17 th and early 18th centuries, he also explores works of the 20 th century as well as current harpsichord repertoire. Such performances include compositions by Robert Baksa, Daniel Pinkham, Elodie Lauten, Bohuslav Martinu, Manuel Ponce, and others. At the dawn of his performing career, Mr. Sheikov’s numerous solo performances have been critically acclaimed. The Boston Musical Intelligencer described him as a “noteworthy” and “an excellent harpsichordist”. 2015 marks a critically acclaimed solo debut CD release ofsonatas by Domenico Scarlatti for the Musica Omnia label with a second recording to follow in 2017. In 2016, Mr. Sheikov has founded and directed the Early Music Evenings concert series in Boston, which focuses on period instrument performances.

Currently Mr. Sheikov performs as a soloist and chamber musician at various music venues in USA and abroad. Past highlights include recitals in National Palace of Culture in Bulgaria, Jordan Hall in Boston, First Church of Boston Concert Series, First Church in Cambridge, Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Concerts, Boston Community Music Center Kleshinski Concert Series, Friends Meeting House Concerts. In addition, he has partnered with artist such as guitar virtuoso Grisha Goryachev, harpsichordist Elaine Comparone and BSO oboist Keisuke Wakao.

Currently Mr. Sheikov serves as the Chair of the Piano/Keyboard Department at the Community Music Center of Boston, where he teaches both harpsichord and piano. For more information, please visit the artist’s web page at www.sheikov.com.

Sarah Bob originally hails from Teaneck, N.J., which, amazingly enough, is also the home of Sesame Street’s “Bob” and the place where Sarah’s childhood infatuation with sharing the BOB name with Bob McGrath began. After starting piano lessons in the 3rd grade, Sarah not only became known as a brilliant pianist, but also as a girl who runs exactly like the character “Laura Ingalls” from the beloved family show, Little House on the Prairie.  Sarah, now living in Jamaica Plain, M.A., is in charge of putting new music concerts together with new visual art in Boston and calls the events the New Gallery Concert Series. She does the same with classical music up in Brownfield, Maine at theStone Mountain Arts Center.  She also plays with other musicians in groups called the Firebird Ensemble, Radius Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and, with her percussionist husband, Primary Duo. Sarah loves to play concerts, from Carnegie Hall in New York City to De Doelen in Holland, and also teaches piano to grown ups and little kids both privately and at the Community Music Center of Boston. Eventually, Sarah did meet Bob McGrath (she has the picture to prove it!) and while dark chocolate, dogs and flowers are only three of Sarah’s favorite things, you can learn more about her on her website: www.sarahbob.net.

Born in 1983, in Madrid (Spain), Manuel García-Baró is a composer and pianist that lives in Boston since 2010. He began his music studies at age 8 in his hometown, at the Escuela de Musica Creativa. From the very first moment, he combined his piano lessons with a total passion and dedication to composition.
Always interested in very diverse styles of music, he studied classical piano with the Armenian master Serouj Kradjian, and at the same time, jazz, latin, and flamenco with Adolfo Delgado and Pepe Rivero. His composition studies are also very wide in terms of stylistic approaches. He first studied modern harmony and arranging, and later on he’d get into classical harmony and counterpoint.
After graduating in Philosophy by the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, he entered the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Madrid. He majored in classical composition and had the enormous opportunity of studying with teachers such as Daniel Vega and Angel Huidobro.
In 2010, he was awarded with the Berklee/SGAE scholarship to study in the prestigious Berklee College of Music (Boston). Manuel completed a dual major in Contemporary Writing and Production, and Film Scoring, and a minor in Scoring for Videogames and was awarded with the Doug Timm award for his contribution to the film scoring department.

Gwenn is currently a faculty member at Community Music Center of Boston where she is a Permanent Substitute Piano Teacher and Piano Teacher to several students. At six, Gwenn was enrolled at the Summit School of Music, Summit, NJ, where she concentrated in piano and also studied organ, violin, saxophone, percussion instruments, voice, and dance.  Upon graduating, she continued private piano lessons throughout high school until college (Chatham College/Carnegie Mellon Tech), where she received a B.A. degree in music composition with a piano major. Always able to play the piano by ear, Gwenn did many gigs during her teenage years at private functions and local restaurants.  She performed leading roles in all grade school and high school musical productions as piano accompanist, soloist, and singer.  During college years, Gwenn did piano gigs at Pittsburgh restaurants and supper clubs and held the offices of Class Pianist for four years and All-College Pianist for three. Throughout her life, Gwenn has utilized her piano expertise at such venues as New Milford Senior Center (Music Director), church (pianist and organist), and before moving to Boston in 2007 and becoming employed at CMCB) at The Renaissance Center, Southbury, CT, where she was piano teacher on the full-time faculty from 2002 to 2007.  Gwenn has also been a member of The New York Choral Society and the Summit, NJ Choral Society at different times in her career.

Kathy Maskell, a lifelong church musician, has a varied and rich musical background.  She studied organ with Donald Willing at New England Conservatory and piano with Bob Winter, pianist with the Boston Pops.  She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music and a Masters of Music Education degree from Boston University.  Kathy has been a highly successful piano instructor both in her home studio and in the many years she owned and directed MusicWorks, Inc. a commercial music education facility offering lesson in piano, voice, guitar, strings and drums.

