Summer Trumpet Institute
Welcome to the Capital Region Summer Trumpet Institute
Monday-Thursday, June 30-July 3, 2025, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Our second annual trumpet institute is now accepting registrations. This summer institute
is a four-day intensive seminar at the SUNY School of Music in Schenectady, NY, for
middle school and high school students ages 11-18. It is dedicated to the study of
the trumpet, although other brass players are also welcome. Students will participate
in rehearsals, masterclasses, jam sessions, musicianship classes, and concerts! The
institute is led by Dr. Allyson Keyser, trumpet professor and Band Director at the
College and features some of the top freelance musicians and educators in the area.
The Summer Trumpet Institute will provide students with an educational laboratory
to learn, play, and listen. Teachers who would like to audit the session are also
welcome.
Sample Schedule
(Note: class topics will change for 2025 and are open to suggestions)
Monday
9:00 a.m.: Check-in/individual warm-up
9:15 a.m.: Camp meeting and introductions
9:30 a.m.: Panel Discussion and Demonstrations: What is Chamber Music?
10:30 a.m.: Trumpet Choir Rehearsal
12:00pm: Lunch and Time to Relax/Socialize/Practice
1:00 p.m.: Musicianship Class: Practice Techniques- How to Work Smarter, Not Harder
2:00 p.m.: Coached Trumpet Ensembles
3:00 p.m.: Trumpet Faculty Recital (Free and open to the public)
4:00 p.m.: Sign out/Parents Pickup OR practice time/private lessons until 5 p.m. pickup
Tuesday
9:00 a.m.: Check-in/individual warm-up
9:15 a.m.: Panel Discussion: Performance Anxiety
10:30 a.m.: Coached Rehearsals
12:00 p.m.: Lunch and Time to Relax/Socialize/Practice
1:00 p.m.: Musicianship Class: Improvisation
2:00 p.m.: Trumpet Choir Rehearsal
3:15 p.m.: Afternoon Fun - Jam Session
4:00 p.m.: Sign out/Parents Pickup OR practice time/private lessons until 5 p.m. pickup
Wednesday - Artist-in-Residence Day
9:00 a.m.: Check-in/individual warm-up
9:15 a.m.: Panel Discussion/Demonstration- Warm-ups and Technical Practice
10:30 a.m.: Coached Rehearsals
12:00 p.m.: Lunch and Time to Relax/Socialize/Practice
1:00 p.m.: Musicianship Class: Auditions/NYSSMA/College Prep- What are Judges Really
Listening For?
2:15 p.m.: Trumpet Choir Rehearsal
3:15 p.m.: Afternoon Fun - Sight-reading duets/trios with others
4:00 p.m.: Sign out/Parents Pickup OR practice time/private lessons until 5 p.m. pickup
Thursday
9:00 a.m.: Check-in/individual warm-up
9:15 a.m.: Panel Discussion: Versatility and Professionalism in Music: How to Get
Gigs, How to Keep Gigs
10:30 a.m.: Coached Dress Rehearsals
1:00 p.m.: Lunch and Time to Relax/Socialize/Practice
1:45 p.m.: Trumpet Choir Dress Rehearsal
3:00 p.m.: Final Concert featuring Mass Trumpet Choir, Institute Trumpet Ensembles,
and Faculty Trumpet Ensemble
(Free and open to the public)
4:00 p.m.: End of Camp Outdoor Celebration/Reception
How to Sign Up and Cost
Register for the Summer Trumpet Institute
Cost: $250 per student
Individual lessons are available starting at 4 p.m. for an additional fee of $30 for
30-minutes or $60 for 60-minutes
Payment is due at time of registration
Registration deadline: June 15, 2025
If you have any questions, please contact keyserab@sunysccc.edu.
Faculty
Dr. Allyson Keyser
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 Winds and Strings Department
Chair. Dr. Keyser received her bachelor's degree in music education from Virginia
Commonwealth University and her M.M. and D.M.A. in trumpet performance with a cognate
in instrumental conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where
she was the trumpet teaching assistant.
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. Dr. Keyser currently performs as principal
trumpet and assistant conductor of the Capital Region Wind Ensemble. She leads the
SUNY Schenectady Concert Brass Quintet, plays principal trumpet with Albany Pro Musica,
is a member of the Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony, and often performs with the Albany
Symphony, Glens Falls Symphony, and Saratoga Voices among many other fine ensembles
in the area. She recently performed and recorded a new work with the American Modern
Ensemble on Albany Records.
Dr. Keyser often presents trumpet clinics and conducting workshops at K-12 schools,
universities, and music conferences across NY state. Additionally, she presents topics
to area music programs on audition preparation, performance anxiety, programming,
and alternative careers in music. She 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
their instruments, helping them learn to play with ease, and removing roadblocks so
that they can fully enjoy the process of making beautiful music with confidence.
Jake DiMirra
Jake DiMirra is currently the 4th and 5th Grade Band Director at Stillwater Elementary
School. Previously, Jake served as an Elementary Band and Orchestra Director in West
Hartford Public Schools. During the 2023-2024 school year, Jake was selected as a
conductor for West Hartford’s Inter-Elementary Honors Band.
