POLY CONSERVATORY

Youmei Cai is a Chinese classical pianist who studied piano performance and music education/pedagogy at the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes School of music for undergraduate and master's degree programs. She started learning piano in Japan when she was 4, and was accepted into the Central Conservatory of Music in China at the age of 9. In 2011, she was invited to the United States for further piano studies. Youmei studied with world-known pianists, such as Solomon Mikowsky, Meng Chieh Liu, Ethan Dong, Takatsu Ayako, Eteri Andjaparidze. In Youmei’s musical journey, she had won many competitions under the influence of these teachers, such as Chopin Memorial Prizes International piano competition, Kaufman Music Center International Piano Competition, Australian Classical Music Competition, etc. She has performed in many different countries and various places, such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Steinway Hall, Field Concert Hall, John C. Borden Auditorium, Morse recital hall, etc. She has also collaborated with musicians such as Joan La Barbara, Audrey Axinn, Gary Graffman, and Alexander Kobrin. Youmei has taught many students of different ages and abilities. She loves to have fun with students while teaching piano skills and technique that are necessary in order to build up the proper learning system, as well as music theory, ear training, and sight-reading skills. 

Violinist and violist, Carrie Dowell is an avid chamber musician and active freelancer in the New York City area. She has performed with various chamber groups and symphonies in New York City at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, off-Broadway, and venues across the country, Europe and Asia. She is a long-standing member of Summer festival orchestras in the Missouri Symphony Orchestra and the Bear Valley Festival Symphony.  Before joining the faculty at Poly Prep, Ms. Dowel taught with Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, InterSchool Orchestras of New York, All Newton Music School, Bank Street School for Children, Third Street Partners at Third Street Music Settlement where she continues to guest teach. Ms. Dowell holds performance degrees from Butler University, Kent State University and The Longy School of Music. Ms. Dowell is a certified Suzuki Instructor. She was a Suzuki student herself and believes in creating a nurturing environment for learning and expression. Students of all ages can play with ease and beauty and an understanding of the power of music.

Kristen Drymala is an accomplished cellist and music educator who has been teaching private lessons since 2009. She has helped her students develop technique, confidence in playing, note reading, and orchestral and improvisational skills. Kristen received her training at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, earning a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and a Masters of Music in Music Education. Her teaching style can be described as kind, patient, and knowledgeable, with the ability to help push her students to new heights through finding their own musical voice through the instrument. Kristen is also an experienced performing musician. She has toured nationally and internationally, and her cello playing with the band Gem Club can be heard on NPR's "All Songs Considered" and "Tiny Desk Concerts." You can hear her on the soundtrack to ABC's "Private Practice" and "Revenge", as well as NBC's "Parenthood". Recently, she released an album with her project “Quarterly”, which features Kristen and her husband playing original guitar and cello duets. 

Drummer, composer, educator, bandleader, Rob Garcia has been performing and teaching for over 25 years. He has performed with such important artists as Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Diana Krall, Myra Melford, Dave Liebman, Sheila Jordan, Vince Giordano, Woody Allen, Wycliffe Gordon and Joseph Jarman. Rob has released 8 critically acclaimed albums as a bandleader which feature such artists as Joe Lovano, Kate McGarry, Noah Preminger, Dan Tepfer, Gary Versace, Joe Martin, John Hebert, Dave Kikoski and Mike Formanek. His drumming can be heard on over 70 albums including Grammy winners. Rob has given private drum lessons to scores of students of all ages and levels. He is on faculty for the NY Hot Jazz Camp and Poly Prep Conservatory. He has also taught lessons and ensemble classes at institutions such as the Brooklyn Music Factory, Berkeley-Carroll School, NYC Public Schools, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and The British International School of NY. Rob has delivered masterclasses in the U.S. and Europe, and has performed in over a 150 school assemblies organized by Lincoln Center, Arts Horizon, Brooklyn Arts Council and other organizations. He has also done workshops for aspiring musicians with NYU, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz. Rob has been a major force in artist-run jazz organizations. He is the founder and artistic director of the non-profit Connection Works, a member of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground and a founding member of the Douglass Street Music Collective. Rob has a Masters of Music from SUNY Purchase and a B.A. in Psychology from NYU.