Her interest in music technology has led her to give presentations on the subject at national conferences for both Music Teachers National Association and the National conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.  Her music technology articles have been published in Clavier Companion, a periodical for piano teachers.  Since 2003 Kathy has been adjunct professor at Regis College in Weston, MA teaching piano classes, music theory, keyboard ensemble and several independent studies with students interested in vocal arranging and counterpoint.  Kathy has been organist and pianist here at Old Cambridge Baptist Church since 2003 also, happily returning to collaborate with Thomas Jones after their tenure at Tremont Temple Baptist Church.  With her background in technology, Kathy aids the OCBC choir with rehearsal compact disks as they prepare for special holiday services.  The choir has performed her composition “Send Down Your Spirit” written for choir and piano.  Her background in composition and arranging has given her opportunities to write original music for keyboard ensembles and most recently incidental music for the children’s book “Gwendolyn the Graceful Pig” by David Rottenberg.  Kathy continues to explore musical opportunities to enhance her musicianship and to benefit her students.

Mr. Shea has been playing piano and composing professionally for two decades. He spent 1975-87 as house pianist at the legendary El Chapultepec Club, backing such great artists as Eddie Harris, Jerome Richardson and Joe Turner. He worked regularly with the Brazilian Band, Bridges, and Denver’s premiere salsa group, Conjunto Colores. In 1987 he moved to Boston, where he played with the late blues singer Jellybelly, the Artie Shaw Band, and the Either/ Orchestra. Mr. Shea has composed new concert music including “Wyoming,” an orchestral fantasy recorded for MMC Records by the Slovak Radio Orchestra. He writes, records and tours with his own ensemble, the Michael Shea Quartet. Their most recent CD, ‘Last Night While You Slept,’ is now available.

In addition to performances across the United States and Europe, Mr. Yenger taught at Louisiana State University and a Magnet High School for the Performing and Academic Arts. Frequently requested as an adjudicator and lecturer on music and the humanities, he has served as a faculty member for summer music festivals including the prestigious music camp in Haiti, and is the founder of Chamber Music at Corrynmore House, a summer music festival on the island of Achill in Ireland. In addition to piano performances, he is a specialist in vocal and chamber music coaching, and is establishing himself as a composer.

Lauren Caso is a board certified Music Therapist and Music Educator from the Boston area, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s of Music degree from Berklee College of Music in 2002 .  She has been teaching music professionally for over 13 years in public schools, community settings and privately.  Lauren has traveled to Ghana, Senegal and India to study music and dance, and specializes in Ewe Drumming and Dancing from Ghana.  In 2004, Lauren volunteered to teach HIV/AIDS awareness in a village in Ghana, West Africa.  During her stay, she was able to study drumming and dancing in depth with master teachers.  She also helped open a drum shop.  Since her return, Lauren has brought her drumming and experiences to schools, teachers, and other arts therapists.  She brought Ewe dance to Mt. Holyoke and The Five Colleges in Amherst for 3 semesters.  Currently, Lauren is on the faculty at The Community Music Center of Boston as an African Drumming teacher.  She has continued to teach private lessons on guitar, piano, violin, theory, etc. at Timeline Music Studio in Wakefield.  She also plays violin in the Melrose Symphony Orchestra, and is an active performing member of the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society.  Some of her previous teachers include Charlie Banacos and the Agbeli family.  In Music Therapy, Lauren works with children with autism and special needs.  She is also an audio engineer and works in concert production at local venues.  Lauren’s multi-cultural approach to teaching music has enhanced education to the diverse populations she has worked with.  Her high energy and ability to adapt to other’s needs make her an effective and invaluable teacher.

Amy Constantino has been teaching and choreographing for the past three years. Prior to teaching, Amy began her college career as a B.F.A. Dance Major at the well-respected HARTT School of Dance, before deciding to transfer to Bridgewater State University to focus on Choreography and Dance Education. Amy holds a B.A. degree in Dance Education from Bridgewater State University, where her choreography was chosen to be showcased at several events, such as the American College Dance Festival.  She has also trained with Boston Ballet and Burklyn Ballet Theatre.  Upon graduation, Amy taught, trained, and choreographed with the prestigious iKapa Dance Theatre company, in their outreach program in Cape Town, South Africa.  Amy has recently launched an international dance exchange program in Boston and South Africa.

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Anthony Douglass is an elementary school music teacher at The Community Music Center of Boston.  He received his Masters of Music Education from The Boston Conservatory.  He also holds a Masters of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts in African Drumming and Dance, as well as a B. M. from Berklee College of Music.

