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 nespa@comcast.net 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 nespa@comcast.net for more information. Our Music Center offers lessons in voice, piano, guitar, cello and clarinet.
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.
Jess Chann is currently enrolled in a dual-degree program at the esteemed Berklee College of Music to earn her B.A. in Music Education and Vocal Performance. Although she specializes in voice, she has nine years (and counting) 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 genres and styles ranging from classical soprano pieces to soulful R&B, pop, and rock songs. She performed as both vocalist and instrumentalist throughout her years in the Lynnfield Music Program, participating in Chorus, Concert Band, Pit Orchestra for the annual musical theater productions, Funk Band, Jazz Band, Rock Ensemble, and most notably: as an auditioned member of the 2019 All-State MMEA Festival chorus at the famed Boston Symphony Hall.
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 will always enthusiastically give 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.
Sarah Mitchell (online teacher) 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.