Jeff Conner

Artistic Director, Summer Music Institute

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Jeff is the only original member of Boston Brass. He founded the group with some fellow Boston musicians while a student at Boston University and has engineered the meteoric rise of this ensemble’s fame in the world of popular chamber music. Jeff received his master’s degree in Music from Boston University and his bachelor’s degree in music from Boston Conservatory of Music. Jeff is a Yamaha Performing Artist, bringing 36 years experience of building and branding the Boston Brass name in the world of chamber music. He is also on the Artistic Advisory Committee for Mahidol College of Music in Bangkok, Thailand.

In 2020, Jeff was awarded the National Distinguished Eagle Scout Award for Eagle Scouts who achieve extraordinary national-level recognition, fame, or eminence within their profession and/or service to the nation.

His entrepreneurial clinic, "The Portfolio Musician" is designed to challenge, engage and assist young musicians conceptualize their potential in the music industry. He is co-author of “The Portfolio Musician, Case Studies in Success” with Grammy Nominated Musician John Laverty.

Connie Vanco Galli

Programming Coordinator: K-12 Curriculum & Instruction

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Connie served as choral director and Visual and Performing Arts Department coordinator at Shepherd Hill Regional High School from 1982 until she retired in June of 2017. During her tenure at Shepherd Hill, Connie designed and implemented a diverse and inclusive music curriculum based on the premise that music should be available and accessible to all students. She was instrumental in bringing show choir to Central Massachusetts, founding the nationally recognized group Fantasy, known for their innovative programming and excellence in performance.

Connie continues to be involved in the show choir community as a sought after clinician, adjudicator, and arranger. After retiring from Shepherd Hill, Connie joined the faculty at Anna Maria College where she filled multiple roles as Chorus Director, adjunct instructor for Ear Training and Music Technology, and supervising teacher for music education students. She is also choir director at Saint Louis Church in Webster, a position she has held since 1978, and director of Rock Voices of Auburn, an adult community choir focused on healing ourselves and others through music.

Dan Thomas

teaching artist/Songwriting instructor

Curriculum Vitae
 

Dan Thomas is a composer, bandleader, educator and internationally touring freelance guitarist based in Western Massachusetts. He holds a M.M. in Jazz Composition and Arranging from the University of Massachusetts. Since 2008, Dan has taught privately and in classroom settings from preschool through college. Dan is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience with students and believes that music education is a vital part of any well-rounded curriculum. Since 2019, Dan has worked with the OpporTUNEity Music Connections program, providing guitar, piano and songwriting instruction to inmates at the Worcester, Hampshire and Franklin County correctional facilities. In an effort to continue offering music education post-incarceration, Dan also teaches guitar and songwriting classes for returning citizens at Clark University. On the stage and in the classroom, Dan fosters collaborative community-based work and encourages an open mind and an eagerness to explore a diverse range of musical influences.

Outside of the classroom, Dan has built a diverse career as a multi-genre performing/recording artist. He is the leader of the Valley Moonstompers Society, a western Massachusetts based collective of musicians and fans celebrating the legacy of Jamaican jazz and ska. Dan has worked with many regionally, nationally and internationally recognized artists including Jon Carroll (Starland Vocal Band), Mitch Chakour (Joe Cocker), Mystic Bowie (Tom Tom Club), Cappadonna (Wu Tang Clan), Jim Belushi (Blues Brothers), Ali McGuirk, Jamie Kent, Denroy Morgan, and Peter Blanchette and the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra, to name a few.

Tom Wilson

teaching artist/Songwriting instructor

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Tom is an educator, arranger, composer, and percussionist from central Massachusetts. Currently, he serves as the director of the front ensemble of the University of New Haven Charger Marching Band, as well as a conductor of the concert band. Additionally, he teaches private percussion lessons at Amherst College. Through a long and successful history in the marching arts he is also the front ensemble director of the Jersey Surf World Class Drum and Bugle Corps.

From freelance arranging work for high school and higher education marching band programs across the country to gigging for local orchestras, wind ensembles, and musicals, Thomas stays busy as a musician. He is an active clinician for various band programs throughout New England, and maintains his energetic and uplifting teaching style throughout all idioms as an educator.

John Wayne Cormier Jr.

teaching artist/Songwriting instructor
 

John Wayne is not the actor who comes to mind, at least, not anymore. He decided to "take the mask off" by way of "suggestion" January 11th 2019. The gig was up. Sobriety had revealed his love for musical performance. As an inmate at the WCHOC, he got to attend a song writing class called "Oppor-TUNE-ity" and wound up making headlines from behind bars. Post release, another part of his story was featured on the front page of the Worcester Magazine because John Wayne is an artist who carves his heart into musical performance, baring the scars of experience aesthetically.

Ethan Cogswell

Assistant Teaching Artist

Curriculum VItae
 

With one of Ethan’s first memories being napping in his dad’s guitar case as he practiced, it is fair to say that music has been following him from virtually every point in his life. Coming from Northeastern Massachusetts, Ethan has had a rather jam packed musical career in the more than two decades he has been alive. As a performer, Ethan shows a wide range of genre knowledge on Trumpet, piano, bass guitar, trombone, mandolin, euphonium, and countless others. As a future music educator, he is determined to employ a student-first mindset. Ethan believes that if the student body is as diverse as it is, then the cultures and genres from which we draw curriculum from should be just as broad and inclusive.

As wide ranging as his instrumental capabilities are, his composition and arranging experiences are just as expansive. Arranging movie soundtracks in middle school for his concert band, writing folk tunes for him and his dad to play, even premiering a multi-movement work for his best friend for percussion and trumpet, Ethan has created a compositional catalogue fairly early on in his career, only aiding to his ability to teach and learn with other musicians. His latest compositional journey has him writing for an independent, feature-length film and submitting his more contemporary works to composition competitions with ITG and PASIC.

