Meet the Faculty
Tom Christensen (Music Department Chairperson and Jazz Director) attended The Eastman School of Music where he received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. He is an established saxophonist, woodwind specialist, and composer in New York City. For eight years he was a member of The Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra and performed with the Orchestra around the world. He can be heard on their latest recordings as well as on Grammy-nominated albums with Joe Lovano, Paquito D’Rivera, David Sanchez, and Don Sebesky. Christensen has also performed with The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, David Liebman, and The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He has been a member of the BMI Jazz Composer’s Orchestra since 1990 and has also played saxophone and woodwinds for many Broadway shows, television, and radio commercials, and numerous film scores. The Tom Christensen Ensemble, formed in 1994 to play Christensen’s original compositions, frequently performs in New York City and does a series of educational workshops for Carnegie Hall each year in public schools. In 2003 Christensen was awarded a composition grant from Chamber Music America to write and perform an extended work for the ensemble based on the poetry of Frank O’Hara. This piece is featured on his 3rd CD, New York School, released in February 2005 on Playscape Records. He has taught at Fieldston since 1991.
Mark Attebery (Band) was active on the West Coast dance scene as a composer before moving to New York. He received three commissions from the Oakland Ballet. His long collaboration with ex-Twyla Tharpe dancer John Malashock resulted in four commissions from Malashock Dance Co. A CD of dance compositions, Cactus on Mars, has been released on the Thin Air label. Mark toured and recorded with The Burnt Earth Ensemble, a group performing exclusively on unique ceramic musical instruments. His music is also included in a reference CD and book about ceramic instruments, From Mud to Music by Barry Hall, published by the American Ceramic Society. Mark's large collection of wind instruments from around the world are often featured in his dance works and live performances.
Mark also composes and arranges for school groups. He has worked as an orchestrator/arranger for Walnut Creek's Young Performers String Orchestra, as well as public and private schools in California, Oregon, and New York. Mark received a B.A. in Music Education from California State University Hayward and a M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts Education from San Francisco State University. Mark directs the Middle School Bands, High School Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds and Orchestra Winds at Fieldston. He has taught at Fieldston since 2004.
Russell Currie (Electronic Music and Music Theory) received his M.A. in Music Composition from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, and digital music with Alan Schindler. He has taught Music Theory at the University of Rochester and Music Composition at ESM. His compositions include music for opera, music theatre, orchestra, chamber music, dance, and film. “A composer who puts an idiosyncratically musical syntax at the service of a coolly romantic esthetic” (The New York Times), C music is “rich in dramatic orchestral color with direct emotional lyrical lines that discover an effective balance between dissonance and clarifying tonality” (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians).
Currie’s works have been sponsored and commissioned by New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP, American Music Center, Meet The Composer, Astor Foundation, Millennium Pictures, Scottish Television, Glasgow City Council and The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Prague. He is a recipient of New York States Individual Artists Award and while at Eastman, he was a three-time winner of the ASCAP Max Dreyfus Award for Music Theatre. Russell Currie founded the Electronic Music program at Fieldston and has taught here since 1998. He also teaches Music Theory.
Kathleen Hayes (Chorus, Vocal Jazz Ensemble) got her master’s and Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music in vocal literature and performance. A soprano, she sings and performs regularly at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan.
Scott Latzky (Drums and Percussion) studied with the legendary drummer Joe Morello of Dave Brubeck fame while still in high school and attended the Indiana University School of Music. He is a freelance percussionist and teacher in the N.Y. area and has toured with groups on tour all over North America, Europe, and Asia. His work at Fieldston led him toward writing and arranging music for a "Stomp"-like show at Hershey Park that won first place at the Annual International Competition for Theme Parks. He continues to freelance, leading his own groups and playing as a sideman in a variety of styles from Classical, to Broadway, to Jazz, Latin, and Rock. He has taught at Fieldston since 1992.
Nina Simon (String, High School Orchestra, and Music History) teaches all the string and music history courses, chamber ensembles and the upper school orchestra. She has continued her career as a professional violinist and violist and is a tenured member of the American Ballet Theatre, Stamford Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Orchestra of New York. During her career, she has performed in the orchestras of many Broadway shows, from Irene to Annie Get Your Gun. She has been a member of the ECF faculty since 1996.
Ms. Simon graduated from Manhattan School of Music with her B.A. and M.M. in Performance. She completed post-graduate courses at Hunter College, Pace University and Mannes College of Music and received an M.A. in Education from Lehman College. Through the ECF faculty development grant program, Ms. Simon has studied applications of the Suzuki method and has pursued performance studies in various orchestral instruments. Ms. Simon is a recipient of the String Player’s Institute Award and Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant for two consecutive seasons. She participated as a Cultural Exchange Artist in Jamaica, West Indies and has been involved in class demonstrations and performances in public and private schools.
William Sneddon (Band) holds an M.M degree in woodwinds from the University of Michigan, a B.M.ED in music education from Eastern Michigan University and was formerly assistant professor of music at Western Kentucky University. He plays oboe, english horn, clarinet, saxophones, flutes, and penny whistles. While teaching at WKU, he performed in "For Me and My Gal" and for "Music,Music, Music" starring Brenda Lee at Opryland USA, in Nashville, TN.
Mr. Sneddon plays regularly on Broadway and in several area freelance orchestras. As well as playing in "A Class Act", he has performed in numerous other Broadway orchestras and frequently in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular". He also toured with "Les Mis" and recorded the English horn solo tracks on the Orion Pictures film, "City of Industry" starring Harvey Keitel.
He also teaches for the Rivertown Arts Council in Hastings and at Bramson Music Studio in Mt. Kisco.
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