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Mary Ann Craig
Professor of Music
Former Director of Bands
Coordinator of Brass Program
Euphonium
973-655-7779
craigm@mail.montclair.edu

Prof. Mary Ann Craig teaches conducting, brass classes, and applied euphonium. She is immediate Past President of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association, an organization of 2,000 members from over forty countries. As a conductor Prof. Craig conducted the leading professional, military, and conservatory concert bands in Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary, and the World Honors Ensemble in Finland. She was awarded the title of Honored Professor of Moscow State University of Culture and Arts in 2003 for the contributions she has made to the development of wind bands in Russia. Prof. Craig has been the New Jersey State Chair for the College Band Directors National Association and the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors. She served on the Board of Directors of the International Women's Brass Conference and as Chair for the Society for Music Teacher Education-Eastern Division. Prof. Craig was the first woman to be invited to be guest conductor of the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Band Festival since its founding. As a euphonium soloist and low brass clinician, Prof. Craig has appeared throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, Australia, and Canada. She is the founder of the Colonial Euphonium and Tuba Institute and a member of the Colonial Tuba Quartet (CTQ). Prof. Craig has released two solo euphonium recordings as well as a CD with the CTQ. She is featured in Anne Gray's Women in Classical Music.

Jeff Scott
Visiting Specialist
French horn
973-655-7212

Jeff Scott received his Bachelor's degree from Manhattan School of Music, and Master's Degree from SUNY at Stony Brook. He studied with Jerome Ashby, David Jolley, Scott Brubaker and William Purvis and performed in a wind quintet coached by the late Samuel Baron of the New York Woodwind Quintet. Mr. Scott's performance credits include The Lion King and other Broadway shows such as, On the Town and Showboat. He has been a member of the Alvin Ailey and Dance Theater of Harlem Orchestras since 1995 and has performed under the direction of Wynton Marsalis and Arturo O'Farrill with the Lincoln Center Jazz and Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestras. He has performed extensively as a studio musician and can be heard on movie soundtracks scored by Terrence Blanchard, Tan Dun and on commercial recordings with notable artists such as, Chico O'Farill, Robin Eubanks, Freddy Cole, and Jimmy Heath amongst others. He has toured with artists such as Barbra Streisand and the late Luther Vandross. Mr. Scott is also an arranger and composer whose works include scoring the off-Broadway production of Becoming Something, The Canada Lee Story, the staged production of Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot, and many arrangements and original works for wind and brass quintet, horn quartet, and jazz ensembles. Mr. Scott has been on the horn faculty of the Cali School of Music since 2002.

Nancy Billmann
Visiting Specialist
French horn
973-655-7212
nancybillmann@verizon.net

Horn player Nancy Billmann leads an active freelance career that includes chamber music, contemporary music, orchestral, operatic, and Broadway experiences. Billmann was a member of the Dorian Wind Quintet for 13 years and is active with chamber music ensembles in the New York area. As an orchestral musician, she frequently performs with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York City Opera, American Symphony, Stamford Symphony, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, and on Broadway. She has appeared at OK Mozart, Tanglewood, the Festival Institute at Round Top (where she was also a faculty member), the Caramoor Festival, and the Monadnock Music Festival. Ms. Billmann grew up in Wisconsin, and received a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she studied with Douglas Hill.  She completed both her Master’s Degree and the Professional Studies Program at The Juilliard School, studying with David Wakefield and has made her home in New York City since 1989.

Angela Cordell
Visiting Specialist
French horn
973-655-7212
on leave 2008-2009

Angela Cordell maintains a varied chamber music and orchestral career in New York City. She has performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performed and toured frequently with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has also played with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, at Bargemusic, and as a guest at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival. She also plays frequently in the Broadway theaters. She spent several summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and toured with Musicians from Marlboro. In the 2001-2002 season she lived in Mexico where she was principal horn of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico, maintained a private studio of young conservatory musicians and coached members of the youth orchestra in Toluca. Ms. Cordell received a bachelor's degree at Florida State University where she studied horn with William Capps and Terry Roberts, and piano with James Streem. She then went on to attend the Juilliard School where she received a master's degree studying with Jerome Ashby.

Donald Batchelder
Visiting Specialist
Trumpet
973-736-7299
donbatchelder@verizon.net

Donald Batchelder is Principal Trumpet of the New York City Opera Orchestra, where he has played full-time since 2000. Recognized as an outstanding free-lance trumpeter in the New York area since 1983, he performs frequently with the Metropolitan Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Symphony, and on Broadway. In addition to his work with the New York City Opera, Mr. Batchelder holds the principal trumpet chairs in the Westfield (NJ) Symphony and the Stamford (CT) Symphony. He earned both a Bachelors and a Masters Degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with William Vacchiano and Mel Broiles. Other influential teachers include Vince Penzarella, Arnold Jacobs and Philip Smith. Among Mr. Batchelder's recent solo appearances: When Speaks the Signal-Trumpet Tone by David Gillingham, with the Ridgewood Concert Band; the Shostakovich Concerto for Piano and Trumpet with both the Stamford Symphony and the New York Virtuosi; the world premiere of Trent Johnson's Concertino for Trumpet and Organ; David Sampson's Triptych with the Westfield Symphony; and Herbert L. Clarke's Southern Cross with the Goldman Band. Mr. Batchelder joined the music faculty of Montclair State University in September 2000.

Charles Bumcrot
Visiting Specialist
Trumpet
973-655-7212
cbumcrot@optonline.net

Chuck Bumcrot earned the M.M. in Performance and Literature at the Manhattan School of Music after completing a B.M. in both Music Ed. and Performance at San Francisco State University. He is currently Principal/Solo trumpet with the New Haven, CT, based Orchestra New England. He can be heard with the American Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, The Orchestra of St. Lukes, Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Chamber Symphony, The Westfield Symphony, The Little Orchestra Society of New York, Solisti New York, NPR and PBS, as well as Japan National Television and Radio. Recording labels include Sony/CBS, CBS Masterworks, Deutsche Grammophon, Delos, Koch International Classics, New World and CSM. Most recently, Mr. Bumcrot performed the world premier of William Ryden's Sonata for Trumpet and Orchestra (commissioned by Orchestra New England). He also participated on several Grammy nominated recording sessions and collaborations, is in the process of commissioning several works, and is recording a disc of solo works for trumpet.

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.

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.

Kyle Turner
Visiting Specialist
Tuba
(973) 655-7212
kturner6@nyc.rr.com

Kyle Turner has performed over 500 concerts with the New York Philharmonic. He also performs regularly with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Saturday Brass, Concordia Orchestra, Solisti New York, Riverside Symphony, Solid Brass, and the Lake George Opera Orchestra. He has also performed with many other ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, NYC Ballet, NYC Opera, the American Composers Orchestra, American Ballet Orchestra, New York Chamber Orchestra, the American Horn Quartet, various Broadway shows (playing bass-trombone and tuba), and Harmonic Brass of Munich. Mr. Turner also works in the recording industry and has played for over 75 television commercials, feature films such as The Rookie, Tom & Huck, Journey of August King, Ransom, Michael Collins, Primary Colors, You've Got Mail. He has recorded for many labels including Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, Warner Brothers, Angel, Dorian, EBS, Music Masters, Koch Classics, Arabesque, Musical Heritage Society, and many independent labels. His solo album, Expressions, has received rave reviews since its release in 2005.