Mr. DiMirra is a graduate of University of Saint Joseph, where he earned an M.A. in
Education with a concentration in the Multiple Intelligences Theory. He graduated
from University of Hartford’s The Hartt School in May 2020 with a degree in Music
Education. During his time in Connecticut, he studied trumpet with Phil Snedecor and
was the conductor of the Chancel Choir at First Church of Christ Simsbury. Before
attending The Hartt School Mr. DiMirra earned an A.A. degree in Trumpet Performance
with Dr. Allyson Keyser at SUNY Schenectady County Community College in Schenectady,
New York. While attending SUNY Schenectady he was a regular guest musician with Empire
State Youth Orchestra in addition to performing with Capital Region Wind Ensemble
and Albany Pro Musica.
John Fatuzzo
John Fatuzzo is a music educator and professional trumpeter from New York’s Capital
Region. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with James
Thompson, former Principal Trumpet of the Montreal and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.
Mr. Fatuzzo is currently on the music faculty at Guilderland Central High School,
where he directs the Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble. The 2023 recipient of the New
York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Early Career Achievement Award, Mr. Fatuzzo’s
ensembles have exclusively received Gold and Gold with Distinction ratings at NYSSMA
Major Organization Festivals. He has made guest conducting appearances with the Schenectady
and Greene County High School All-County Bands as well as the Guilderland Town Band.
Mr. Fatuzzo regularly coaches symphonic brass and orchestral winds sectionals for
the Empire State Youth Orchestras in addition to annually serving on their trumpet
audition panel. Mr. Fatuzzo is a Brass Adjudicator for NYSSMA Solo and Ensemble festivals
and maintains a private trumpet teaching studio out of his home in Albany.
Outside of teaching, Mr. Fatuzzo has an active performing schedule as a freelance
trumpet player. He has performed with the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, Schenectady-Saratoga
Symphony Orchestra, Capital Region Wind Ensemble, Albany Pro Musica, Octavo Singers,
and the Saratoga Voices (formerly Burnt Hills Oratorio Society) among other local
professional ensembles. In 2016, he was a semifinalist in the Graduate Solo Division
of the National Trumpet Competition. Fatuzzo has performed with and for several highly
acclaimed artists including Bela Fleck, Doc Severinsen, and Livingston Taylor, as
well as current and retired musicians from some of the world’s most famed symphony
orchestras including Phil Smith, Mark Gould, David Bilger, Jim Wilt, Thomas Stevens,
and Ethan Bensdorf.
Dr. Nikola Tomić
Nikola Tomić is a versatile trumpet performer and educator with over twenty years
of professional experience. Based in New York’s Capital Region, Nikola previously
lived and worked in the New York City area, performing at venues including The Jazz
Gallery, Swing 46, the Drawing Room, the Cutting Room, the West End Theatre, New World
Stages, Silvana, St. Peter's Church, the Slope Lounge, Williamsburg Music Center,
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Miller Theatre at Columbia University. He has
appeared at festivals including the Umbria Jazz Festival (Perugia, Italy), the Xerox
Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Tri-C JazzFest (Cleveland, Ohio), and the
International Cervantino Festival (Guanajuato, Mexico).
Nikola is a teaching artist and brass coach for the Empire State Youth Orchestra’s
CHIME program and teaches the trumpet in the Jazz & Contemporary Music program at
the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA. He taught previously at
Cornell University, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and the Ithaca College School
of Music. Nikola taught from 2010 to 2013 for the Eastman Community Music School,
providing instruction in trumpet and music theory and working with the New Horizons
Band Program, and was on faculty at the Ithaca College Summer Music Academy from 2013
to 2019. Nikola maintains a private teaching studio at his home in Voorheesville.
Nikola’s pedagogical articles “Upward Spiral” (March 2020) and “Alternative Approaches
to Warming Up” (June 2019) were published in the International Trumpet Guild Journal,
to which he has also contributed two dozen CD reviews.
Nikola holds D.M.A. and M.M. degrees in Jazz Studies & Contemporary Media from the
Eastman School of Music and a B.M. in trumpet performance from Ithaca College. In
addition to long-term trumpet study with Clay Jenkins and Frank Gabriel Campos, Nikola
has benefitted from private lessons with Brian Pareschi, Douglas Prosser, Marvin Stamm,
Byron Stripling, Vincent DiMartino, Gary McCheyne, and Donald Byrd.
Landon Gray, Artist-in-Residence
Landon Gray is a clinician, performer, and educator. As a Clinician at Musician’s
Wellness of North America Landon has assisted musicians at every level recover from
learned movement disorders, injuries, imbalances, and find healthy performance practices.
As a performer Landon currently serves as principal trumpet of the Schnectady-Saratoga
Symphony Orchestra. He’s also performed and recorded with other prestigious groups
such as the Buffalo Philharmonic Ochestra, Syracuse Orchestra, Canton Symphony, and
the Erie Ballet Orchestra as well as having performed throughout Canada and South
America. Landon currently serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at SUNY Fredonia. He holds
a M.M. in Trumpet performance from SUNY Fredonia and a B.M. in Trumpet Performance
from the University of North Texas