Anthony has been been teaching private lessons, workshops, after school programs and elementary music for over twenty years.  He has taught in the Los Angeles public schools, the Oakland public schools, the Somerville public schools and is currently teaching in the Boston public schools.  He has also taught African drumming at California Institute of the Arts and Cal. State Long Beach.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Czarina O. Schocker recently moved from the border city of El Paso in the state of Texas. She holds a Bachelor’s in Vocal Performance, Bachelor’s in Music Education, and Master’s in Opera Performance. She has had the opportunity to perform several roles with local opera companies in Texas and is looking forward to the new performance opportunities Boston has to offer. For the last few years, Mrs. Schocker has been performing and teaching privately, as well as having the pleasure of being a high school choral teacher and musical theatre music director for the school district of El Paso. Her passion and curiosity for music learning and vocal pedagogy constantly challenges her to improve her teaching and performance techniques in every musical style, in both soloist and ensemble works. She feels very welcomed in the city of Boston and looks forward to being part of the CMCB’s team for this school year.

Kerry is a graduate of Bridgewater State University where she earned BAs in both Dance Education and English.  During the academic year, Kerry teaches dance education at a number of Boston Public Schools through the Music Center where she is thrilled to have the opportunity to teach children dance, no matter their circumstance.  She believes in providing students with a solid base of classical dance training while also inspiring them to find their own, unique creative movement. Kerry is also the dance instructor and choreographer for the internationally known children’s choir, Voices Boston. During the summers, Kerry teaches dance for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Days in the Arts program at Tanglewood.

Simone was born in Nicosia, Cyprus and brings with her a rich cultural and historical background. She obtained a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from the University of Kent in the UK and a Masters in Theatre Education from Emerson College. She loves to teach the arts and believes that an arts education is an integral part of any person’s education. Also, it’s really fun! She teaches Drama and Dance. She is also very passionate about arts integration and wishes that someday the arts will live in every classroom.

Joe Hartigan is a percussionist living in the Boston area, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with dual degrees in Music Education and Music Performance. Joe started at CMCB as a student in middle school pursuing his love of drums and percussion. He made the switch to faculty when he joined the SummerMUSIC program as the rhythm instructor which he has done for the past 6 years. Joe has been a member of the CMCB school outreach team since the fall of 2014 and specializes in percussion, bucket drumming and general music. Joe is also involved at CMCB teaching drumming in the early childhood program, teaching private percussion lessons and leading ensembles. He is also an active performer, playing throughout Massachusetts and the New England area in orchestras, marching bands, jazz combos and various other popular music groups. He maintains a private studio practice and continues to spread his love and knowledge of music to as many students as possible.

Ms. Penezic-Herfindahl is a professional musician and educator, holding a M.M from University of the Pacific in performance where she had a fellowship in Music Theory and Conducting and a B.A. with honors in music from the University of California, Berkeley.  She has many years of experience as a school music teacher, band director, orchestra director, choir director, and church choir director.  As an orchestral musician she was an active freelancer in the San Francisco Bay and the Seattle areas, holding positions in the horn sections of numerous orchestras and ensembles including the Napa Valley Symphony, the Stockton Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Sacramento Opera, Tacoma Symphony, Federal Way Philharmonic, and the Tacoma Opera.

Ms. Penezic-Herfindahl is a licensed public school teacher in California, Washington State and Massachusetts.  She currently teaches instrumental, choral and general music at the elementary and middle school levels in the Boston public schools.  Teresa has had an active private studio teaching piano, woodwind, and brass instruments.  She has also taught a home school student at the middle and high school level.  With a life long passion for health and fitness, she also currently maintains a private studio, coaching clients to live healthfully.

Earl Grant-Lawrence is a Wind Instructor at the Community Music Center of Boston. He holds a B.M. Degree in Applied Flute from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and a Masters of Music Degree in Music Composition from the Boston Conservatory of Music. During the early 70’s at Fisk University, he was a soloist with the Jazz band called the Orchestrated Crowd. This band had the distinction of appearing with such jazz greats as Quincy Jones and the late Duke Ellington.

He is currently a member of the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he plays the contrabass flute. As a member of the flute orchestra, he toured France, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He will tour England and Scotland with the orchestra in 2016.

From 2008-2013 he played the concert flute during the winter season with the Melrose Symphony Orchestra. From 1993 until 2005 he worked as an Instrumental Band Director in the summer DARTS program at Tanglewood, an arts camp for New England Area students, sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

From 1994 to 2000 he was a member of the Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble. The ensemble performed with Raphe Malik and also performed at the Toronto Jazz Festival in Canada.

Kevin Dacey is a percussionist, performer and instructor based out of Boston. He graduated Magne Cum Laude from the University Of Massachusetts in 2014 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Percussion Performance. There he studied the performance art of drum set and orchestral percussion with Fred Buda and Jeff Fischer. He was also granted the opportunity to be the principle percussionist for the University Wind Ensemble under the direction of David Martins and the principle percussionist for the University Concert Band under the direction of Dan Lutz.

Outside of college, Kevin has played extensively with a plethora of ensembles including The Concord Orchestra, The New England Philharmonic, The Plum Island Pans, Bleep Blop Electroacoustic Ensemble and indie rock outfits such as The Ghost of Electricity and Warped forest. Dacey is also heavily invested in sound experimentation and improvisation. He can be seen around Massachusetts playing with various performance artists wielding strange electroacoustic setups or with a group like the Metal Chaos Ensemble.

