John C. Coggiola, Ph. D. is an associate professor of music education in the teaching and leadership, and teaching and curriculum programs. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Florida.
 
John teaches classes on psychological and sociological aspects of music, research in music, behavioral techniques in music, technology in music education, instrumental music methods and pedagogy, and is a conductor for the Morton Schiff Jazz Ensemble and the Allegro Youth Wind Ensemble.
 
John is currently the research chairperson for the New York State School Music Association and was the co-chair of the Music Educators National Conference Special Research Interest Group in affective response to music.  His research centers on issues of perception and affective response to jazz music and is published in The Journal for Research in Music Education, The Bulletin of The Council for Research in Music Education, and The International Association of Jazz Educators Jazz Research Proceedings Yearbook.
 

Dr. Willie L. Hill is Director of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and a Professor in Music Education.  He received his B.S. degree from Grambling State University and earned M.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Colorado-Boulder.  Dr. Hill was a Professor in Music Education, and the Assistant Dean at the College of Music at the University of Colorado-Boulder for eleven years, and Director of Education for the Thelonious Monk Institute.  Prior to his tenure at the University of Colorado, Hill taught instrumental music and served as instrumental music supervisor for 20 years in the Denver Public Schools (DPS).
 
He has served as President of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE); President, MENC:  National Association for Music Education; President of the Southwestern Division of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC); a member of the writing team for MENC's Vision 2020; and as a member of the national board of directors for Young Audiences, Inc.  In 1998, he was inducted into the Colorado Music Educators Hall of Fame.  A national artist/clinician for Yamaha Musical Instrument Company, he is co-author of Learning to Sight-Read Jazz, Rock, Latin, and Classical Styles (Ardsley House Publication), the author of The Instrumental History of Jazz (N2K, Inc.), and Approaching the Standards (Warner Brothers Publication, 1999).  Hill is listed in the first edition of Who's Who among Black Americans and Who's Who among International Musicians.
 

Dr. Robert Perry was a member of the National Music Foundation’s Education Advisory Committee that created the original specifications for the American Music Education Initiative. He has been a member of our panel of judges every year. He has a PhD from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst (Doctor of Education), and a Masters in Music from Boston University. From 1969 – 1994 he was the Supervisor of Music for the Somerset, Massachusetts Public Schools, where he also served as Coordinator of Fine and Performing Arts. He has also taught Music Education at Rhode Island College.
 
Bobperformed with the “Touch of Brass” Quintet from 1980 – 1995, and was a member of the Southeastern Trumpet Guild and the International Trumpet Guild.
 
In 1992 Bob received the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s Lowell Mason Award. From 1995 to1997 Bob was President of the MMEA; in 1998 he received the organization’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award. 
 
In 1996 Bob served on the Assessment Team for the Department of Education for Music. Bob was listed in Who’s Who in American Education in 1996-7. In 2000 he was recognized as an outstanding teacher in MENC’s Teaching Music magazine.
 

Pete Wernick, "Dr. Banjo," is renowned worldwide for his contributions to bluegrass music: the ho-picking force in three trend-setting bands, respected author and teacher, songwriter, and long-term President of the International Bluegrass Music Association.
 
Pete took up banjo as a teenager in his native New York City, closely studying Earl Scruggs records. While completing B.A. and Ph.D. sociology degrees at Columbia University, he played in local bands and hosted New York’s only bluegrass radio show in the 1960’s.
 
Pete's national music career started in 1971 with northeast instrumental wizards Country Cooking whose innovative recordings helped usher in a new wave of contemporary bluegrass. After moving to Colorado, he organized Hot Rize in 1978. The band appeared throughout the U.S. and three other continents, on national television and radio, and scored repeated #1 bluegrass radio hits, including the Wernick-penned “Just Like You”. In 1990, the year it disbanded, Hot Rize was the first recipient of IBMA’s coveted “Entertainer of the Year” award, as well as a Grammy nomination.  
 
Pete’s instructional books, CDs and videos include best sellers in their respective fields: Bluegrass Banjo, Bluegrass Songbook, and Branching Out on the Banjo. A pioneer in bluegrass music instruction, since 1980 his camps and clinics have inspired players nationwide and overseas.
 

Orville Wright joined the faculty of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in September 1974 where he taught Arranging, Harmony, Ear Training, Ensemble and Applied Piano. He was the Chair of the Ensemble Department at Berklee College from 1985 till 1999.   
 
From 1981 to 1993, he was in charge of the Reverence Gospel Ensemble.  The choir earned the distinction of the Second Most Outstanding Choir in 1991 and 1992 at a Gospel Competition in New York.  In 1999 he assumed a new position in the Office of Special Programs/International Programs, where he managed special projects for the college in conjunction with International Programs.   
 
Orville is an active pianist in the Boston area, and has appeared with the Boston Pops Orchestra and conductor John Williams playing steeldrum (pan). He’s been a member of the Berklee All Stars, participating in clinics for Berklee in Tokyo and Hamamatsu, Japan.  In Tokyo, Orville appeared at the TDK Jazz Festival and recorded with Gary Burton.  He has also been a clinician in Perugia, Italy, in collaboration with the Umbria Jazz Festival.   
 
Orville has served as adjudicator for the steelband competitions “Pan Is Beautiful” and “Panorama” in Trinidad and Tobago.  He developed the present criteria used for all steelband competitions in Trinidad and Tobago in conjunction with Pan Trinbago.  
 
He is a founding member and Board Member of Cambridge Carnival International Inc. Recently, he was elected President-Elect of the National Association for the Study and Performance of African-American Music (NASPAAM) an association affiliated with the Music Educators National Conference (MENC).
 
Orville holds adiploma in Arranging and Composition from Berklee College of Music, and a M.Ed. in Education from Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.