Green Dreams and Big Scenes: Purple Finches Take On a Lovable Ogre

July 10, 2026May 14, 2026

by Jeff Selesnick After a month of May that will see a jam-packed performance and recital calendar, Concord Community Music School regulars may not recognize the Recital Hall come early June. It will be transformed into a swamp, a forest, a castle and beyond as the Purple Finches Youth Choir moves in for its performances … Read more

Music at W4RP Speed

April 14, 2026

by Jeff Selesnick From Juilliard to jazz and Ravel to rock, the W4RP Quartet will blend styles and genres when they take the stage at Concord Community Music School’s historic Recital Hall on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 6 PM. While all four members of the ensemble are classically trained, the group’s repertoire blends classical, … Read more

CCMS Faculty Spotlight: Kyle Trombley

by Jeff SelesnickSince the founding of Concord Community Music School in 1984, a strong piano department has been a hallmark of the organization. Over the years, the piano faculty has been replete with skilled accompanists, classically trained artists, and jazz-influenced professionals, ready to meet the ever-present demand for piano instruction. New England native Kyle Trombley is the latest musician to join the CCMS piano faculty, bringing his eclectic style to Concord ahead of the 2026-27 academic year. After earning his degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Trombley was excited to return to the Northeast and begin sharing his passion for music with the CCMS community. Trombley shared a bit about his background, his teaching philosophy, and career highlights in the following responses: Talk about your musical journey – how did you develop your interest in music? Where did you study?Trombley: My musical upbringing is as diverse as I stand musically today. My first formative musical experience was in an elementary school, where I had the extraordinary opportunity to be a featured soloist in a chamber group accompanied by an orchestra for a commissioned project. It was that moment that I realized I needed to be in music! What was a moment or moments during your musical career that was particularly memorable/influential?Trombley: I’ve had some of the best musical experiences that have shaped who I am today, and my international performance experiences have been the most influential. It was magical being in different countries and having both musical and cultural experiences. Singing and playing in some of the world’s most celebrated venues and halls has shaped my artistic persona, and allowed me to explore the color of my instruments.What was your first job in music? What are your memories from it?Trombley: My first real job in music was working at an old country church in southwestern New Hampshire. I served as Minister of Music, Organist and Pianist. I learned so much being there – both musical skills and soft skills of what a career in music and teaching would be. The church gave me the support to cultivate a program I desired so I learned how to put on benefit concerts, curate a comprehensive concert series/season, orchestrate large-scale ensembles for major holidays, and so much more. It was a lot of learning, but the learning felt like play. Do you have any styles/genres of music you enjoy teaching and/or playing the most?Trombley: While I am classically trained, I do enjoy performing and teaching both jazz and early music. While I was in my undergrad at Keene State College, I was fortunate to study under two different early music specialists. I learned so much under their guidance and am continually inspired by the professional work they have done over the years. I’m lucky I get to work with them both in the Zenith Ensemble each year.In addition to early music, jazz has become a huge part of my identity. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to play a gig with a couple of friends in college. In that gig, we each connected so well that we decided to play together more often. After being hired at numerous gigs, and touring around the area, we opted to become a professional jazz ensemble under the name of The Sonntag Jazz Collective, where we perform throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. How did you find out about CCMS? What about CCMS appeals to you?Trombley: After finishing graduate school in Kansas City, I was looking to return home to New England. While I was looking for work, a friend of mine sent me the job posting for CCMS. After looking it over, I immediately felt like it could be an incredible opportunity, and a small way to give students as much as my teachers gave to me. I am enthralled by the robust course and lesson offerings, as well as the wonderful faculty who teach here. After visiting briefly, it felt like home. I’m super excited to work alongside such fabulous teachers and with students who find joy in music making! How would you describe your teaching style?Trombley: Taking after my professors, my teaching style focuses on what the music asks of us. While it is important to have the foundational skills of scales, chords, arpeggios, etc., I am a firm believer in a fluid anatomical movement, tension release, and exploring a diverse color palette through sound. Most lessons focus on how we move, and how our movement affects the sound we create with the instrument. What do you love most about teaching music? Trombley: What I love most about teaching music is seeing the joy of others in their music making. I love when a student explores a new sound world they haven’t been exposed to before, when they are able to understand a new concept that has been previously a struggle, and of course, seeing each student’s unique expressivity as they play. When you’re not teaching music, what keeps you busy? Trombley: When I’m not performing music, I am out spending time in nature, especially going for hikes – something I love about being in New Hampshire! I also very much enjoy reading and learning more about the intricacies of the human mind. What are your hopes as a new faculty member at CCMS?Trombley: My hope as a new faculty member here at CCMS is to collaborate with everyone! I love finding new ways to work together as musicians and create diverse musical experiences for us and audiences to enjoy.
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CCMS Faculty Spotlight: Jill Hoffman

