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ECA Music Department Faculty
Dr. Nathaniel Adam (Music Theory, History, Composition) is a music theorist, teacher,
composer, collaborative pianist, and choral singer. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (BM,
Music Theory) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MA/PhD, Music Theory). His dissertation,
"Coding OK Computer: Categorization and Characterization of Disruptive Harmonic and Rhythmic Events
in Rock Music," explores new methods for teaching musical analysis through study of rock and popular
music. While at the University of Michigan he taught classes in musicianship, keyboard skills, and rock
history, while studying piano with John Ellis and harpsichord with Edward Parmentier and singing at the
Episcopal Cathedral in Detroit. His compositions have been performed by choirs around the country. His
Rondo for organ and brass was recently premiered by the Washington Brass, and his "Song by Mary
Elizabeth Coleridge" was premiered this past summer at the New York State Summer School of the Arts
(where he spends his summer teaching musicianship and serving as an accompanist). Dr. Adam is currently
the Assistant Editor for the Journal of Music Theory at Yale University, and on the music theory faculty at
Central Connecticut State University.
Istvan Peter B’Racz (Composition, Audio Production) Istvan studied composition, electronic
music, and conducting at the Hartt School of Music, piano at the Yale School of Music, Franz Liszt
Academy of Music in Budapest Hungary (awarded a Fulbright Grant), composition and piano at the
Oberlin Conservatory, Neighborhood Music School (NMS), and the Educational Center for the Arts
(ECA.) Istvan’s musical works have been performed in many venues throughout the United States, as well
as Europe. His influences include electronic, avant garde, electronica, orchestral works, break-core,
traditional classical music, sound mass, tonal, atonal, soundtracks, ambient, “popular” music from 1900 to
present, folk-music, new-age, music of the spheres, glitch, hard-core, ancient music, punk. Often an
aesthetic/philosophy/process/game operates as structural glue in his works- not outwardly obvious in many
cases. As a performer, Istvan performs new works for the keyboard (and various controllers) mixing
elements, traditions and influences). Istvan has taught piano, composition, and music technology at Central
CT State University, Southern CT State University, ECA and NMS.
Amy Christman (Music Department Chair, Vocal Ensembles, Music Theory) A native of
Sandown, New Hampshire, Amy has performed as a pianist, choral artist, and conductor, in New
Hampshire, New York, and Connecticut. Amy earned a BM magna cum laude from the Eastman School of
Music, where she studied piano with Vincent Lenti and Tony Caramia, served as the New York State
President of NYSSMA, and was an inaugural participant in the Eastman School’s innovative Arts
Leadership Program. Amy has worked as a teaching artist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Stamford Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Music Education Collaborative. Amy is active as an
accompanist, choral conductor, and adjudicator in the New Haven area, and has performed as an
accompanist for ensemble and soloists, including the University of Bridgeport University Singers, Cheshire
Community Chorus, and Greenwich Children’s Honor Choir. Amy served as the Director of Choral Music
at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, CT for nine years, where she taught AP Music Theory and
conducted all choral ensembles, which performed extensively in the Northeast, earning superior ratings at
festivals and invitations to perform at Carnegie Hall and Riverside Cathedral in New York City. Amy was
selected as the District Teacher of the Year in 2005 and represented Joel Barlow at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education Institute Redesigning the American High School. Amy has studied conducting with
William Weinhert, Donald Hunsberger, Richard Westenburg, Doreen Rao at the Hartt School of Music,
and James Jordan at Westminster Choir College. In May 2005 Amy completed her Master of Arts degree
at Teachers College Columbia University in Philosophy and Education, working intensively with David
Hanson and Maxine Greene to explore the field of aesthetic philosophy and its implications for arts
education.
Cynthia Eggers (Vocal Technique Class) Cynthia Eggers has been teaching and performing in New
York City and Connecticut since earning her Masters Degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from
Westminster Choir College in 1999. She recently moved to the New Haven area from Park Slope,
Brooklyn, where she maintained a private vocal and piano studio of students of all ages, genres and levels.
Her students have included performers at New York's Metropolitan Opera, HBO's series "The Sopranos ",
and On and Off-Broadway singers and actors. Her own singing includes performing roles in operas (at New
York and Brooklyn companies), performing jazz, musical theatre roles, classical recitals, original pieces.
She has sung with the Aspen Music Festival, The Manhattan School of Music, The Metropolitan Opera and
School of American Ballet, among others. She has also enjoyed writing music critic columns for the
Brooklyn Heights Press, and, in 2004, was awarded a Gold Record from Atlantic/Lava Records for her solo
singing on The Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Lost Christmas Eve" album. In March of 2013, she joined the
production end of things as Stage Manager for the world premier production of "Letter From Italy, 1944",
performed by The Greater Middletown Chorale in Middletown, CT.