I grew up in New York City and Washington DC. When I was 13 my older brother needed a bassist for his Bluegrass band and figured I could learn. I appreciate his faith in me. I went to Wesleyan University for a few years then, when I decided to focus intently on music, I transferred to the New School for Jazz and Contemporary music here in the city, where I received an MFA in ’92. I’ve played all sorts of music over my 30 year career, from country to classical, from jazz to rock. Some of the highlights have been playing hundreds of gigs with the excellent pianist Michael Kanan; playing in the fabulous singer/songwriter  Martha Wainwrights band for 4 years; touring with the alt-rock group Sparklehorse as the opening act for Radiohead in support of their seminal record OK Computer; being a founding member of the gorgeous Hawaiian band the Moonlighters; playing with the Greenwich Village Orchestra where I was the principal bassist for 4 years. For the past decade I’ve been playing bass with the instrumental rock trio Big Lazy, with the Western Swing band Brain Cloud featuring Dennis Lichtman and Tamar Korn, and with Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra who puts on the Jazz Age Lawn Party out on Governors Island. I’ve been teaching bass, both upright and electric, at Poly Prep for a dozen years. Passing on what I’ve learned about this profound and subtle instrument to new generations of musicians is a joy.  

Rina Jung Eun Kim is a singer, actress and teacher in NYC . She graduated from Ewha Womans University with BM in Voice and completed her masters degrees at Mannes College of Music in Voice and Columbia Teachers College in Music Education. She made her Carnegie hall debut and won several vocal competitions including NATS and young Artist international competition as a classical singer. She finished her musical theater training at AMDA and made her debut at Mt. Gretna theater as ‘Lady Thiang’ in King and I. She also performed at Lyric Stage Theater as ‘Tuptim’ and joined Actors Equity after performing at Starlight Theater as Tuptim understudy in King and I with Lou Diamond Philips. She is in Vocal pedagogy certificate program and teaching students at NYU as an adjunct faculty and Concordia Conservatory as a voice faculty. 

Lisa Parrott grew up in Australia and has been based in New York City since 1993. Since then, tours have included all 50 states and Europe, major jazz clubs, festivals and even Carnegie Hall. Her performance credits are notable and include Dave Brubeck, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mandel, Cindy Blackman, Gunther Schuller, Marty Ehrlich’s Large Ensemble, Jane Ira Bloom, the ArJe Shaw Orchestra, Jimmy Heath’s Big Band and the Diva Jazz Orchestra. Her latest recording ‘Round Tripper’ received 4 stars in Downbeat and she has been consistently recognized in the DownBeat Critics Polls for her baritone saxophone playing. She has also received Australian Arts Council grants to study with Steve Coleman (1993) and Lee Konitz (1997). Lisa has been teaching since 1989. Teaching credits include the NY Pops Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Music School, Greenwich Music House, Music Outreach, as well as workshops in colleges including University of Michigan and the Sydney Conservatorium. Besides her private students, currently Lisa teaches saxophone at Ocean Hill Collegiate and has been teaching woodwinds at Poly Prep since 2017. Lisa’s playing has been featured on over 30 albums as a leader and side person and she cites her biggest musical influences as being Bernie McGann and Ornette Coleman.

Described as "an exceptional artist, with a shimmering sense of sonority and the ability to find a keen balance between poetry and intensity" by Latin Jazz Network, Gabriel Vicéns is an internationally acclaimed guitarist, composer, bandleader, visual artist, and educator who works across a wide range of musical expressions. Originally from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Vicéns relocated to New York City after more than a decade of performing and recording with his group and other top artists from the Puerto Rican jazz scene and a four-year professorship at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. He has been featured at venues and festivals such as Heineken Jazz Fest in Puerto Rico, SF Jazz Center in San Francisco, Ljubljana Jazz Festival in Slovenia, Uno Jazz San Remo Festival in Italy, and Havana World Music Festival in Cuba. Vicéns has released 5 albums as a leader/co-leader and many more as a sideman. In addition, he has worked with artists such as Eddie Gómez, Miguel Zenón, Alex Sipiagin, and David Sánchez, among others. In New York, Vicéns has frequently performed at prominent venues such as The Cell Theater, Cornelia Street Cafe, Birdland Jazz Club, Teatro LATEA, Fat Cat, The Owl Music Parlor, and Terraza 7. He received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz and Caribbean Music Studies and Performance from the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico where he graduated Summa Cum Laude as the first guitarist in the program. In 2017, he earned his Master of Music in Jazz Studies and Performance from Queens College. Between 2019 to 2021, Vicéns studied painting at The Art Students League of New York with color-field painter Pat Lipsky and in 2022 he received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Studies and Performance from Stony Brook University under the direction of Ray Anderson.