As an instructor, Kevin has resided at Zach Field Drum Studios in Newburyport, MA for a little over 2 years now instructing students of all ages privately on drum set, hand drums, and mallet percussion. Recently he has started to teach groups of children basic rhythmic concepts at the Pauline Agassiz Shaw Elementary School in Dorchester, MA and North Shore Montessori School in Rowley, MA. As he progresses through each day of instruction, he hopes to incite his students with his passionate love for the expressive creation that is music. Nothing brightens his day more than seeing a classroom full of smiles and excitement for melody, rhythm, and self expression!

Matt Hull is a trumpet player and composer recently graduated from Berklee College of Music. While there, Matt studied jazz composition under Ayn Inserto and Greg Hopkins, and trumpet with Tiger Okoshi. Matt just released his first solo record under is his own name, and having an active performance career both locally and on tour, Matt also fills his time teaching.

www.matthullmusic.com

matthull.hull@gmail.com

Liza received her undergraduate degree in music composition and her graduate degree in ethnomusicology. She worked as an accompanist and composer in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Boston in 1998. In Boston, Liza trained with Music Together and has been working professionally with children for the past 15 years. Liza also teaches piano privately at her home studio in Somerville where she lives with her husband and daughter. In 2009, she created Wild Tales, a children’s theater program, which she continues to direct. Visit her website at lizakitchell.com

Ms. Miklich is a freelance violinist in the Boston area and performs with Boston Classical Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Emmanuel Music and the New Hampshire Symphony. She has also performed with the Portland Symphony, Dinosaur Annex, Monadnock Music, Alea III, Bard Music Festival and the New Hampshire Music Festival. In addition to being the Chair of the String Department at the CMCB, she teaches in her private studio. She was presented with the Marilla MacDill prize for excellence in teaching and community service.

David Rubin is a freelance violinist based in Boston, where he teaches students of all ages and performs on modern and period instruments. David studied violin at The Boston Conservatory, Lawrence University, and Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where his primary instructors were Sharan Leventhal, Wen-Lei Gu, and Johannes Leertouwer, respectively. Career highlights include chamber music broadcasts for WFMT Chicago and Wisconsin Public Radio, orchestral work with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Madison Bach Musicians, and Fox Valley Symphony, among others, and solo performances with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and Boston Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. In summer 2016, David will perform at the Spoleto Festival USA, Music from Salem, and Lucerne Festival Academy, and will return to the Superior String Alliance in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as a violin and chamber music instructor. Since Fall 2015, David has taught Beginning Violin classes for the CMCB’s satellite program at The Advent School in Beacon Hill.

Kara Nelson is a Syracuse University graduate with a B.A. in Music History & Cultures, and a minor in Film Studies. Kara has been involved with the Music Center since she was 6 years old, when she started attending SummerARTs, and has been teaching as a part of School Outreach since 2010. Along with teaching, Kara performs in musicals at community and professional theaters in the area, a passion and appreciation she strives to pass onto her students in Boston Public Schools.

Karl Ørvik has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Norway and South Korea. A violinist with both the Boston Public Quartet and Trio Klaritas, he has also performed as a concerto soloist, concertmaster and section violinist with numerous orchestral ensembles. Mr. Ørvik is a dedicated teacher who works easily with students of all ages and abilities. He is a member of the violin/viola departments at the Community Music Center of Boston, the Waldorf School of Lexington, and the Dedham School of Music, and in summers, he teaches at Point Counterpoint in Vermont and the Youth and Muse Festival in Boston. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he has been published in the ASTA Journal, and is the author of New Scale Method, an innovative scale method book for advanced violinists. A native of Canada, Mr. Ørvik has studied with many distinguished violinists and chamber musicians, including Roman Totenberg, Stephen Majeske and Calvin Wiersma, and members of the Muir, Cleveland, Cavani and Fine Arts string quartets. He holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Lawrence University, and in January of 2012 he received his DMA from Boston University.

Ms. Schukis has had a multi-faceted career as a character mezzo, actress, stage director, choreographer, vocal coach, educator and administrator. She has sung a wide variety of operatic, oratorio and broadway repertoire to great critical acclaim and has performed roles with the Boston National Company of Nunsense starring Pat Carroll and Alice Ghostley, Boston Lyric Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Providence, New England Light Opera, Intermezzo Chamber Opera, Raylynmoor Opera, Wheelock Family Theater; Lyric Stage Company of Boston; New Opera and Musical Theater Initiative, Opera New England, Longwood Opera Company, Northeastern Repertory Theater, Boston Publick Theater, the Stoneham Theater, Fine Arts Chorale in Weymouth and Newton Symphony.

Ms. Schukis has been a soloist/section leader for the historic Old North Church, Boston, Massachusetts for 27 years and a soloist for 16 years at St. Paul Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts and continues to perform in theater, opera and concert engagements throughout the United States and has performed in Austria. Special performances that deserve mentioning are: National Anthem at a Boston Red Sox Game at Fenway, National Anthem on the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) turn around, National Anthem at New England Dragway, Epping, NH and the National Anthem at Lebanon Valley Speedway, MA and a televised performance with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Salt Lake City, UT.

