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Katherine Mallimo
Accompanist
973-655-7212

VJ Manzo 
Adjunct Faculty
Music Technology
(973) 655-7212
VJ Manzo - Website

Vincent Joseph Manzo, earned his Bachelor’s degree from Kean University, his Master's In Music from New York University and is currently pursuing a PhD from Temple University with a focus in Interactive Music Systems for education. He has had many years of performance experience in prominent venues including the NJPAC and the PNC Arts Center and has performed in many countries including South Africa and the Philippines. As a composer, he has scored works for both traditional instruments and electronic musical interfaces. In 2007, he founded EAMIR (the electro-acoustic musically interactive room), an open-source project involving alternate controllers and a sensor-filled room allowing individuals and those with disabilities to create meaningful music with accessible musical interfaces. In 2008, EAMIR began a partnership with Korg and Soundtree which further established the EAMIR project as a vital community for music technology in the classroom. In 2001, he founded Clear Blue Media, LLC, a publishing label, which has been the pathway for many of his recordings including his art music compositions and progressive popular works by his ensemble Clear Blue.

Anthony Mazzocchi
Visiting Specialist
Trombone
973-655-7212
Anthony Mazzocchi - Web site

Anthony Mazzocchi received a Bachelors and Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music in NYC. He studied with Per Brevig of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Steven Norrell, David Finlayson and Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic. He received the Janet Schenck Award for Outstanding Musicianship from the school in 1997. He has performed with many orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera, Riverside Symphony, and Key West Symphony. He has performed in various Broadway shows and can be heard on numerous recordings and movie soundtracks including Mimic and Live with the Brian Wilson Orchestra. He is a guest clinician with the New York and New Jersey Youth Symphonies, and a guest conductor for the Brooklyn College Wind Ensemble and various honor bands in the New York area. Mr. Mazzocchi has acted as a soloist and clinican at New York University, Brooklyn College, and Cal Tech University. He is on the Board of Advisors to the International Association for Jazz Education, and also serves on the Board of Directors to the Kinhaven Summer Music School in Vermont.

Lori McCann
Assistant Professor
Voice
973-655-6983
mccannl@mail.montclair.edu

Soprano Lori McCann holds a B.M. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, M.A degree from San Diego State University, and D.M.A. and Artist Diploma from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She has performed extensively in the United States and abroad appearing in opera, oratorio, and recital. She has been regularly featured with the Berliner Kammeroper and the Neue Opernbühne (Berlin, Germany) and with the Virginia Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn, Whitewater Opera, Sorg opera, Shreveport Opera, and Pacific Chamber Opera in the U.S. Her roles have included the Governess (Turn of the Screw), Fulvia (Ezio, Händel), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte), Mimi (La Bohème), The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen), Giulia (La scala di seta, Rossini), Iphigénie (Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck), Mary Warren (The Crucible, Ward), Jessie (Mahagonny-Songspiel, Weill), Second Lady (The Magic Flute), Amor (Orfeo ed Eurydice, Gluck), and others. Her oratorio repertoire includes: Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem; Mozart - Requiem, Vesprae solemnes de confessore, and Regina Coeli; Händel - Messiah and L'allegro ed il pensieroso; Bach - Magnificat, Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion; Debussy - La Demoiselle élue and works by Dubois, Monteverdi, Rossini, Haydn, Vivaldi, Canteloube, Mahler and several world premier oratorio works. Before coming to the Cali School she taught throughout the world and maintained teaching studios in metropolitan areas including San Diego, Cincinnati, Berlin and Muenster, Germany, and New York City.

