Faculty

Guitar and Bass

Ken McGloin has been a working musician since the age of 14. His music education includes master classes with jazz greats Dave Holland, Larry Coryell and John Abercrombie, and he studied classical guitar for five years. Ken is an accomplished and virtuosic player, able to play many styles with an authentic feel and appreciation of what makes each valid in its own way. He has led bands ranging from swing to hip-hop, folk to funk, and his “hard-core alternative” band, Lunchmeat, played the main stage at the 1994 25th Anniversary Woodstock Festival. He also writes music for TV and film. His music has been featured on two of MTV’s most popular shows, “The Real World” and “Road Rules”, as well as The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the ESPN network.

Brass

Bill Fiore teaches general music, prek-8^th grade, at Poughkeepsie Day School. Within his lower school music classroom, he creates ensemble experiences on Orff instruments, African drums, recorders and handchimes. While instructing in middle school, he offers courses on jazz, rock & roll and world music. As a private instructor, he has taught lessons on trumpet, guitar and ukulele for over twenty years at PDS. He is a current member of Handbell Musicians of America (HMA), New York City Chapter of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (NYCCAOSA) and Dutchess County Music Educators Association (DCMEA). Bill has toured the northeast playing lead trumpet in various musical productions such as: Ain't Misbehaving, This Was Burlesque and Pirates of Penzance.

Piano

Peter Tomlison has been an adjunct professor at Western Connecticut since 1990. In 2006, he joined the Music Department at Vassar College, and in 2010, he started at Poughkeepsie Day School, teaching piano to students K-12. Peter also teaches instrumental music for Paul Effman Music. Other teaching experiences include jazz clinics and coaching high school All-State jazz bands. Peter has studied with Barry Harris, Armen Donelian and Warren Bernhardt. Recordings include albums with Grammy Award winner Jay Ungar, “The Lover’s Waltz”, Mark Dziuba, “Son of Cramdon” and Nancy Donnelly, "Lyrics From The Heart". Of Peter’s own albums, “Momentum” on the Compose label, featured musicians include Dick Oatts, Dave Douglas and Jimmy Cobb. Jazz Times Magazine says, “He’s talented, lyrical, imaginative, and swinging- all the necessary attributes of a fine pianist.”

Drums and Percussion

Paul Beretta commits his professional life to the art of drumming. Coursing through recording sessions and live performances with "Leslie West and Mountain," an HBO appearance on "The Sopranos," an Indie-hit-movie appearance in "Theresa Is a Mother," and recently released CD "Strato G," featuring Ira Coleman on bass, and led by Guitarist Tony DePaolo, Paul conducts and flows with all currents of musical life in the Hudson Valley's highly-charged music-community. Paul's teaching career at Poughkeepsie Day School is here described in his own words: "Teaching an African Drum Ensemble (now known as WADE: West African Drum Ensemble) at this wonderful school provides me the perfect environment and conditions to put all my study and all my professional experience into practice. My students, the pre-k'ers to the upper-school seniors, continue to inspire me."

Woodwinds

Eric Person has been committed to composing, recording and performing contemporary American music for over twenty years. He plays the alto and soprano saxophones and flute and is featured as a leader and sideman on more than 30 recordings. Eric studied at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music and has been active in the New York and international jazz scene for decades. His broad range of experience with Dave Holland, McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton, Ronald Shannon Jackson, the World Saxophone Quartet, and John Hicks, have all contributed greatly to his mature alto and soprano sound and his skills as an arranger and composer. His latest recording, The Grand Illusion, captures Person with his electronic ensemble, Metamorphosis.