In addition to being a performer, Vanessa is an award winning teacher with over thirty years experience in performing arts education focusing on students with learning disabilities and special needs. Currently Vanessa teaches music at The Murphy School, Dorchester, MA and The Harvard-Kent School in Charlestown, MA through the outreach program of Community Music Center of Boston. In 2014, Vanessa received the MacDill award for excellence in teaching. Ms. Schukis has been member of the guest faculty at New England Conservatory, Boston, MA and visiting faculty at Longy School of Music Cambridge, MA.

For more information please visit her website: www.classicalsinger.net/vanessaschukis

A multi-instrumentalist and singer, Ms. Sollogub performs on and teaches Appalachian dulcimer, recorders, tinwhistle and guitar. She has studied conducting at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell and also with conductor Joshua Jacobson and has completed two levels of Dalcroze Eurythmics at Longy School of Music. Ms. Sollogub has published two books: “Shiron L’Shalom,” a source book of Jewish music for peace education, and “A Dulcimer Portfolio,” original and traditional tunes for the advancing mountain dulcimer player. She has led classes in general music, recorder and chorus at five Boston Public Schools.

Ms. Miklich is a freelance violinist in the Boston area and performs with Boston Classical Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Emmanuel Music and the New Hampshire Symphony. She has also performed with the Portland Symphony, Dinosaur Annex, Monadnock Music, Alea III, Bard Music Festival and the New Hampshire Music Festival. In addition to being the Chair of the String Department at the CMCB, she teaches in her private studio. She was presented with the Marilla MacDill prize for excellence in teaching and community service.

David Rubin is a freelance violinist based in Boston, where he teaches students of all ages and performs on modern and period instruments. David studied violin at The Boston Conservatory, Lawrence University, and Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where his primary instructors were Sharan Leventhal, Wen-Lei Gu, and Johannes Leertouwer, respectively. Career highlights include chamber music broadcasts for WFMT Chicago and Wisconsin Public Radio, orchestral work with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Madison Bach Musicians, and Fox Valley Symphony, among others, and solo performances with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and Boston Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. In summer 2016, David will perform at the Spoleto Festival USA, Music from Salem, and Lucerne Festival Academy, and will return to the Superior String Alliance in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as a violin and chamber music instructor. Since Fall 2015, David has taught Beginning Violin classes for the CMCB’s satellite program at The Advent School in Beacon Hill.

In addition to a busy freelance career in settings ranging from jazz and blues to electronic and orchestral music, Mr. Gabriel leads his own ensembles performing original music throughout New England. His debut recording, Blueprints, was released by Creative Nation Music Productions (www.cnmpro.com) in February 2005. He is a former student of Donald Palma and Charlie Banacos. He is on the faculty of UMass-Lowell.

A native of Norwalk, Connecticut, Stephen has received a Bachelors degree with honors from the University of Connecticut, a Masters degree from Boston University, and is currently a candidate for a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at BU under the direction of Michael Reynolds. Stephen’s formative teachers include Kangho Lee, Marc Johnson, and Rhonda Rider. As a passionate advocate of contemporary music, Stephen has worked with numerous composers, and has played with several new music ensembles in the Boston area. Stephen has attended music festivals at the Banff centre, SoundSCAPE in Maccagno, Italy, and the Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany.  Stephen has played in master classes for artists such as the Arditti Quartet and JACK Quartet. Stephen has a wide range of musical interest that include contemporary chamber music, improvisatory music, and electronic music. In his spare time, Stephen is an avid hiker and outdoorsman.

Karl Ørvik has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Norway and South Korea. A violinist with both the Boston Public Quartet and Trio Klaritas, he has also performed as a concerto soloist, concertmaster and section violinist with numerous orchestral ensembles. Mr. Ørvik is a dedicated teacher who works easily with students of all ages and abilities. He is a member of the violin/viola departments at the Community Music Center of Boston, the Waldorf School of Lexington, and the Dedham School of Music, and in summers, he teaches at Point Counterpoint in Vermont and the Youth and Muse Festival in Boston. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he has been published in the ASTA Journal, and is the author of New Scale Method, an innovative scale method book for advanced violinists. A native of Canada, Mr. Ørvik has studied with many distinguished violinists and chamber musicians, including Roman Totenberg, Stephen Majeske and Calvin Wiersma, and members of the Muir, Cleveland, Cavani and Fine Arts string quartets. He holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Lawrence University, and in January of 2012 he received his DMA from Boston University.

Nicole Parks, born in Minnesota, moved to Boston in September of 2010 to attend The Boston Conservatory where she is currently working toward a Master’s Degree under the tutelage of Sharan Leventhal. She began playing violin at the age of 11 in the public school system in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Until her move to Boston, she stayed active in the school systems. She has acted as President and Associate Concertmaster of the St Olaf Orchestra. Nicole is an avid orchestral and chamber musician as well as conductor. In Minneapolis, she was part of numerous local orchestras including the Metropolitan Symphony, Mankato Symphony, The Northern Symphony Orchestra and acted as Concertmaster and soloist with the Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra and the Anoka Community Theater’s Pit Orchestra. She was co-founder and violinist in the Urthema String Quartet, a group dedicated to performing classical music alongside other genres.  She founded and music directed The Lirica Chamber Ensemble, a group of musicians under 30 who shared a passion for making high quality music without the stereotypes of professional organizations. She has a propensity to take risks with musical ventures which has given her many opportunities for performance and outreach that have given her a high level of diversity. She is currently a freelance violinist in the Boston area and faculty member at CMCB.