Thomas McCauley
Assistant Professor of Music
Director of University Bands
973-655-7036
mccauleyt@mail.montclair.edu

Thomas McCauley is the conductor of the Montclair State University Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band. He came to the Cali School from the University of Indianapolis, where he was Director of Instrumental Music Activities and the founder of the University of Indianapolis Chamber (later Symphony) Orchestra. He earned a Doctor of Music degree in conducting from Northwestern University where his primary teacher was Mallory Thompson, and holds a Master and Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has been mentored by such notable conductors as Larry Rachleff and Stanley DeRusha. At Montclair, he has initiated a workshop called the Weekend Wind Conducting Symposium held in November with special guest clinicians from around the world. This builds on his work as the host and teacher of University of Indianapolis Instrumental Conducting Workshop with such notable guest clinicians as Eugene Corporon, Jerry Junkin, Craig Kirchhoff, Felix Hauswirth, and Mallory Thompson. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Northshore Concert Band, as associate conductor of the Indianapolis Brass Choir at the 15th International Congress of the International Society for the Investigation and Promotion of Band Music in Italy, and he has led the University of Indianapolis Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Chamber Orchestra on a tour of the major cities of Austria. He was the creator and host of Music Education Matters, a 30-minute radio talk show heard weekly on WICR in Indianapolis. In 1995, the Nevada Music Educator’s Association named Dr. McCauley Music Educator of the Year and in 2006, the Indiana Music Educators Association honored Dr. McCauley with an Outstanding University Music Educator Award.

Linda McKnight
Visiting Specialist
Double Bass
973-655-7212
lindamcknight@optonline.net

Linda McKnight has taught double bass at MSU for over a decade, as she has at Manhattan School of Music, Columbia University, and Columbia Teachers College. Born and raised in New Jersey, she attended Ridgewood public schools and studied double bass at the Juilliard School under Frederick Zimmermann. Additional bass studies were done with Stuart Sankey, Joseph Cascelli, Warren Benfield, Henry Portnoi, and Homer Mensch. Ms. McKnight has performed extensively in orchestras and chamber music groups throughout New Jersey and New York, including Wayne (NJ) Chamber Orchestra, Colonial Symphony of New Jersey, Masterwork Messiah productions at Carnegie Hall, and Opera Orchestra of New York, with whom she has recorded on the BIS-Sweden label. She has been a featured guest artist in workshops and clinics across the United States, addressing groups of parents, educators, and students on the contrabass and music education. She succeeded her teacher, the late Frederick Zimmermann of the Juilliard School, as Master Teacher of Double Bass for the New Jersey Summer Conference of the American String Teachers Association, a position she has held for two decades. She is published in String Tones, Tempo, American String Teacher, and International Society of Bassists magazines. Her edition of Paul Ramsier's Pieces for Friends is available through Boosey and Hawkes.

Marla Meissner
Adjunct Faculty
Theory - Composition
Preparatory Center for the Arts - Acting Director
973-655-4443
meissnerm@mail.montclair.edu

Marla Meissner has been awarded degrees from Ithaca College (B. Mus), Montclair State University (M. A.), and New York University (Ph. D). Her training includes electronic music composition studies with Peter Rothbart; acoustic music composition with Ting Ho and Ruth Schonthal; Saxophone studies with David Henderson, Steven Mauk, and Daniel Trimboli; Music theory and analysis studies with Lawrence Ferrara, John Gilbert, and Marc Holland. She recently completed an extensive study of the music of the Delaware or Lenape Indian. Her compositional output includes an eclectic variety of electronic, electroacoustic, and traditional compositions for various types of instrumental ensembles as well as film soundtracks, theater music, and rock and jazz compositions. Her music has been performed in various venues including Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall and New York City's Angelika Film Center. Her first CD, Selections from the Kaleidoscope, was released in 1999. She is also an active music administrator serving as the Acting Director and Coordinator of Music Theory for the Preparatory Center for the Arts of Montclair State University.