Jeff Fuller (Large and Small Jazz Ensembles, Double Bass & Piano Technique Class) is a
bassist, composer, arranger and educator with a wide range of professional experience. Fuller has toured
worldwide with master saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Paquito D'Rivera, with each of whom he recorded
three albums. His swing, versatility and big bass sound have enabled him to blend with jazz artists from all
eras, including Dizzy Gillespie, Mose Allison, "Papa" Jo Jones, Claudio Roditi, Gerry Mulligan, Randy
Brecker, Big Nick Nicholas and others. In the fields of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz he has toured with
Hilton Ruiz, Daniel Ponce's Jazzbatá, Mario Rivera's Refugiados de Salsa, and Puerto Rican singer Roy
Brown. He composes and arranges for the top salsa group, Irazú, whose albums have featured soloists Tata
Güines and Arturo Sandoval. He also performs and sings with Sambeleza, a popular group dedicated to
Brazilian jazz. A Connecticut native, Fuller holds two degrees in Composition from Yale University and
has taught at ECA since 1996. He has been commissioned to write jazz arrangements, chamber and
orchestral music by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the New
Haven Symphony, Meet The Composer, and by many colleges.
Michael Gilbertson (Composition, Audio Production, Music Theory) a native of Dubuque, Iowa,
studied composition with Samuel Adler, John Corigliano, and Christopher Rouse at The Juilliard School,
and at the Yale School of Music with Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman and Christopher
Theofanidis. Gilbertson’s works have been programmed by ensembles including The Juilliard Orchestra,
the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Symphony in C, the New England
Philharmonic, the Cheyenne Symphony, the Yale Philharmonia, the Cedar Rapids Symphony, the
Michigan Philharmonic, the Flint Symphony, the Rockford Symphony, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls
Symphony, Musica Sacra, and Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Gilbertson’s music has earned five Morton
Gould Awards from ASCAP, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters,
a BMI Student Composer Award, and the 2007-08 Palmer-Dixon Prize, awarded by the Juilliard
composition faculty for the best student work of the year. His piano trio Fold by Fold received the Israel
Prize from the Society for New Music. Gilbertson’s music can be heard in the 2006 documentary
Rehearsing a Dream, which was nominated for an Academy Award. His published music includes choral
works with Boosey & Hawkes and G. Schirmer, and orchestral works with Theodore Presser. Gilbertson
recently collaborated with playwright Caroline McGraw on an opera commissioned by the Washington
National Opera, which was premiered at The Kennedy Center as part of their American Opera Initiative.
He has twice composed and conducted ballets for the New York Choreographic Institute, working with
choreographers David Morse and Daniel Baker. His fifth ballet, a collaboration with choreographer Norbert
De La Cruz, was premiered by the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in July, 2013. In 2009, Michael founded an
annual music festival which brings young classical artists to Dubuque, Iowa for concerts and educational
outreach. He has taught courses in music at the Northeast Iowa School of Music, The Walden School,
ECA, and the Yale School of Music's Department of Hearing.
Jesse Hameen, II (Jazz Drumming Specialist) is a musician who is dedicated to entertaining and,
through his music, to inspiring people to attain a higher level of consciousness and spiritual uplift. Born in
New Haven, Hameen‘s family upbringing and background in gospel, Afro-Cuban, R & B and jazz prepared
him to begin successful road tours in 1963. Jesse has since traveled and performed widely throughout the
U.S., Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico. He has been leading his own group, Elevation,
since 1976. Jesse is President and Founder of Inspire Productions, an adjunct professor at the Hartford
Conservatory, Coordinator of Jazz Studies at the Neighborhood Music School, and a teacher at Betsy Ross
Arts Magnet School.
Gretchen Hary (Percussion Specialist, Percussion Ensemble, Music Theory) BM Percussion
Performance, The Boston Conservatory; MM Percussion Pedagogy, Belmont University. Gretchen has
studied with Nancy Zeltsman, Tim Genis, Patrick Hollenbeck, and Christopher Norton. Her performance
experience includes orchestra, wind ensemble, percussion ensemble, chamber ensemble, production
orchestra, and solo marimba. She is an active percussionist at Ellington Congregational Church and the
First Congregational Church of Wallingford. Gretchen also teaches extensively at Neighborhood Music
School. At NMS, she has a thriving private studio and coaches Percussion Ensemble and the percussion
section for the Greater New Haven Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Band. She also created and
teaches the class Meet the Drums and beginner drumstick classes. She is the Director of Special Needs at
NMS and has taught drum circles in conjunction with the Speech and Language Pathologist at Chapel
Haven School.
Oliver Homann (Music Theory, Woodwind Technique Class, Small Ensembles) Oliver grew up
in Maine, where he began playing the oboe at age thirteen. His first received musical training at
Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where he spent his last two years of high school. In 1985 he began
work on an undergraduate degree at Northwestern University, studying with Ray Still, who was principal
oboist with the Chicago Symphony. In 1989 he spent a year in Guanajuato, Mexico, playing oboe with
filarmonicao del Bajio. Oliver graduated from Northwestern in 1991, and then studied at the College
Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati with Sara Lambert Bloom. In 1994 he lived in Germany, studying
oboe at the Hochschule fur Musik in Mannheim, after which he returned to Mexico to play English horn
with the Orquesta Sinfonica in Aquascalientes. In 1996, he moved to New Haven, first studying at the
Yale School of Music (M.Mus., 1998) then at City University of New York (DMA.) He performs with
several orchestras in Connecticut, and enjoys teaching privately in the area.