Paul Boisvert

Teaching Artist/Songwriting Instructor

A Connecticut native, Paul has a long history all revolving around music. After picking up guitar as a teenager, he never looked back. Paul first moved to Massachusetts for school. Now based in Western Massachusetts he has established himself as a freelance guitarist and educator. Performing in various ensembles ranging from big bands to pit gigs, he has a wide range of musical knowledge spanning many different genres.

As an educator Paul runs a private practice, as well as having experience teaching in stores, and has taught a wide range of ages, spanning from 5 to 50. In his work with OpporTUNEity, he started as a college intern in 2019, from the inception of the program in Worcester, working his way to leading classes. He is currently wrapping up his degree in Jazz Studies, specializing in guitar from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Aedan Madden

Assistant Teaching Artist

Aedan is a saxophonist and educator based in Western Massachusetts and has been performing professionally around New England for over 5 years. He graduated in 2023 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz and African American Music Studies. While at UMass he had the privilege of performing as a member of Jazz Ensemble I under the instruction of Jeffery Homes, performing with artists such as Delfeayo Marsalis and Sean Jones. He has studied with notable saxophonists Felipe Salles, Ted Levine, and Edward Orgill and has studied composition and arranging with Jeffery Holmes, Catherine Jensen-Hole, and James Argiro.

Aedan has a variety of performance experience ranging from big band, jazz combos, funk, fusion, to avant-garde and classical. He has performed as a member of the Berkshire Big Band and frequently gigs as a member of the JTC Quintet. He also leads his own group: the Aedan Madden Quartet. Aedan has taught a wide variety of students ranging from age 6 to 50. He has taught music at summer programs and offers private lessons in saxophone and improvisation.

Jared Cruz

Assistant Teaching Artist

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Jared Cruz is a guitarist that performs regularly with his group The Duplex Trio in Western Mass in addition to the Cambridge based jazz funk fusion group Lenny’s Funk Club. He also led the JTC Quintet from 2022-2023. Cruz holds an Associates Degree in Music from Holyoke Community College. During his time there he played in several small groups, and their jazz guitar ensemble. Upon his departure from Holyoke Community College he was the recipient of an Honors Recital, in addition to an award in Music Performance.

Cruz is currently pursing a BA in Jazz Performance specializing in guitar at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He studies with Bob Ferrier and plays in the premier Jazz Ensemble I led by Jeffery Holmes, where he has performed with the likes of Delfeayo Marsalis, Sean Jones, and Haneef Nelson. Cruz has also participated in several small jazz combo groups and the UMass Brazilian Jazz Combo. Additionally, he received a downbeat award playing with the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Cruz has been a participant in the Jazz in July program held at UMass Amherst every summer since 2019, participating in master classes and combo coaching held by artists such as Avery Sharpe, Sheila Jordan, and Luis Perdomo.

Cinamon Blair

Teaching artist/songwriters circle instructor
 

I am a descendant of the Aniyunwiya, Chickahominy and Choctaw Nations, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY on Canarsie and Munsee Lenape Land. As a singer, songwriter, and musician, I have been growing my creative expression over the past 40 years. I love to sing, vocalize harmonies and use music to self-soothe and to build connections, educate, and activate myself and listeners into whatever experience emerges and needs to happen. 

Music has literally been about health wealth my whole life. My creative process and advanced studies foster a people-focused, nurturing approach in to human interactions. In this and many ways, I’ve been inspired by my ancestors and my parents. My mother would sway in front of the speakers while I was in utero, blasting “Blue in Green” off of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis–hyper focused on the person she was growing inside. To this day, this music is my go-to soul soother, imprinted onto my DNA, it still repairs my genetic code. I have been using Music Therapy applications for self-reflection and communal connection most of my life without even knowing that’s what I was doing in an academic or professional sense.

Dan DeCristofaro

Teaching artist/songwriters circle instructor

Dan DeCristofaro is a singer, songwriter, producer and arranger based in Massachusetts. His recent “genre bending” content series has pulled in over 50k followers across multiple platforms. He is also a founding member of Blue Light Bandits, an award winning, 4-piece independent groove rock band from Worcester, MA that has amassed over 3 million streams on Spotify over the course of 3 full length albums, 2 EP’s, and an array of singles. They recently made their festival debut at Boston Calling in May of 2023. In 2022 he formed quiet thrill, a singer / songwriter super duo along with long time friend and collaborator Joel Ansett. They released their debut self-titled album in July ‘22 and their song “Grace” was featured in Spotify’s Fresh Finds playlist. In 2024, they were awarded the Jon Lennon Songwriting Contest Song of The Year for their song “Lost For Now”. Whether Dan is performing with the band or as a solo artist, Dan has been a staple of the New England music scene for over 10 years and stays busy with local showings and record production from his home studio in Northbridge, MA.

Juliet Maglitta

Administrator & Project Manager

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Juliet Maglitta (she/her) is a flutist, administrator, and licensed PreK-12 music educator from Central Massachusetts. She holds a B.M. in Music Education from Anna Maria College. Juliet believes that music education should be accessible, equitable, and enjoyable for all ages and abilities. Her teaching philosophy stems from compassion and kindness, while challenging students in a fun and creative atmosphere.

Juliet has performed in orchestras, wind ensembles, concert bands, pit bands, jazz combos, chamber ensembles, and solo acts across the country. Outside instructing early childhood music education programs, Juliet holds private music lessons for young musicians on flute, piano, and ukulele. She has served as Assistant Music Director & Music Director for many youth, collegiate, and professional theater productions over the past five years.