Jesse Mills
Visiting Specialist
Violin
973-655-7212

Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention.  In 2004, Mills made his professional concerto debut with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra conducted by Nicholas McGegan in a unique partnership with Salsa trombonist, Jimmy Bosch.  This project combined a classical performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with Mills as violin soloist, and a Salsa band arrangement of the same piece, fronted by Bosch and Mills as improvising soloists.  As a chamber musician Mr. Mills has performed at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie's Weill Hall, Columbia University's Miller Theater, Boston's Gardener Museum, the CooperArts Series at Cooper Union, and at the Marlboro Music Festival.  An avid performer of contemporary works, Mr. Mills was a member of the FLUX Quartet for two years; this ensemble is dedicated to the performance of music written in the past 50 years.  Through his collaboration with cellist Fred Sherry, Mr. Mills has performed various compositions of Zorn, Wuorinen, Webern, Schoenberg, among others, and they have made recordings on NAXOS, Tzadik, and Stretch records.  He can also be heard on New Spirit - a new recording for the Verve label by jazz pianist, Makoto Ozone.  Mr. Mills is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Robert Mann.

Donald Mintz
Professor Emeritus
Musicology

Bill Moring
Visiting Specialist
Bass
973-655-7212

Bassist Bill Moring is a versatile jazz artist whose scope includes the big bands of legends Count Basie and Woody Herman, jammin' jazz/funk and beyond with the Dave Stryker/Steve Slagle quartet or stretching harmonic and rhythmic boundaries with John Hart and Chris Potter. He attended Indiana State University while also playing in cellist Hank Roberts group, gigging around Indianapolis and Cincinnati and studying with local pianists Claude Sifferlen and Steve Allee. In 1980 he began working with John Von Ohlen's big band, playing at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis, and recording a live record that was Grammy nominated. he also played locally with Dizzy Gillespie, Slide Hampton, and Cal Collins. After moving to New York City in 1984 Bill worked with drummer Mel Lewis. He toured with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd and received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant to study with Rufus Reid. He continued his studies with the legendary Homer Mensch. In 1987, Bill toured the world with the Count Basie Orchestra. Other big band experiences include the Village Vanguard Orchestra and the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabakin Jazz Orchestra. He has played with renowned singers such as Joe Williams, Mel Tormé and Susannah McCorkle, and with jazz legends Frank Foster, AI Cohn, Clark Terry, Mickey Roker, Tommy Flanagan, Junior Cook, Roland Hanna and Ray Barretto. He has also performed and/or recorded with many contemporary artists including John Abercrombie, Gary Bartz, Manolo Badrena, Larry Coryell, Vic Juris, Dave Kikoski, Billy Hart, John Hart, Eddie Henderson, Joe Locke, Mulgrew Miller, Chris Potter, Dom Salvador, Dave Stryker, and James Williams.

Thomas Mulvaney
Visiting Specialist
Percussion
973-655-7212

Thomas Mulvaney has performed on Broadway in Grease and many freelance engagements including jazz, shows, and orchestra performances. A versatile musician, Tom is frequently heard throughout the metropolitan area.

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Eric Olsen
Adjunct Professor
Accompanist
Keyboard Harmony
973-655-7212
erolsen@yahoo.com
Eric Olsen website

Eric Olsen (M.M., Jazz Studies, Indiana University, M.M., Piano Performance, Indiana University, B.M. in Piano Performance with an Organ Minor, Syracuse University) is distinguished as both a classical and jazz pianist, organist, composer, and conductor.  Mr. Olsen is Music Director and Organist at Union Congregational Church in Montclair, where he has conducted numerous major works with chamber orchestras, featuring musicians from the New Jersey Symphony.  He has composed classical works for chorus, piano, and organ, and jazz works for various ensembles.  He has performed as a classical and jazz pianist at Carnegie Hall, Birdland, the Knitting Factory, and overseas in France, Germany, New Zealand, and India.  Mr. Olsen has recorded six classical albums and four jazz albums, and has worked with many outstanding jazz and classical artists, including Eliot Zigmund, George Garzone, Glenn Davis, Ed Cherry, David N. Baker, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Kevin Maynor.  His latest recording is Dyad, a duo album with saxophonist Lou Caimano. Paquito D’Rivera, Grammy winning saxophonist and composer, says of Dyad: “Caimano and Olsen go back and forth through the too often forbidden borders between Classical and Jazz, with the ease of a couple of North-Mexican coyotes crossing the Rio Grande.”  Mr. Olsen has been a featured soloist with the Livingston Symphony, the Central Jersey Symphony, and the Orchard Park Symphony. He has been a featured jazz performer at the AT&T, Berk’s, and Asbury Park Jazz Festivals. 

