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Robert Aldridge
Cali School Director
Associate Professor of Music
Theory-Composition
973-655-7028
aldridger@mail.montclair.edu
robertaldridge.com

Robert Aldridge's works for orchestra, opera, music-theater, dance, string quartet, solo and chamber ensembles have been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He has received numerous fellowships and awards for his music from the Guggenheim Foundation (2002), the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2000), National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Massachusetts Artist's Foundation, Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, the Oregon Arts Commission and the Portland Arts Council. His tone poem, Leda and the Swan, a commission from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, The Louisville Orchestra, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, was premiered in January, 2003 at the New Jersey Performing Center for the Arts (NJPAC). He was a founder of the Composers in Red Sneakers, a composer consortium which achieved international recognition in the 1980's. Recordings of his music are available on BMG, GM, Foghorn, SoundVision, Open Loop and Northeastern labels. He received a Doctorate in Composition from the Yale School of Music, a Master's Degree in Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Dean Drummond
Cali School Deputy Director
Associate Professor of Music— Theory-Composition
Partch Institute, Director; Partch Instrumentarium, Curator
973-655-6984
drummondd@mail.montclair.edu
deandrummond.com

Dean Drummond attended the University of Southern California and California Institute of the Arts. He studied trumpet with Don Ellis and John Clyman, composition with Leonard Stein, and worked as musician for and assistant to the composer Harry Partch. He performed in the premieres of Partch's Daphne of the Dunes, And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma, and Delusion of the Fury, and on both Partch Columbia Masterworks recordings made during the late 60's. He has performed and recorded extensively with Newband, which he co-founded with flutist Stefani Starin in 1977, and served as director of the Harry Partch Instrumentarium and taught theory and composition with an emphasis on microtonal music. His music has been recorded on Innova, Mode, and Music and Arts, and performed throughout the world including at Avery Fisher, Alice Tully and Carnegie Hall in New York. He has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Library of Congress, and the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. Drummond has produced and music-directed Harry Partch's The Wayward, Daphne of the Dunes, Oedipus, Delusion of the Fury and his own The Last Laugh, a live film score for the silent film by F.W. Murnau. He has produced and performed on recordings of music by Harry Partch and John Cage and premiered new works by Cage, John Zorn, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lasse Thoresen, Mathew Rosenblum, Elizabeth Brown.  

Lisa DeLorenzo
Cali School Deputy Director
Professor of Music — Music Education (Graduate Coordinator)
Secondary Piano
973-655-7220
delorenzol@mail.montclair.edu

Prof. DeLorenzo holds an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University, an MME from Indiana University, and a BS from West Chester State University -- all degrees in music education. At MSU she is the Coordinator of Music Education where she teaches music education courses and supervises student teachers. Her interests in creative and critical thinking and movement/dance as well as teacher education have provided material for numerous articles in practitioners and research journals. In addition, Prof. DeLorenzo continually seeks teaching opportunities with young children. Her work as a public school music teacher, with the MSU Preparatory Division, and on a Hopi Indiana Reservation attest to that interest.  In 1993-1994, Prof. DeLorenzo was awarded a John A. Goodlad Fellowship for study at the Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle. Her fellowship was one of eighteen selected throughout the country to examine teacher education and school renewal. She served on a writing panel for the New Jersey Department of Education to draft the core proficiencies for music instruction in the State of New Jersey and has been a clinician on music teaching throughout the Eastern region of the USA. Her affiliations with teaching organizations include the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA), and other nationally recognized education organizations.

Administrative Staff

Gina Balestracci
Academic Administrator
973-655-7219
balestraccig@mail.montclair.edu

Gina Balestracci has been at MSU since 1988. She came to Montclair from Stanford University, where she had been director of publicity and public information in the music department, and before that from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she worked in the library system. At the Cali School, Balestracci oversees all of the school of music’s academic administrative needs. She also teaches Freshman Seminar for Music Majors, sings with the Collegium Musicum, and teaches in the University’s Honors Program.

Martha Learner
Concert Manager
973-655-7263
learnerm@mail.montclair.edu

Martha Learner has worked as an administrator, editor, webmaster, musician and visual artist. This experience contributes to her work in the Cali School, where she handles multiple jobs including scheduling and oversight of academic concerts, publications and communications

Andrew Pecota
Secretary
973-655-7212
pecotaa@mail.montclair.edu

Bassoonist Andrew Pecota serves as the Cali secretary. He performs with many orchestras in New Jersey and is studying for a graduate degree in music theory.