Brass Day

SUNY Schenectady Brass Day

Saturday, October 11, 2025

9:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m., School of Music Building

SUNY Schenectady School of Music invites brass players of all ability levels to a day with some of the area's finest professional players. Spend the day immersed in music making with other brass players as you attend master classes, rehearsals, workshops, and a free side-by-side performance with the Trojan Horns Brass Band.

Registration for Brass Day is free.

Additionally, on-site repairs and purchases will be available from A Minor Tune Up.

Schedule

9:00 a.m. - Meet and Greet
9:10 a.m. - Warm-up sessions led by SUNY Schenectady Brass Faculty Members
10:00 a.m. - Rehearsal with Trojan Horns for side-by-side pieces
11:00 a.m. - How to Start a Brass Band - Panel Discussion with Trojan Horns Brass Band
12:00 p.m. - Lunch Break (please bring your lunch)
12:30 p.m. - Music Business Behind The Scenes with Tom Eason- Trojan Horns Band Leader
1:15 p.m. - TBA
2:00 p.m. - Brass Day Concert featuring Trojan Horns Brass Band and Brass Day participants

Special Guests

Trojan Horse Brass Band

The Trojan Horns Brass Band is a dynamic brass band originally from Upstate New York that infuses soul, funk, pop, jazz, and a sprinkle of that irresistible New Orleans groove into every note they play.

From impromptu street performances to packed out venues, the Trojan Horns Brass Band brings the city's spirit to life. With each breath, buzz, and beat, they pay homage to New Orleans' musical heritage while infusing their performances with a contemporary edge that keeps audiences coming back. Formed from a musical passion and a desire to bring joy to audiences, the horns are on a mission to ignite stages with their fiery performances and leave listeners captivated with their infectious rhythms and melodies. You can find them lighting up popular venues, jazz festivals, or community events, delivering an unforgettable experience that will have you tapping your feet, nodding your head, and dancing the night away.

Whether you stop and listen to them on the street or stream their tracks from afar, join the Trojan Horns Brass Band on a musical journey unlike any other. Let their brassy harmonies lift your spirits and transport you to a world where the party never stops. Join the brass revolution and get ready to groove because, boy, do these guys blow!

Instructors

Dr. Allyson Keyser, trumpet/wind ensemble

Allyson Keyser is a tenured Professor of Music at SUNY Schenectady County Community College where she instructs the trumpet studio, coaches brass ensembles, teaches core music classes, directs the Wind Ensemble, and is the Brass Department Chair. Dr. Keyser received her B.M.E from Virginia Commonwealth University and her M.M. and D.M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she was the trumpet teaching assistant for five years. In 2017, Dr. Keyser won the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Prior to her appointment at SUNY Schenectady, Dr. Keyser taught trumpet, theory, aural skills, and coached brass ensembles at Virginia Commonwealth University as a sabbatical replacement for her former professor, Rex Richardson. She also performed as principal trumpet of the Richmond Brass Consort, Commonwealth Winds, Richmond Symphonic Winds, Richmond Philharmonic, Greene City Brass Quintet, and played regularly with Market Street Brass Quintet. Her past trumpet teachers include Gary Gompers, Rex Richardson, Ed Bach, and Julius Schaikewitz.

Dr. Keyser currently performs as principal trumpet in the Capital Region Wind Ensemble, SUNY Schenectady Concert Brass Quintet, Albany Pro Musica, and often performs with the Albany Symphony, Schenectady Symphony, and Glens Falls Symphony in addition to several local concert bands. She often presents trumpet masterclasses and conducting workshops at schools such as the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, Virginia Commonwealth University, Hartwick College, Skidmore College, NYSSMA, NYSBDA, CASDA conference, as well as to area high schools and middle schools.

Dr. Keyser performed with the Lake George Music Festival Symphony Orchestra in summer, 2024. In 2023, she performed and recorded an album with the American Modern Ensemble and Albany Pro Musica. Additionally, she has entertained patrons at the Saratoga Racecourse as a bugler for a summer season, including the famous Traver’s Day, and at Belmont Racetrack. She has been featured as a soloist with the

Richmond Brass Consort, the Capital Region Wind Ensemble, the Johnstown Civic Band, the Memorial Concert Band of Colonie, the Schenectady Unitarian Society, First Reformed Church of Schenectady, and was featured with Rex Richardson at SUNY Schenectady’s 45th Anniversary Gala. Dr. Keyser performs as an active freelance musician and maintains a trumpet studio of all ages and levels in the Capital Region of New York. Her specialty is working with students who have technical or physical challenges on the instrument, and helping them learn to play with ease so they can fully enjoy making beautiful music.