Darren O'Neill
Visiting Specialist
Guitar
Research Methods
973-655-7212
darrenini@yahoo.com

Darren O'Neill is that rare combination of performer and scholar. His achievements as performer have included a Carnegie Hall debut as the result of winning the 1997 Artists International New York Debut Competition. His achievements as scholar have included principal editorial control over the re-engraving of the complete works of Fernando Sor. Mr. O'Neill holds a Masters Degree in classical guitar performance from Montclair State University and a Masters Degree in Library Service from Rutgers University. His library career has taken him to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts where he served as the Administrator to Special Collections in the Music Research Division.

Stephen Oosting

Tenor Stephen Oosting has been hailed as an interpreter of Britten and Bach, Strauss and Mozart, Puccini and Wagner. He has had a long career in opera, where he has sung more than forty leading roles, and in concert work, where he has appeared frequently as an oratorio soloist and recitalist. In addition he has been a frequent champion of new music premiering works for numerous composers. His concert appearances include those with the Aspen Festival, the Madeira Bach Festival, the Vermont Mozart Festival, the Basically Bach Festival, and with the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony an the Rochester Philharmonic. He has recorded for RCA, Newport Classics, and the Albany labels (the first recording of the American composer Stephen Albert's orchestral song cycle Into Eclipse). Prof. Oosting holds a doctorate and a performer's certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and a Master's from Michigan /state University. He is also the current NJ State Governor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

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Mark Pakman
Assistant Professor
Piano
973-655-7212

Mark Pakman's solo recitals and collaborations with other musicians have taken him throughout North America, Mexico, Russia and Europe. He performed at New York major concert halls and Richter Museum in Moscow, at a Mostly Mozart Festival pre-concert, Bard and Amati Festivals in New York State, 8th International Cervantino Festival in Mexico, Musica Camerino Festivals in Italy and Bedford Springs Festivals in Pennsylvania. He also appeared on radio and TV. Mr. Pakman premiered compositions by Hayess Biggs and Alexander Zhurbin and wrote program notes for the Russian Disc and Consonance CD releases. A graduate of Moscow State Conservatory, Mr. Pakman has been on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and Preparatory Division and 92nd Street Y School of Music. He serves on the board of the Leschetizky Association. He has judged numerous auditions and competitions including a scholarship competition at the Juilliard Preparatory Division. His students have won prestigious competition awards. Mr. Pakman has been working at Montclair State University since 1980.

John Palatucci
Visiting Specialist
Euphonium
973-655-7212

John Palatucci holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education and a Master of Arts degree in music performance from Montclair State, where he studied euphonium and trombone with Ward Moore, John Elwood Williams and Don Butterfield. He has performed extensively as a euphonium solist with groups including the Mark Heter Brass Band, Goldman Memorial Band, Hartford Symphony, Ridgewood Concert Band, Missouri Brass Consortium, the American Chamber Orchestra, Garden State Symphonic Band and the Montclair Citadel Band of the Salvation Army. He has toured as principal euphonium with Keith Brion's New Sousa Band and in 1992 performed at the Sousa Centennial playing The Voice Of The Departing Soul, a work for solo euphonium and band which was the first piece ever played by the Sousa Band. He has been heard over WFME and WQXR radio and has recorded for Delos Records International, the Educational Testing Service, Koch Records and the Musical Heritage Society. Mr. Palatucci has appeared in both recital and concert with the New York Philharmonic's principal trumpet Philip Smith and principal trombone Joseph Alessi, euphonium soloist Jason Ham of the West Point Band, jazz euphoniumist John Allred and tuba virtuoso Harvey Phillips and has performed with musicians ranging from Placido Domingo, Jerome Hines and Robert Merrill to Dave Brubeck to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Susan Palma-Nidel
Visiting Specialist
Flute
973-655-7212
spnflute@gmail.com