A multi-instrumentalist and singer, Ms. Sollogub performs on and teaches Appalachian dulcimer, recorders, tinwhistle and guitar. She has studied conducting at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell and also with conductor Joshua Jacobson and has completed two levels of Dalcroze Eurythmics at Longy School of Music. Ms. Sollogub has published two books: “Shiron L’Shalom,” a source book of Jewish music for peace education, and “A Dulcimer Portfolio,” original and traditional tunes for the advancing mountain dulcimer player. She has led classes in general music, recorder and chorus at five Boston Public Schools.

Cellist Benjamin Swartz hails from Richmond, VA, and has concertized extensively in the United States and Europe with a particular emphasis on historically-informed performance, electroacoustic collaboration, and the exposure of neglected repertoire. Equally at home on cello, Baroque cello, and viola da gamba, he is gaining increased recognition for multi-instrumental virtuosity spanning the Ars Subtilior to the present day.

An honors graduate of the double-degree program at Johns Hopkins University (BA/MA, American history) and Peabody Conservatory (BMus, cello), Ben was a recipient of both the Peabody Career Grant and the Johns Hopkins Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship.  As a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he studied the historically-informed performance practice of the Bach Cello Suites with Anner Bijlsma and Pieter Wispelweij on period and modern instruments, respectively, in Amsterdam, Holland.  Ben later earned his postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London (MMus with Merit in cello and historical performance) where he was awarded the Nancy Nuttall Early Music Prize.  Ben recently returned from a year in Karlsruhe, Germany, as a Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst Stipendiat (DAAD Scholar) where he researched music theory (proportional ratio systems of extended Just Intonation) and performed as a chamber musician throughout Europe.

As an advocate for 21st-century music, Ben is a member of Sound Energy, a dynamic string trio which commissions & performs works by living American composers. He has performed as a member of the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony, Baltimore Baroque Band, Bridgeport Symphony, Cape Ann Symphony, Equilibrium Ensemble, Orchestra of Indian Hill, Peabody Concert Orchestra, Royal Academy Symphony Orchestra, Royal Academy Viol Consort, Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Video Game Orchestra (Boston) in venues such as Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, and Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood).  His festival credits include Aspen, Tanglewood, Kneisel Hall, London Master Classes, Aurora, and Manchester, and he has studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Brentano, Shanghai, Amaryllis, and Fauré quartets.  Ben’s major teachers have been Alison Wells and John Moran in Baltimore, Mats Lidström and Jonathan Manson in London, and Anner Bijlsma and Pieter Wispelweij in Amsterdam.

A much sought-after teacher and clinician in the Boston area, Ben is currently on the music faculties at Community Music Center in Boston, Shore Country Day School, Ipswich public schools, and as chamber music coach with the Northern Massachusetts Youth Orchestra.

For more information, please visit www.benswartz.net

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Carrie is a vocalist, composer, and educator hailing from Chicago, Illinois. She moved to Boston in 2014 to pursue a master’s degree in jazz vocal performance at the New England Conservatory and is currently in her second year of the program. At NEC, Carrie studies under the direction of Dominique Eade, Anthony Coleman, and Ran Blake.  When she isn’t in school, Carrie leads a band that performs her original jazz, rock, and avant-garde compositions. Carrie is the recipient of three downbeat awards: “Outstanding Jazz Performance,” “Outstanding Blues/Pop/Rock Performance,” and “Outstanding Original Composition for Jazz Small Group

Ms. Kendrick is a versatile composer and vocalist. She has written operas, song cycles, a musical, chamber works, choral works, and music for film. Recent venues include the Longy SeptemberFEST concert series, the Ebell of Los Angeles, and Boston’s Birth of a Musical Festival. She has received a Subito grant from the American Composers Forum, ASCAPLU$ Awards, and several awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Ms. Kendrick is the OPERAtunity outreach program instructor with Opera Providence, the Senior Voice Teacher at the SMARTS Summer Institute, and the music director at First Parish Medfield. She is a recent graduate of the Longy School of Music where she studied composition with John Howell Morrison. For more info, you may visit her website at www.evakendrick.com.

A Connecticut native, Katie O’Reilly is a Boston-based singer, music director, pianist, and educator. An active performer in the Boston opera scene, her recent roles include the Sandman (Hansel and Gretel, MetroWest Opera,) Rose (Lakmé, Lowell House Opera), and Josephine (HMS Pinafore, MIT Gilbert & Sullivan Players.) She works as a music director and vocal coach for youth training programs, including Boston Backyard Opera and Mssng Lnks, Inc, and has experience teaching singers of all ages and backgrounds. Katie is also a keyboardist well-versed in musical theater style and repertoire, having worked with both amateur and professional companies as a pit musician, accompanist, music director, and assistant music director. Katie holds degrees from Oberlin and the Boston Conservatory, and is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda musical honors society. Please visit her website (www.katieoreilly.com) for more information!

