Music Lessons at NESPA!
We offer in-person and virtual lessons for children and adults. Sign up for a trial lesson today! Email Kelly Walsh at [email protected] for more information. Our Music Center offers lessons in voice, piano, guitar, cello and clarinet.
We offer in-person and virtual lessons for children and adults. Sign up for a trial lesson today! Email Kelly Walsh at [email protected] for more information. Our Music Center offers lessons in voice, piano, guitar, cello and clarinet.
Jess Chann graduated in December 2023 from the Voice Department degree program at the esteemed Berklee College of Music. She earned her B.A. in Professional Music with a Music Education concentration. She is a music director and private voice, piano, and clarinet instructor at the New England School of Performing Arts, having experience with students of all ages from 3 to 18 years old. Although she specializes in voice, she has over a decade of experience performing live on Bb and bass clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone, and piano in various ensembles.Born and raised in the Greater Boston area, Jess has had ample opportunities to learn and perform a diverse array of both traditional and classical genres and styles—ranging from classical soprano pieces to soulful R&B, pop, rock, and musical theater songs. She's determined to "practice what you preach" by further pursuing her performance career in tandem with her teaching.
As a self-taught pianist and multi-instrumentalist, Jess greatly encourages versatility in musicianship—any type of music her students could possibly wish to learn, she always enthusiastically gives them the technical and emotional guidance to make it happen.
She has always looked up to her various music educators—They all played a huge part in shaping her overall development as a human being; and the things they taught her—both music and life-related—gave her purpose and inspiration to work towards doing the same for generations after her.
Learn more at her website: jesschann.weebly.com
Tom Hojnacki is pleased to join the faculty of the New England School of Performing Arts. He has had a long career as a musician and teacher and really enjoys teaching and sharing music with others!
A versatile pianist equally at home in classical, jazz and popular music, Tom has worked with national touring productions of A Chorus Line, Altar Boyz, Rock of Ages, Matilda and Beautiful!–the Carole King Musical, and on Finding Neverland at the American Repertory Theatre. He has served as music director for dozens of theatrical productions. He has worked with Opera Boston, the Prague Radio, Concord, Plymouth Philharmonic and New Bedford Symphony Orchestras. Tom has played in performances of chamber music by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Hindemith, Messiaen and Shostakovich.
As a jazz pianist he has shared the stage with saxophonists Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Pierce, Joe Lovano and George Garzone, guitarist Larry Coryell, the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, the Kenny Hadley Big Band, Brass Attack, the Cab Calloway Orchestra, the Jazz Composers Alliance and with singers Al Martino, Robert Goulet and Aretha Franklin.
From 2001-2015 he was the composer-in-residence and guest conductor of the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra. An award winning composer (Telly, GEMA) Tom has written over 50 works for diverse ensembles. He is the co-author of the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony (Berklee Press/Hal Leonard) and has co-authored two courses in Music Theory and Composition for Berklee Online.
Tom holds a bachelor of music degree in voice performance and a master of music degree in jazz studies-piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has taught at Dean College and the New England Conservatory. Tom has recently retired from the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he taught for 23 years.
A versatile pianist equally at home in classical, jazz and popular music, Tom has worked with national touring productions of A Chorus Line, Altar Boyz, Rock of Ages, Matilda and Beautiful!–the Carole King Musical, and on Finding Neverland at the American Repertory Theatre. He has served as music director for dozens of theatrical productions. He has worked with Opera Boston, the Prague Radio, Concord, Plymouth Philharmonic and New Bedford Symphony Orchestras. Tom has played in performances of chamber music by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Hindemith, Messiaen and Shostakovich.
As a jazz pianist he has shared the stage with saxophonists Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Pierce, Joe Lovano and George Garzone, guitarist Larry Coryell, the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, the Kenny Hadley Big Band, Brass Attack, the Cab Calloway Orchestra, the Jazz Composers Alliance and with singers Al Martino, Robert Goulet and Aretha Franklin.
From 2001-2015 he was the composer-in-residence and guest conductor of the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra. An award winning composer (Telly, GEMA) Tom has written over 50 works for diverse ensembles. He is the co-author of the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony (Berklee Press/Hal Leonard) and has co-authored two courses in Music Theory and Composition for Berklee Online.
Tom holds a bachelor of music degree in voice performance and a master of music degree in jazz studies-piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has taught at Dean College and the New England Conservatory. Tom has recently retired from the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he taught for 23 years.
Sarah Mitchell soprano, has been an active performer throughout the greater Boston area for the past nine years. A lover of musical theater, she has also music directed several shows, including 42nd Street, Peter Pan, In the Heights, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Little Mermaid, as well as directed high school choirs, madrigal groups, and Christmas programs. Sarah is a certified music educator in the state of Massachusetts, grades K-12, and has six years of experience as a high school and middle school choir director, as well as multiple years as a private voice and piano instructor. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Education from Western Michigan University, where she studied classical singing, early music, choral methods, opera, musical theater singing techniques, piano, cabaret, and pedagogy. Sarah enjoys exploring a variety of singing styles for her students and varied approaches to music education rooted in a strong tecchnical foundation. She most recently performed with the award winning choir the Tallis Scholars in a Carnegie Hall masterclass Venetian Voices. Opera and baroque singing experiences include The International Rameau Ensemble in London, The Fairy Queen and Le Carnaval Masquerade at the Madison Early Music Festival, Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Baroque Festival at Queens College, lead performances with the Harvard Early Music Society and Lowell House Opera in Cambridge, and performing in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria as the Boston Early Music Festival soprano young artist in 2015, as well as weddings, funerals, and other church events.