Flutist Susan Palma-Nidel is the principal flutist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and Speculum Musicae. She has performed as soloist and principal flutist with many groups including Martha Graham and Paul Taylor Dance Companies, the Stuttgart, Netherlands and Royal Ballet, Madeira Bach Festival, Santa Fe Opera and Bach Chamber Soloists. She has performed internationally as soloist in concertos of Mozart, Vivaldi, Telemann, Ibert, Kirchner and Gandolfi and has premiered works of many composers including Carter, Babbitt, and Mackay. She has appeared on over 100 recordings. Her recording of the Mozart Flute Concertos and the Flute and Harp Concerto with Nancy Allen and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra was named the "best recording of these works to date" by Gramophone Magazine. Other recordings include the 2001 Grammy winning Shadow Dances (chamber works of Stravinsky) with Orpheus. She has also recorded chamber music with bassoonist Frank Morelli, a Latin-American CD with Denyce Graves, new songs with jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, a DVD with Jane Monheit and a recording with Tony Bennett and KD Lang. Ms. Palma-Nidel is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School. She is currently on the faculty of Columbia University.

Caroline Parody
Adjunct Faculty
Secondary Voice
973-655-7212
parodyc@mail.montclair.edu

Caroline Parody received her master's degree in piano from Montclair State University, and her bachelors degree from William Paterson University. Roles include Elsa in Lohengrin with Operesque Classical Concerts, and Greta Fiorentino in Kurt Weill's opera Street Scene. She has been a featured performer at Al Di La's Opera Nights (Montclair, NJ) and and has performed in Too Many Sopranos with the La Bella Voce opera ensemble. She participated in a scenes program at Dicapo Opera Theatre in NYC, as Agathe in Der Freischütz. In MSU's Opera Workshop, she played Elisetta in Il segreto matrimonio, and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In addition to her work at MSU, Ms. Parody serves as vocal coach and accompanist for the Newark Boys Chorus School. She is also an accompanist for several groups, including Zion Lutheran Church in Saddle River (organ), MSU, the Concord Singers, and the Oratorio Society of New Jersey. She studies voice with Thaddeus Motyka, and coaches with Louis Menendez.

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.

Mary Pinto
Accompanist
973-655-7212

Mary Pinto received her Bachelor's in piano performance from DePauw University in Indiana. She continued her studies by getting Master's in vocal accompanying and coaching at the University of Illinois in Chapaign-Urbana with John Wustman (accompanist for Luciano Pavarotti). Upon graduaton, she worked as a coach and accompanist at the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists (Chicago), at the Dallas Opera, San Antonio Lyric Opera, Omaha Opera, Florentine Opera (Milwaukee, WI).

Mark Polishook
Adjunct Professor
Music Technology
polishookm@mail.montclair.edu
Mark Polishook - Website

New media artist, composer and jazz pianist Mark Polishook has a D.M.A. in Composition from the Hartt School of Music, an M.M. in Jazz from the Manhattan School of Music, and an M.A. in Composition from the University of Pittsburgh. He has been an artist-in-residence in the Computer Science Department at Aarhus University in Denmark, a visiting composer at the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology at UC-Santa Barbara, a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in the Electro-acoustic Music Studio at the Cracow Academy of Music, and a Resident Artist in the Television/New Media Department at the Banff Centre for the Arts. His electronic chamber opera, Seed of Sarah, was developed into an independent film by Emmy award-winning director Andrea Weiss and has been seen across Europe, the United States, and New Zealand. Mr. Polishook has lectured on computer programming and composing at the International Academy of Media Art and Science in Okagi City, Japan, the Interactive Institute in Piteå, Sweden, the Cracow Academy of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. A semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and a finalist in the Great American Jazz Piano Competition, Mr. Polishook has performed with many well-known improvisers.

Murray Present
Professor Emeritus
Piano