VJC - Key Persons
Anna Patton is a versatile clarinetist, singer, composer, and educator driven by musical curiosity. She is the co-founder of Zara Bode's Little Big Band, in which she plays clarinet and arranges horn parts. She also works with the internationally touring dance band Elixir, which plays American and Celtic fiddle tunes with a horn section, influenced by early jazz, R&B, and classical music. She has recorded albums as a solo artist and with Elixir, and appears on albums by many other artists including Julian Gerstin, Julie Vallimont, and Andrew VanNorstrand.
Anna teaches vocal and instrumental ensemble classes, music theory, and aural skills at workshops all over the US and in her home town of Brattleboro, VT. In 2006, Anna started the Soubrette Jazz Choir at the Vermont Jazz Center, which performs her creative arrangements of historical and contemporary American music.
Daughter of beloved Vermont mandolinist Will Patton, Anna grew up learning a wide repertoire of folk, pop and jazz standards. As a teenager she sang with Village Harmony, with which she toured Bulgaria, where she also studied Balkan clarinet. She majored in ethnomusicology at Marlboro College and in 2015, Anna completed the Masters of Music in New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation program. With a cohort of students from all over the world and all musical backgrounds, she collaborated on performances and studied with the school's extraordinary faculty of composers, improvisors, and ethnomusicologists.
Brian Shankar Adler has performed in caves, forests and adjacent glacial ice fields as well as Carnegie Hall, Jazz Standard, Lincoln Center, Roulette, Rubin Museum and The Stone. He has been recorded on over forty albums including his solo works, For a Gallery on the Moon (Chant Records, 2020) and "Fourth Dimension" (Chant Records, 2019). His music video, "Mantra" won best music video at Transcinema International Film Festival in Peru and an official selection at Quiet City Film Festival in New York City. Adler has also been featured in Jason Bivin's book Spirits Rejoice, Newsweek, NPR, Downbeat and Modern Drummer Magazine. He performed, recorded and/or toured with Ballet Hispanico's, Doña Perón, Chelsea Clinton's film Of Many, Kamala Sankaram's operas, Thumbprint (LA Opera), A Rose (Houston Grand Opera) and The Jungle Book (Glimmerglass), and Elizabeth Swados' final two theatrical productions, The Nomad and The Golem. In 2013, Adler was the guest soloist with La Bomba de Tiempo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He returned to the states to create Human Time Machine, a percussion ensemble that would hold a three year residency at Barbès as well as performances at the Queens World Fair and Roulette. Adler has traveled to Germany to perform with singer Sunny Kim and Kuwait to perform with oudist Ahmed Alshaiba. He was a composer in residence at Antenna Cloud Farm and was commissioned to compose and arrange several pieces for Palaver Strings' tours in 2022 and 2023. Adler has also worked with: Pablo Aslan, Val Jeanty, Sheila Jordan, Guillermo Klein, The Michael Leonhart Orchestra, Frank London, Kate McGarry, Meg Okura, Talujon, Emilio Teubal and Ray Vega. He is a member of the eclectic surf-noir band Bombay Rickey and performs environmental-activism with Bash the Trash. In 2013, Adler published "A World of Percussion," connecting rhythm, language, mathematics and environment through a study of shared musical concepts from around the globe. He is currently on faculties at: Bates College, University of Maine, and Vermont Jazz Center.
David Picchi has been performing and teaching music in Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley since 2001. As an electric and double bass player, he has been called to play on many recording projects and is known for his ability to perform with any lineup, in any genre, for any audience.
After graduating from Holyoke Community College and UMass Amherst, David spent three years touring nationally with the soul/R&B band Leah Randazzo Group. In addition to being the Administrative Director for the UMass Jazz in July Summer Music Programs, David is a member of the Amherst College Music Department faculty, and also contributes his skills and services to the HCC Jazz Festival, Northampton Jazz Festival, Mount Holyoke College Music Department, and Vermont Jazz Center.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director
- Member of the Board
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board
Freddie Bryant has been called "one of the most gifted and versatile guitarists on the scene today" by jazz author Bill Milkowski and "a brilliant young guitarist and composer" by legendary guitarist Kenny Burrell. A versatile musician skilled both in jazz and classical music, Freddie is heavily in demand in the New York jazz scene. He has performed at the Kennedy Center and on NPR with the Billy Taylor Trio, and has performed and/or recorded with Ben Riley, Eliane Elias, the Mingus Orchestra, Tom Harrell, D.D. Jackson, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Rosanna Vitro, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sheila Jordan, Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Max Roach, Lonnie Smith, Steve Wilson, Kevin Hays, Randy Brecker, Salif Keita, Giora Feidman, Max Roach, Lonnie Smith, Badal Roy and many others. Freddie is also on the first call list of many singers because of his sensitive accompanying, and of Brazilian groups due to his knowledge of Brazilian guitar. He has also collaborated with musicians from India, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Cuba, and has toured in fifty countries. Freddie's own groups include Kaleidoscope, Trio del Sol and Brooklyn Rainforest.
A dedicated life-long student and now an accomplished educator, Freddie Bryant graduated from Amherst College with a BA in music and has a Masters in classical guitar from the Yale School of Music. In 2004 he was chosen as a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College where he was later awarded an honorary doctorate. He currently is on the faculty at the Berklee College of Music and the Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen, Holland as well as VJC, and was previously a professor in the Africana Studies and Music departments at Williams College.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of the Board
Rob Freeberg moved to Dummerston, VT in 2012, after retiring from his position as Director of Bands at New Rochelle High School, NY, where he taught for 30 years. Many of his former students have pursued careers in music as performers, conductors and composers. He also directed a community jazz band, the Rob Freeberg Big Band, and the Iona College Pep Band. Rob was selected as guest conductor for several all-county and regional music festivals in NY, and performed and recorded as a freelance trumpeter in the metropolitan NY area.
Since moving to Vermont, Rob has become active at the VT Jazz Center, serving on its Board of Directors and directing the VJC Sextet and Big Band. He performs with the Windham Orchestra and its brass quintet, with chamber orchestras accompanying the Bennington County Choral Society and Keene Chorale, and was chosen as guest conductor for the District 6 MS Jazz Band. Rob teaches at the Putney School, co-directs the Jazz Workshop at Brattleboro Union High School, and has taught a jazz improvisation class at Bellows Falls Union High.
Job Titles:
- Communications and Operations Manager
Stevie Manning is a saxophonist and composer who draws inspiration from surrealist painter Remedios Varo and works to challenge and transmute music theory and history from jazz, experimental, and chamber music into a surreal landscape that activates the subconscious mind to envision alternate worlds. Manning has released four critically acclaimed albums, including Harmonious Creature (Posi-Tone 2014), which was a top ten jazz pick of the Los Angeles Times. As a bandleader she has performed at venues including Dizzy's Club Cola, Roulette, Yoshi's, and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival as well as The Hundred Years Gallery in London. She is currently working on We Will Not Be Composed, a multimedia piece with author and activist Soraya Chemaly to challenge perceptions of women's anger in America from silence to somatization to explosion. She is a two time MacDowell fellow in composition, a 2020 and 2021 MAP Fund grantee, and a 2021 NYSCA Composer Commission recipient. She can be heard on William Hooker's recent release Big Moon (Org Music 2021).