John Craig Hubbard (Brass Technique Class) Craig Hubbard has performed extensively for 13
years as an orchestral, chamber and solo hornist. He has performed with the Orquestra Sinfonica da Bahia,
the Qatar Philharmonic, and under such conducting luminaries as Bernard Haitink, Loren Maazel, and
David Robertson. He has performed with the Aspen Music Festival and School, Music Academy of the
West, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Castleton Festival, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the
Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and has appeared with The AXIOM Ensemble, The New Juilliard
Ensemble, and Cantata Profana. Craig performed several tracks on the recently released album of newly
discovered works by jazz composer Gil Evans which earned several Grammy nominations, including “Best
Large Jazz Ensemble”. Craig’s passion for music education began in 2009 when he launched an orchestral
training seminar for the students of NEOJIBA, an “el-Sistema” style youth orchestra in Brazil. He is
currently pursuing an MMA degree at Yale University and holds a Bachelor's degree from the Juilliard
School.
Wendy Morgan-Hunter (Vocal Technique Class, Musical Theater) is a mezzo-soprano, music director,
director, and private voice teacher. Wendy has performed opera, oratorio, jazz and musical theatre across
the United States, from Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre to Lincoln Center as well as in Europe. Some of her
favorites have included Susannah in Figaro, soprano soloist in many oratorio, premiering new works
including soloing with Stanford University in the West Coast premier of Karl Jenkin’s Mass The Armed
Man, and singing the mezzo-soprano role in Mozart’s Requiem with Viva La Musica in Europe. Wendy has
won such competitions and awards as the Marilyn Horne Endowment, SCVA Vocal Competition, and the
Los Angeles Young Artist of the Future sponsored by the LA Opera Guild. She starred in the role of The
Witch in Stephen Sondheim’s post Broadway production of Into The Woods directed by Kevin Lima,
director of Disney’s movie Enchanted. Wendy’s first love is teaching young people to find their voice. In
pursuing this passion she has coached and mentored hundreds of young people on both coasts. Her work
includes creating original musical pieces for young singers, directing numerous productions and concerts
and working with under-privileged youth, winning an Outstanding Program Award for Music from the
Boys and Girls Clubs of America. She enjoys working with new composers including originating works by
T. Paul Rosas, whose new works she will be performing in an East Coast recital in the spring of 2014. She
holds a B.M. in Vocal Arts from the University of Southern California and is the current President of the
Connecticut Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, President of her daughter’s high
school’s PTA, a private voice teacher, and soloist at St. Mark’s in New Canaan, CT. Wendy is happily
married to Jeff Hunter the Founder of Talentism, LLC, and they are the proud parents of Morgan, John and
Alexandra.
Jim Martin (Jazz Theory & Improvisation, Guitar Specialist, Small Ensembles) received his
B.M. from Berklee College of Music and his M.M. from Manhattan School of Music. He has studied guitar
privately with Linc Chamberland, Jack Wilkins, and Rodney Jones and has taken master classes with Joe
Pass, Pat Martino, and Lenny Breau. He is a professional performing artist and instructor throughout New
England. Locally he has performed with the Willie Ruff Orchestra. Jim‘s teaching experience includes The
Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, The Center For Creative Youth, The Hartford Conservatory, and he
is currently on the faculty at Southern Connecticut State University. In May 2009, he completed the CT
Alternate Route to Certification.
Marvin Warshaw (Small Ensembles, Upper Strings Technique Class) Wesleyan University‘s
viola instructor and chamber music coach, studied with two founding members of the Juilliard String
Quartet. He received his Master of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music, and is currently the
Principal Violist, Personnel Manager, and Librarian with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. He also
conducts the Concert Orchestra at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven and performs chamber
music with the Wall Street Chamber Players.
Roy Wiseman (Orchestra, Small Ensembles, Lower Strings Technique Class) was educated at
the Yale School of Music, Bennington College and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, from
which he holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He studied with Arthur Weisberg and Otto WernerMueller, has served as conductor of the Wesleyan University Orchestra, and has conducted at the
Goodspeed Opera House and Oregon‘s Festival of American Music. Roy is a specialist in the performance
of historic American music. His editions of the works of Charles Griffes were presented at a special
retrospective concert at the Kennedy Center in 1986, and he maintains an important archive of
orchestration of American popular, jazz and dance music dating back to the early 19th century. Roy has
been annotator for the Musical Heritage Society and has appeared on the Voice of America as well as on
National Public Radio. He has served as Music Advisor to Garrison Keillor‘s NPR program ―The
American Radio Company of the Airǁ‖ and is on the faculty of Wesleyan University. He also serves as
leader of the nationally touring ragtime ensemble Elite Syncopation.