Phil Pandori, trombone/low brass

Phil Pandori is Adjunct Instructor of Low Brass (Trombone, Euphonium, and Tuba) at SUNY Schenectady County Community College. Phil codirects and operates the Capital Region Summer Trombone Institute hosted by SUNY Schenectady. Phil has previously taught Brass Techniques at SUNY Schenectady and the Hartt School of Music, as well as Wind Ensemble and Low Brass Lessons at Skidmore College. Phil is currently an Affiliate Artist in Residence at Union College where he teaches brass lessons.

In addition to his work at the collegiate level, Phil is a band director in the Niskayuna Central School District where he directs the High School Concert Band, Honors Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Band, as well as Middle and High School brass and percussion lessons. Previously, Phil has taught 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Band in the District and maintains a low brass studio. Phil has directed All-County Bands across New York State, including Saratoga-Warren, Washington, Schoharie, Franklin, Onondaga, and Jefferson-Lewis Counties.

Phil currently holds the Principal Trombone seat in the Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra and Capital Region Wind Ensemble and works frequently as a freelance musician in the Capital Region. Phil spends most of his performance time with the New York Players Entertainment Group as the full-time trombone player for Upstate New York's premier party band. Phil has performed with Johnny Mathis, Tony DeSare, Wynton Marsalis, The Orchestra of Northern New York, Northern Symphonic Winds, Glens Falls Symphony, Saratoga Voices, Octavo Singers, Battenkill Chorale, Albany Pro Musica, Brass Abbey Brass Quintet and more.

Phil, along with his wife Catherine, owns and operates Bristol Hills Music Camp (est. 1962) - a week-long quality-intensive outdoor music camp for Band, String and Orchestra students grades 7-12, located on Bristol Mountain just outside of Canandaigua, New York.

Phil has previously served as the New York State School Music Association Representative for Zone 7 as well as a member of the New York State Band Directors Association Executive Board as Middle School Honor Band Chair and Committee Member at Large.

Phil earned his undergraduate degree in Music Education from the Crane School of Music, where he also minored in Jazz Studies and earned a certificate in Trombone Performance under Mark Hartman and Bret Zvacek. Phil earned his Masters’ Degree in Trombone Performance from the Hartt School of Music under Ronald Borror.

Chris Cromer

Owner of A Minor Tune Up

Chris Cromer started A Minor Tune Up in February 2001 while attending the University of Delaware (UD) as a music education major. What began as exploring a curiosity in an instrument storage room in the UD music building, quickly grew into a career goal and a passion in life.

At the age of 19, after winning an audition, Chris moved to California to join the world champion Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps. It was while living in CA as a corps member, that he was first exposed to the world of brass technology. On occasion, Chris would visit the repair shop of Best Music in Oakland, CA, headed by Dick Akright, to get the Blue Devils' horns repaired. During that period Akright was also manufacturing trumpets under the Bel Canto name for Doc Severinsen. Marveling at the variety of equipment being used and hearing the depth of knowledge from those in the shop stuck with him.

Even as a kid, Chris always had an interest in how things worked and had a natural aptitude for engineering and fabrication. In 1997, while teaching high school marching band as a brass tech, Chris recognized some inherent issues with the mellophones the band was using. Out of curiosity he called the manufacturer and after learning some unsettling facts, he made some crude modifications to remedy the problems on his own.

From there Chris took a personal interest in brass design and started studying brasswind physics and researched the work of great craftsmen such as Renold Schilke and Zig Kanstul, among others. Chris befriended, and later apprenticed with, local instrument repair tech Marc Gullo (a Red Wing graduate) and started experimenting with used horns he found online to try various ideas he had. He discovered a small storage space in the basement of the music building [at UD] and got permission to use it as a lab of sorts to work on projects in between classes. In exchange for use of the space he performed free repairs for the university owned instruments. Eventually other students and even some faculty started bringing in their own instruments for repair.

"As I continued to learn more and more, players would ask me technical questions and seemed to value my opinion… I started to really enjoy what I was doing and loved seeing the impact it had on music performance." After about 2 years of working in the basement shop it became clear this is what Chris wanted to do with his life so he decided to forgo a teaching career and instead focus his time and financial resources on his new growing business.