Summer Trumpet Institute

Welcome to the Capital Region Summer Trumpet Institute

Monday-Thursday, July 13-16, 2026, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Our third 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.

Dr. Jennifer Oliverio is joining us as our Guest Artist this year. She composed Sunburst Suite, a work the students performed at last year's institute. Additionally, she is the trumpet professor at Missouri Western State University, director of the Fountain City Youth Brass Academy, and is a well-established player in the classical brass world in many esteemed brass ensembles and orchestras. 

 

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, 2026
If you have any questions, please contact keyserab@sunysccc.edu.

Faculty

Dr. Allyson Keyser

Dylan Canterbury

Trumpeter/composer/educator Dylan Canterbury graduated summa cum laude from the SUNY Purchase School of Music. Since then, he has worked with a number of notable figures in the world of jazz, including Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra, the All Star O’Rourkestra, and the Smoke Big Band. Locally, he leads a quintet and co-leads the BWC Jazz Orchestra, and has performed and/or recorded with notables such as Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble, the Empire Jazz Orchestra, Bobby Previte’s Upstate Composers Orchestra, the Tim Olsen Big Band, and the Jeff “Siege” Siegel Quintet. He released his debut album, “Going Places,” in 2020, to national acclaim and radio play.

His compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions have been performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra, the Barcelona Jazz Orquestra, and many colleges and high schools throughout the world. He has over 50 original compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions published under Jazz Lines Publications’ Walrus Music label. He also works for Jazz Lines as an engraver and editor.

Actively involved in education, Canterbury is on faculty at the SUNY Schenectady School of Music, where he directs the jazz ensemble and teaches jazz trumpet, improvisation, and jazz history. He was also formerly on faculty at the College of St. Rose, where he directed the jazz ensemble and taught courses in jazz improvisation and arranging. He maintains a studio of private students, and has conducted master classes and directed honors ensembles throughout upstate New York.

 

Dr. Nikola Tomić

Nikola Tomić is a versatile trumpet performer and educator with twenty-five years of professional experience. Based in Western New York, Nikola previously lived and worked in the Capital Region and New York City, performing at venues including the Jazz Gallery, Swing 46, the Drawing Room, the Cutting Room, and the Miller Theatre at Columbia University. He has performed with orchestras including the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Binghamton Philharmonic, and the Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony, and in jazz groups led by David Berger, Chuck Israels, Bobby Previte, and Erica Seguine, among others. 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 an assistant professor of trumpet at SUNY Fredonia, having taught previously at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and the Ithaca College School of Music. 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 more than 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 benefited from private lessons with Brian Pareschi, Douglas Prosser, Marvin Stamm, Byron Stripling, Vincent DiMartino, Gary McCheyne, and Donald Byrd.

 

Dr. Jennifer Oliverio

Dr. Jennifer Oliverio is a celebrated cornet and flugelhorn player who holds the positions of principal cornet with the Fountain City Brass Band, flugelhorn with the Athena Brass Band, and is a newly appointed core member of the Calypsus Brass Quintet. Jen is the Assistant Professor of Music in trumpet at Missouri Western State University and one of the directors for the Fountain City Youth Brass Academy.

Jen is an avid supporter of new music for cornet and flugelhorn, having commissioned and premiered solo works by Lucy Pankhurst, Dorothy Gates, Kevin Day, Andrea Hobson, and Jen Mitchell for her premiere solo album Enigma. Her work on Enigma received overwhelmingly positive reviews and was nominated for the 4barsrest Album of the Year, a silver medal in the Global Music Awards, and winner of the 2023 American Prize in brass performance. Jen has served on the board of directors for the Fountain City Brass Band, the Athena Brass Band, the Visionary Panel for the National Youth Brass Band of America, and currently as the column editor for the International Trumpet Guild’s cornet column. As a clinician, Jen regularly performs and presents at national and international festivals including: the International Trumpet Guild Conference, Brass Institutes of America, International Women’s Brass Conference, PRIZM Chamber Music Festival, and the Eastman Summer Trumpet Institute.

In her freelance work, Jen has performed as an extra with the Kansas City Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony and is a founding member of the Trilogy Brass Trio. As a teacher, Jen has had students accepted as semi-finalists in the National Trumpet Competition, semi-finalists for the International Trumpet Guild solo competitions, and as winners in the North American Brass Band Championships solo and ensemble competitions.

Jen is new to the composition world, having had her first composition “Twisted Gambit” premiere back in January of this year. Since then, she has had works premiered and performed at the International Women’s Brass Conference, The International Trumpet Guild Conference, Brass Institutes of America, and the Eastman Summer Trumpet Institute. Her pieces can be found published through Just a Theory Press.

Jen is a proud mother to son Ben and wife to husband Patrick.

Tentative Daily Schedule 

Monday 

Tuesday

Wednesday: John Keal Music Day

Thursday

  

FAQ

Final Concert

The concert on Thursday at 3 p.m. is open to the public. Parents,family, and friends are encouraged to attend. It will be in the Carl B. Taylor Auditorium. The concert will include small ensembles, large ensembles, and a combined brass ensemble with the Trombone Institute. 

Part Assignments

The group and part assignments, as well as PDFs of music, will be sent the week before the Institute starts. Please keep an eye on your email for that so you can practice your parts prior to the first day of camp (since we are so limited on rehearsal times). Printed parts will be provided for you. 

Signing In/Out

Students will receive a name tag and printout of the schedule upon arrival, so you know where to be and when at all times. Students should sign-in at the School of Music Security desk upon arrival and sign out at the end of the day to help us keep track of everyone who's coming and going. 

Lunch and Free Play

Please remember to pack a lunch daily, we have a small refrigerator and a microwave if needed, but it's ideal if it's something that does not need to be heated as there's only one. Feel free to bring a ball/games/frisbee, or something fun for outside play during lunch hour if you like as we get a full hour to eat and play. If you have any life-threatening allergies, please let us know ASAP. 

Masterclass History

The term masterclass became popular in the mid-1800s thanks to Franz Liszt, a famous virtuoso pianist, piano teacher, and composer from the Romantic period. He was so famous that historians describe his effect on his fans as Lisztomania. While he may not have invented the masterclass, he was the one who popularized it due to his fame.

What is a Masterclass?

It's a class where a music student has an opportunity to perform in front of their peers and a master teacher and receive feedback on how they can improve their playing. In some settings the student performs, the other students observe and give constructive feedback, and then the teacher fills in anything else that was not mentioned by the students. The teacher then works on a few of these ideas with the student in front of the others to help make some immediate changes in their playing. 

The benefits of masterclasses are the following:

• • The student gets an opportunity to perform in front of an audience (each time you perform, it gets easier as we learn to address our nerves and focus on the music)
  • The observing students learn how to form their thoughts into words that are constructive and positive
  • The performing student gets an opportunity to have a lesson with a master teacher and work on skills they may not have otherwise learned
  • The performing student can add this to a resume, especially if working with some well-known in the field
  • The performing student may be able to address some habits that they didn't realize were happening before
  • The observing students may realize they have similar habits and can learn some ideas to try on their own in the practice room
  • The teacher may find a new way to describe how to fix something that they hadn't thought of before by working with a new student