by Jeff SelesnickThere are lots of reasons to be excited heading into a new school year at Concord Community Music School. For many, it means a return to weekly lessons or ensemble gatherings or embarking on a new challenge with a new instrument or style of music. Oftentimes, it also means new faces among the CCMS faculty, adding to the collective knowledge and experience of the Music School musicians.Jill Hoffmann joined the CCMS faculty ahead of the 2026-27 school year as the school’s newest oboe teacher. A Philadelphia native, Hoffmann’s music career has taken her from Bloomington, Indiana to Seville, Spain, to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania before eventually landing in New Hampshire in 2022. Hoffmann answered a handful of questions about her background to help the CCMS community get to know one of its newest members:Talk about your musical journey – how did you develop your interest in music? Where did you study?Hoffmann: I started piano lessons just before my fifth birthday, VERY much against my will! My parents made all their kids study piano, and worse than that, forced us to practice 30 minutes a day. I constantly begged to be allowed to quit, even though I liked my piano teacher. In fourth grade, I heard the elementary band play the song “Windy” at a school assembly and thought it looked fun. I changed schools a couple times, but I finally was able to start a band instrument during the summer before sixth grade. My piano teacher suggested bassoon or oboe, probably as revenge for having to teach such an unenthusiastic student! It was about that time that I realized what a gift my piano skills were, and I will be FOREVER grateful to my parents for making me learn. I got both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Oboe Performance from Indiana University in Bloomington and I’m happy to report that I passed my piano proficiency exam (a degree requirement) with flying colors during my first semester.What was a moment or moments during your musical career that was particularly memorable/influential?Hoffmann: Oh, so many! I had the good fortune to sit next to my college teacher, Jerry Sirucek, for an IU Summer Festival Orchestra concert that featured Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade – a piece that has a lot of wonderful oboe solos. To this day, when I imagine the oboe part in my head, I hear Jerry’s interpretation, which was stunning. Ten years later, I played Scheherazade at a gala performance with the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville to dedicate the new theater in the presence of Queen Sofia of Spain.What was your first job in music? What are your memories from it?Hoffmann: In ninth grade, I was hired to play second oboe for a version of Vivaldi’s “Gloria” at a local church. I got paid $10 and was SO proud of that first professional check!Do you have any styles/genres of music you enjoy teaching and/or playing the most?Hoffmann: I enjoy teaching all styles. I especially like having a student start a piece that they think they don’t like that they come to love once they completely learn it. I also love when students introduce me to new music that they have found.How did you find out about CCMS? What about CCMS appeals to you?Hoffmann: (CCMS faculty member) Stephanie Jenkins told me about CCMS. The first time I came to visit, I loved seeing the energy of the students making all kinds of music throughout the building.How would you describe your teaching style?Hoffmann: I would describe it as – figure out where the student is, then figure out how hard and fast they can be pushed for improvement while keeping things fun.What do you love most about teaching music? Hoffmann: I’ve been playing the oboe for more than 50 years and I still love it. I’m still learning how to get better at it, and I’m never bored by it. It’s great to share that kind of skill set. When you’re not teaching music, what keeps you busy? Hoffmann: My husband and I have an elderly yipper dog and a personable calico cat who generously allow us to live in our house with them. We like to travel and we have some big flower gardens outside that we’re trying not to kill. What are your hopes as a new faculty member at CCMS?Hoffmann: I hope to keep the oboe students happy and playing well!
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Keeping Her Composure