Kenny Warren grew up in Denver CO, where he was inspired at a young age by local trumpet greats Ron Miles, Al Hood and Greg Gisbert. In 2002 he moved to New York to study jazz at SUNY Purchase where he met collaborators like Bobby Avey and JP Schlegelmilch. After graduating in 2006, he moved to Brooklyn and quickly became an active member of the improvised music scene. He has performed with a who’s who of improvisors from his generation as well as with luminaries like Tony Malaby, Chris Speed, Angelica Sanchez and Brad Shepik. Joining the brass band Slavic Soul Party in 2008 began the expansion of Warren’s melodic concept to include Roma music and Arabic maqam language. As a composer Warren’s music was first featured on 2 albums by instrumental rock collective NOOK. In 2010 Warren formed Laila and Smitty, named after his great aunt and uncle. That band which started out playing country-blues standards and Warren’s folksier compositions, evolved into a singular avant-song-writing outfit which Bird is the Worm calls “massively genuine and unabashedly heart-on-the-sleeve open and honest”. Laila and Smitty has released 3 LPs, most recently in 2019 on happylucky records. Meanwhile Warren continued to develop as a free improvisor, recording records in 2014 with the collective ZhirtZ n ZkinZ (Sulde) and in 2015 with The Sandra Weiss Quintet (Leo Records). In 2017, The Kenny Warren Quartet released Thank You For Coming to Life (Whirlwind Recordings) which highlights Warren as a jazz composer and soloist. The album was heralded as “Boldly creative and superbly orchestrated...A masterful album... Stunning.” by Radio REC. In 2018 Warren released YLA (promnight), a solo cassette which resulted from a series of home recording experiments done on a creative retreat to California that winter. In April 2020 Whirlwind will release Warren’s latest work, a trio record called In The Heat, featuring Matthias Pichler on bass and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums.

David Wechsler is Music Director of The OMNI Ensemble. He is the Principal Flute of the Queens Oratorio Society, and played Principal Flute in the Connecticut Grand Opera, second flute in the Brooklyn Philharmonic and section chairs with many New York area performing groups, including the New York Pops, Queens Symphony, The New York Choral Society, and the Discovery Orchestra.  Mr. Wechsler was principal flute in the 1998 production of Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby, the solo flutist in the 2007 Public Theater's production of King Lear starring Kevin Kline and has performed in many other Broadway musicals. He has toured with Andrea Boccelli and the Quintet of the Americas.  He is active in the recording field as well, as an engineer and a performer, recording chamber music concerts and playing sessions on flute, piccolo, alto and bass flutes, and bamboo flutes. Mr. Wechsler is a past President and was a board member of the New York Flute Club for over twenty years. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree form the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan in 2012. Mr. Wechsler has contributed articles to Flute Talk magazine on intonation and the history and restoration of the O. W. Palmer flute.  As a composer, he has written many works for The OMNI Ensemble, as well as commissions for Dancewave Inc. and Clarion Concerts in Columbia County. He is on the faculty of the CUNY College of Staten Island, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and the Poly Prep Country Day School. 

Maddy Wyatt is an accomplished singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, having toured the country as a solo artist and with her band WYATT, opening for such acts as The Mountain Goats, Nelly McKay, and Le Tigre. She has released three albums of original music, described by TimeOutNY as "quirky, lilting, and unpretentious songs that pack a jaunty punch." A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music, Wyatt has served as a teaching artist and music educator at institutions such as The Blue School, The Omega Institute, and Brooklyn Music Factory. She believes strongly in nurturing the unique creative voice of each student alongside the fundamentals of vocal and guitar technique. Maddy's work as a composer can most recently be heard in the feature film Breaking Fast, now streaming across all platforms.