Celebrating Gifts of Music

Thomas Doelger
Thomas Doelger is thrilled to return home to West Hartford for "Gifts of Music," alongside teachers and mentors from his childhood years. Thomas currently stars in The Book of Mormon on Broadway, where he is in the Ensemble and understudies the role of Elder Price. Thomas has performed all over the world, at the American Repertory Theater, the Kennedy Center, Tuacahn Center for the Arts, and the Shanghai Culture Square in Shanghai, China. Thomas has also written, produced, and starred in his own one-person shows in New York, entitled "The Dame in Distress," and "The Lady Must be Masc."

WHPS Music Faculty
Andrew Mayo, Department Supervisor of Performing Arts
Emmett Drake, Orchestra, Solisti
Phil Giampietro, Director of Bands, Hall
Michael Wyatt, Director of Bands, Conard
Elizabeth Keller Orchestra/Suzuki Teacher, Charter Oak International Academy

John Mastroianni
John Mastroianni earned a B.S. in Music Education and a B.M. in Jazz Studies from the University of Bridgeport, and an M.A. in Jazz Performance/Composition from New York University. He has studied saxophone with Phil Woods, Dick Oatts, Joe Lovano, and Gary Klein, and composition with Jim McNeely, Bill Finegan, Tom Boras, Neil Slater, and Mike Carubia.

John has performed with artists such as Mel Lewis, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Smokey Robinson, Charli Persip and Supersound, Harvie S, Jim McNeely, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra Jr., Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and many others. He is one of the primary composers for the New England Jazz Ensemble and he also performs with the Hartford and Waterbury Symphonies, and at the Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, Bushnell, and Shubert theaters. John also played in the Broadway (NYC) production of “Three Penny Opera.”

Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in Residence of Jazz Studies and Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Studies at the University of Connecticut, and the founder and music director of the Summer Jazz Workshop. In December 2002, John was named by SBO Magazine as one of 50 directors in the United States that “make a difference,” and in March 2004, John was chosen by CMEA as the Secondary School Teacher of the Year. John is a three-time Music Educator GRAMMY Award nominee and winner of two Golden Globe Music Awards with the New England Jazz Ensemble and with Alex Nakhimovsky and June Bisantz. John is the 2014 Connecticut Teacher of the Year and the 2021 UConn Undergraduate Faculty Mentor of the Year.