Dr. Amy Sue Dombach holds degrees in flute performance from Oberlin  Conservatory (B.M.) and Boston University College of Fine Arts  (M.M. and D.M.A), where she studied under the guidance of Michel  Debost, Kathleen Chastain, Leone Buyse, Doriot Dwyer, Linda Toote,  and Marya Martin. As a member of Phi Kappa Lambda and a Dean’s  Scholar, her doctoral research focused upon the development of the flute concerto in 20th-century America. She has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral player, teacher, and clinician in  Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maine, Texas, and Italy. She joined the CMCB faculty in 2008.

Dr. Shamu has taught trumpet, presented master classes, and directed ensembles in the Boston Public Schools, at Boston University and its Tanglewood Institute, and at other universities and summer festivals across the country. He has taught classes in Brass Pedagogy and Methods at Boston University; Music History, Music Theory, and Intensive French at Harvard University.

He performs regularly with the Orchestra of Opera Boston, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and several other groups in New England. Also an active chamber musician, he is a founding member of Boston’s Riverside Brass. He has appeared as a soloist at the Music Center’s Kleshinski Concert Series, throughout the United States, and in Europe.  A versatile player, Geoff spent several years performing and recording as a member of the reggae band Pressure Cooker, has played for countless musical show productions—and just about everything in between. His teachers include Terry Everson, Mark Gould, Stephen Jones, Timothy Morrison, and Pierre Thibaud, with whom he studied for several years after coming to Paris on a Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship.

More information—including a calendar of upcoming performances—may be found at gshamu.com.

Flutist, composer, author and educator Fernando Brandão is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has performed extensively as a bandleader, sideman, chamber musician and as a soloist with many ensembles and prominent orchestras both in Brazil and the US.

His new album,  Sem Tradução (Without Translation) features nine original songs with Marcella Camargo as the lead singer and 14 prominent musicians from the Boston area. His vocal and instrumental compositions are centered mostly around Brazilian styles including choro, samba, bossa, ijexá, and baião, and feature traditional and contemporary language and arrangements. With precise technique and refined sound, his interpretations on concert, alto, bass flutes and pífanos combine jazzy improvisations to a truly Brazilian language and sound.

He leads the Fernando Brandão Ensemble, which has recently been featured at the First Cambridge Jazz Festival, and the Isabella Gardner Museum. He also leads the group Alma, the gafieira band Bohemia Carioca, and he is an active member of the groups Pablo Ablanedo Octet, Trio Choro Brasil, Sergio Brandão & Manga Rosa and Teresa Inês Quintet. He has also played or recorded with Oscar Castro-Neves, Rosa Passos, Luciana Souza, Kris Adams, John Stein Quartet, Leandro Braga, Maria Teresa Madeira, Emmanuel Music Orchestra with conductors Criag Smith, Seiji Ozawa, and pianist Russell Sherman.

Mr. Brandão is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and a faculty member of the Community Music Center of Boston. A leading educator in Brazilian music, he has given many lectures about its music styles, history and composers, and he is the author of the play-along book Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception, published by Advance Music. His compositions have been recorded by Choro das Três, guitarist Almir Cortes and New World Guitar Trio. He was the first prize winner of several national music competitions in Brazil, and the 1991 Pappoutsakis Flute Competition in Boston.

A native of Newburyport Massachusetts, Jared Holaday is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell with a degree in saxophone performance.  An avid performer and multi-instrumentalist, he has seen on stage with various musical groups throughout New England including Groove Alliance, Introduction: The Chicago experience, 10,000 Maniacs, and the Boston Civic Symphony. He also makes frequent appearances playing in local theater pit orchestras where his ability to play multiple instruments in any style keeps him in demand.

Jared currently teaches music at the Governor’s Academy in Byfield, MA as well as the Community Music Center of Boston’s Satellite Program at Boston Latin School.

Boston-area percussionist and educator Andy Fordyce has taught at CMCB since 2013. He is currently a doctoral candidate at New England Conservatory of Music in Contemporary Improvisation, and is on the faculty at UMass Lowell. Andy is primarily interested in popular and improvised music.

Neil Godwin is a native of West Monroe, LA, where he began his horn studies with Dr. Gary Greene at Northeast Louisiana University. Neil holds degrees in horn performance and conducting from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he was a student of Dennis Behm in horn and Drs. Timothy Koch and Jay Dean in conducting. In 2001, Neil came to Boston in order to pursue further horn studies at Boston University under the tutelage of Eric Ruske. Additionally, he has performed in masterclasses and workshops with such noted horn players as Dale Clevenger, David Jolley, Roger Kaza, Jeff Nelsen, Karl Pituch, Denise Tryon, and Frøydis Ree Wekre. While in Boston, Neil has engaged in a busy and varied career as both a performer and pedagogue. As a new music specialist, Neil enjoys performing frequently with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Callithumpian Consort, and on the other extreme, he has explored natural horn performance practice with Grand Harmonie. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Neil performs with the Solar Wind Quintet, the Boston Woodwind Society Octet, and the Epic Brass Quintet. Neil is a member of the Plymouth Philharmonic, and he has formerly held positions with the Discovery Ensemble, the Hillyer Festival Orchestra, the Simon Sinfonietta, and the Gardner Museum Chamber Orchestra. Furthermore, Neil has performed with many of the orchestras in the region including the Boston Philharmonic, the New Bedford Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, Symphony by the Sea, and the Claflin Hill Symphony. Neil is a member of the brass and ensembles faculties at the Community Music Center of Boston where he teaches brass private lessons both in house and at the Boston Latin School and serves as director of the Junior Wind Ensemble. Neil is also the assistant director of CMCB’s Summer Music program, where he directs the wind ensemble and coaches chamber music.