by Jeff SelesnickTraditional piano lessons never felt quite right for Liz McCormack. Even though she had asked her parents to start taking them as a first grader, learning scales, chords, and proper technique didn’t excite her the way she thought it would. She knew she loved music and wanted to learn more about it, but she also knew she needed something different. “It wasn’t the repertoire or the pieces that I found interesting, it was the ability to produce different sounds,” says McCormack. Outside of her lessons, she began to create her own music, blending the sounds she could make on her keyboard and feeling energized by composing her own pieces. It was this step that made her believe that perhaps her passion lay in music composition instead of performance.She continued to take private piano lessons throughout grade school and even though her teacher was not a member of the Concord Community Music School faculty, she was able to have recitals on the Recital Hall stage. This put CCMS on the map for Liz and her family, and when the pandemic presented a natural time to take a break from piano lessons, she pivoted to taking tenor saxophone lessons with former CCMS faculty member Eric Klaxton. Being a jazz musician, Klaxton leaned into improvisation and melody creation which greatly resonated with the budding composer.“I feel like we really clicked because he also enjoys composition,” notes McCormack. “As a jazz musician, he helped me understand how to write for jazz.”It was only a short time that the two were able to work together as Klaxton relocated to Maine and had to end his sessions with her. Aside from the saxophone skills she had acquired, McCormack realized that her true passion was in composition. She quickly started lessons with composition faculty Romeo Melloni, who saw strong composition instincts in her almost immediately.“Romeo told me after my first lesson ‘you have great potential so I’m going to be hard on you because I really want you to strive for excellence.’ And I wanted that,” says McCormack.“She is really willing to learn and was excited to learn the traditional craft of music composition,” says Melloni of McCormack. “That’s really important in these times because so many young composers are putting music together using computer programs and that’s not really learning the craft of composition. I was really happy to see that a young person was willing to go back and see how Beethoven, Mozart, and Strauss solved problems. That was very satisfying for me as a teacher.”The two got to work with Melloni challenging her to write her first piece for violin and viola and to learn how the two instruments spoke to one another. McCormack also started bringing in pieces she was developing on her own and the two would workshop them to help them reach their full potential. Some of those pieces came from the internship she had earned with ConcordTV where the director tasked her with replacing the stock music he had been using with original compositions. Her two short but productive years with Melloni culminated in her final composition recital this spring, where she debuted a piece for classical guitar and oboe, two instruments she was unfamiliar with. “For composers, learning about all the different instruments is a lifetime pursuit – it’s not something you can just learn from an orchestration book,” says Melloni. “I told Liz to make her own orchestration book and write down everything you learn from everybody.”“Everyone had their own style at the recital, and it honestly made me feel a bit out of place,” admits McCormack. “Other composers stayed very true to a classical repertoire with movements and roles for certain instruments. I like writing music that I think represents me and Romeo knows I can kind of break those rules and he wants to see what I can do.”McCormack is excited to start her next musical adventure – studying music composition at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. While she knows there will be music theory and composition courses to take and hopes to have the opportunity to write for the student musicians, there is still plenty of uncertainty about what this next step will bring. And thanks to her experience at the Music School, she is confident she can tackle anything that comes her way.“CCMS confirmed what I really wanted to do. I knew no matter what that I would do something music related but I never knew if that was performance or composition. Getting to meet all the teachers that I had that told me ‘you have to push this’ allowed me to make it work.”
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0 events 13 0 events, 13	0 events 14 0 events, 14	0 events 15 0 events, 15	0 events 16 0 events, 16	0 events 17 0 events, 17	0 events 18 0 events, 18	1 event 19 1 event, 19 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Curtain Call Concerts: Broadway Showcase September 19 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Curtain Call Concerts: Broadway Showcase The Curtain Call Concerts under the direction of voice faculty Jennie O'Brien present a Broadway Showcase Recital on Saturday, September 19th at 7:00pm! This recital is free and open to the public, and will take place in our historic Recital Hall.
1 event 20 1 event, 20 11:00 am - 5:00 pm CCMS at Concord Multicultural Festival September 20 @ 11:00 am - 5:00 pm CCMS at Concord Multicultural Festival We're very excited to be tabling at the 2026 Concord Multicultural Festival on Sunday, September 20! Stop by our table to learn about private lessons, ensembles and classes, and our expressive arts therapies! The festival runs from 11:00am-5:00pm and will include music, food, art, and a celebration of cultures, traditions, and stories within the Concord ... Read more	0 events 21 0 events, 21	0 events 22 0 events, 22	0 events 23 0 events, 23	0 events 24 0 events, 24	0 events 25 0 events, 25	0 events 26 0 events, 26
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September 12

September 12 @ 9:30 am - 2:30 pm

September 19 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Curtain Call Concerts: Broadway Showcase

September 20

September 20 @ 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

CCMS at Concord Multicultural Festival

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October 1

October 1 @ 12:10 pm - 1:00 pm

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Green Dreams and Big Scenes: Purple Finches Take On a Lovable Ogre

Music at W4RP Speed

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CCMS at Kid’s Music Fest

Curtain Call Concerts: Broadway Showcase

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Bach’s Lunch Series: Jim Prendergast

Fall Faculty Showcase

Curtain Call Concerts: Broadway Showcase

CCMS at Concord Multicultural Festival

Bach’s Lunch Series: Jim Prendergast

Fall Faculty Showcase

Fall Fiddle Festival Workshops and Concert

Fall Fiddle Festival Concert

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