RAVENA — John Fatuzzo, the steward to Ravena Coeyman Selkirk’s award-winning music program, will move on to Guilderland Central next school year.
RCS family members attending the high school’s graduation commencement at the Times Union Center on Saturday, June 26, took the time to say goodbye.
Since 2016, Fatuzzo has taught Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble, Music Theory, Music History, as well as instrumental lessons and chamber music at the high School. His ensembles while with the district have regularly received ratings of Gold and Gold with Distinction at NYSSMA Major Organization Festivals.
An active freelance teacher and performer, Fatuzzo maintains a private trumpet studio and regularly coaches trumpet, brass, and full orchestral winds sectionals for the Empire State Youth Orchestras Symphony and Repertory Orchestras.
Additionally, Fatuzzo has been the Director of Administration for the School of Orchestral Studies division of the New York State Summer School of the Arts. In that role, he oversaw all school programmatic and residential functions while regularly leading winds and percussion sectionals and chamber brass ensemble coachings.
A semi-finalist in the 2016 Graduate Solo Division of the National Trumpet Competition, Fatuzzo has performed and worked with numerous highly acclaimed artists including Bela Fleck, Doc Severinsen, Livingston Taylor, and both current and former musicians from several of the world’s most famed symphony orchestras including Phil Smith, Mark Gould, Ethan Bensdorf, David Bilger, Jim Wilt, and Thomas Stevens.
Fatuzzo has performed with the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra, Sage City Symphony, Albany Pro Musica, Burnt Hills Oratorio Society, Capital Region Wind Ensemble, and more.
Before teaching at RCS, Fatuzzo graduated summa cum laude from The College of Saint Rose with a Bachelor’s Degree in K-12 Music Education. While attending his undergraduate studies, he was recognized as the “Most Outstanding Graduating Student,” received multiple selections for Honors Convocation performances, and was featured with the Saint Rose Wind Ensemble in a 2013 performance of Herbert L. Clarke’s Carnival of Venice.
In 2016, Fatuzzo received the Masters in Music in Trumpet Performance and Literature and the Arts Leadership Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. At Eastman, he studied with virtuoso trumpet performer and pedagogue James Thompson and was an instructor of applied trumpet lessons to students of the University of Rochester.