Anna Bradford is a performer and educator in the Boston area, and is also a doctoral candidate at Boston University.  She currently holds positions as the oboe fellow of Symphony Nova and as principal oboe of the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra. As a freelancer, Anna also performs with the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, and the Claflin Hill Symphony. In 2014, Anna was named the winner of the Boston Woodwind Society’s Ralph Gomberg Oboe Competition for a performance of Telemann’s Sonata in E Minor TWV 41e:6.

As a music educator, Anna has taught private oboe lessons since 2006 and is currently on the faculty at the Community Music Center of Boston and the Dana Hall School of Music. She also teaches chamber music and coaches woodwind sectionals for non-major students at Boston University. Previous to her time in Boston, Anna helped to kick-start the Musical Arts Youth Orchestra (MAYO) in Bloomington, Indiana by performing and recruiting in public schools. She has also led clinics and master classes in Michigan public schools and at summer music camps throughout Michigan.

Anna Bradford is currently in pursuit of her Doctorate of the Musical Arts at Boston University, and holds a Master of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from Western Michigan University. Her principal teachers have included Robert Sheena, Andrew Price, Linda Strommen, Roger Roe, Dr. Michael Miller, and Dr. Nancy Ambrose King.

Earl Grant-Lawrence is a Wind Instructor at the Community Music Center of Boston. He holds a B.M. Degree in Applied Flute from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and a Masters of Music Degree in Music Composition from the Boston Conservatory of Music. During the early 70’s at Fisk University, he was a soloist with the Jazz band called the Orchestrated Crowd. This band had the distinction of appearing with such jazz greats as Quincy Jones and the late Duke Ellington.

He is currently a member of the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he plays the contrabass flute. As a member of the flute orchestra, he toured France, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He will tour England and Scotland with the orchestra in 2016.

From 2008-2013 he played the concert flute during the winter season with the Melrose Symphony Orchestra. From 1993 until 2005 he worked as an Instrumental Band Director in the summer DARTS program at Tanglewood, an arts camp for New England Area students, sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

From 1994 to 2000 he was a member of the Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble. The ensemble performed with Raphe Malik and also performed at the Toronto Jazz Festival in Canada.

One of the area’s most versatile musicians, Ms. Matasy has been described in The Boston Globe as “a musician of depth and refinement,” and her solo performances have been praised as “a rare feat,” “riveting,” “ravishing” and brilliant.” She has performed (as clarinetist, bass clarinetist and/or accordionist) with most of the region’s major musical organizations, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, among others. Highly regarded as an interpreter of contemporary music (with “technique to burn”), she is a founding member of the critically acclaimed new music ensemble Dinosaur Annex and a frequent guest artist with Boston’s many new music groups. In addition to teaching at the CMCB, she is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music and Wellesley College.

A multi-instrumentalist and singer, Ms. Sollogub performs on and teaches Appalachian dulcimer, recorders, tinwhistle and guitar. She has studied conducting at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell and also with conductor Joshua Jacobson and has completed two levels of Dalcroze Eurythmics at Longy School of Music. Ms. Sollogub has published two books: “Shiron L’Shalom,” a source book of Jewish music for peace education, and “A Dulcimer Portfolio,” original and traditional tunes for the advancing mountain dulcimer player. She has led classes in general music, recorder and chorus at five Boston Public Schools.

Ms. Underhill teaches at the South Shore Music Center and Boston College as well as serving as Manager for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (GBYSO) and Director of Instrumental Music at St. Mark’s School. She has performed with the Moody Blues, Placido Domingo, Tony Bennett and the Panamanian Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Harvard University Mozart Society Orchestra, GBYSO, and the Little Orchestra of Victoria. She has also performed in Minneapolis, Chicago, Holland, New York City and St. Petersburg, Russia. She is also a member of Alea III. She has developed a cataloguing system for ethnic recordings with composer Martin Bartlett and has organized Gunther Schuller’s personal collection. She is the recipient of the 2001 Kay Logan Award for her development of the chamber music program at GBYSO.

Teaching Philosophy:

I am passionate about music and playing the bassoon.  I try to help each student discover what about music and bassoon speaks to him or her.  My hope is that this is something that they will take with them for the rest of their lives.  What we work on in lessons is something I modify based on the level, learning style and goals of the individual student.  Most of my students use bassoon as part of their college application whether they are just planning continuing playing or are majoring in music; I help guide students through this process.