Members

Dan Trahey - Tuba, Executive Director

Dan Trahey is the director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s new education initiative ORCHkids.  Previously he held the position of Director of Community and Outreach events for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.  As a teaching artist in Hartford, Dan  presented concerts, lectures, and demonstrations to over 40,000 Connecticut school children. 
He is a music teacher mentor for the Peabody Conservatory of Music and serves as Tuba player and executive director of the non-profit music education ensemble, The Archipelago Project.
He received a Masters of Music from Yale University and completed a Bachelors of Education from the Johns Hopkins University. 
As a tuba player Dan has performed with The Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Washington Summer Opera, Interlochen Arts Academy, Bayreuth Easter Orchestra, Orquestra de Nueva Leon, New Britain Symphony, Orchestra New England, Kennedy Center’s Theatre for Young Audiences, and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s “Musical Dialogues.”

Mr. Trahey has taught at the Peabody Preparatory, Yale University, Idyllwild Arts, Baltimore School for the Arts, Manchester,CT Public Schools and in the Baltimore City Public Schools. 

He is a frequent teaching artist, presenter, lecturer, conductor, soloist, and arts advocate in school systems throughout the world and holds permanent residencies at Nucleo Acarigua in Portuguesa, Venezuela, the Innsbruck Musikschule in Austria, and Traverse City East Junior High School, in Traverse City, MI.

Thomas Steinbrucker - Trumpet, Manager AP Europe

Thomas, from Innsbruck - Austria brings traditional German/Austrian music to Archipelago. As a teacher at the Music School of Innsbruck, he is dedicated to passing music onto others. As a performer he has played with prestigious ensembles such as the Vienna Symphony and is a current member of a contemporary wind ensemble called Wind Force. Thomas has also been a member of the European artists organization, Arts Gemini, which connects musicians from around Europe to musicians around the world. Thomas has also performed in American Music festivals such as Idyllwild. Thomas has performed at the Archipelago Summer Festival sine it first started in 2003.

Garrett Mendez - Trombone, Artistic Director

Garrett is currently the Director of Instrumental Music at King Low Heywood Thomas in Stamford, CT.   Finishing his Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Illinois, Garrett has received a Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Trombone Performance and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.  As an active performer, Garrett is currently performing with the Bridgeport Symphony and has played with prestigious ensembles throughout the Midwest such as the Detroit Chamber Winds.  He has also performed with groups like the Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Sigmund Romberg Orchestra and has also performed as a back up musician to Jazz Greats like John Clayton and Dee Dee Bridgewater.  Being an active educator as well as a performer, Garrett has been the Adjunct Professor of Trombone at Albion College in Albion, MI(2002) as well as serving as a sabbatical replacement for Elliot Chasnov's University of Illinois Trombone Studio (Spring Semester 2005). Garrett also teaches numerous private lessons to Middle school and High school students in his free time. 

"My Passion is performing my instrument for others and my other passion is teaching.   There are not many words or books that can teach music.  Working closely with outstanding musicians who pass on their experiences in music and their secrets not just through words of advice, but also with their playing, allows students to experience music in away that no music appreciation class or regular concert ever could. That is why I created Archipelago with Dan. To create an atmosphere where we can pursue our artistic performing goals and at the same time pass that information on to a new generation of listeners."

Andreas Lackner - Trumpet, Musical Director

Armin Häfner - Trumpet, Manager Germany

Armin, a talented trumpeter from Germany, also helps Archipelago give authentic performances of German/Austrian folk music. Armin a graduate of the “Robert Schumann Hochschule“ in Düsseldorf, Germany, is an active private instructor in Nuremburg Germany and he also plays with many great ensembles through out Germany such as the Junge Wiener Philharmoniker and the German Philharmonic Wind Orchestra. Besides being a great classical trumpeter, Armin is also a versatile musician that excels at jazz and other popular styles of music. Armin has also been a member of the Groove Legend Orchestra Big Band and the Funkatelics Big Band in Germany. He has also performed at the Idyllwild Music Festival in Idyllwild, California. Armin has performed at the Archipelago Summer Festival since it first started in 2003.

Andy Shumm - Cornet, Piano

Andy Schumm is a music graduate from the University of Illinois.  He was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and began playing both piano and trumpet at an early age.  While still in Milwaukee, he studied modern jazz improvisation with trumpeter Mike Plog, and later studied jazz with Chicago-based trumpeter Tito Carrillo. 
Andy is a versatile musician who regularly performs with a variety of diverse groups.  However, his real passion is for hot jazz music of the 1920s.  Andy's cornet style is heavily influenced by cornetists of the 1920s such as Bix Beiderbecke and Red Nichols.  He has been featured at numerous traditional jazz festivals, such as the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival in Davenport, Iowa, the Allegheny Jazz Society's Festival in Chautauqua, New York, and the Tribute to Bix in Racine, Wisconsin.  He recently led an authentic Bix Beiderbecke-style tribute group featuring Vince Giordano, the world's foremost early jazz musician and historian.  In recent years, Schumm has been active in the Chicago region with groups such as the West End Jazz Band and Ralph Norton's Studebaker Champions. 
Aside from performance on cornet and piano, Andy is an active arranger, specializing in period jazz arrangements of the 1920s. Andy joined Archipelago in 2006.

Gerd "Bui" Bachmann - Trumpet

Gerd Bachmann was born in 1979 in Tyrol, Austria. He studied trumpet, piano and education at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Since 2006 he has worked as a trumpet teacher in the Music Schools of Innsbruck and Grosses Walsertal/ Vorarlberg. Gerd  played with many ensembles such as the Junge Philharmonie Wien and the Gustav Mahler Accademie in Bolzano and is a current member of the chamber orchestra InnStrumenti. He also performed at the Idyllwild Music Festival in Idyllwild, California. Gerd joined the Archipelago project in 2004.

Stefan Konzett - Trombone, Basstrumpet

Stefan Konzett was born in 1976 in Vorarlberg/Austria, studied Trombone at the "Tiroler Landeskonservatorium Innsbruck", as well as at the "Mozarteum Salzburg" with Dany Bonvin, where he got his diploma in 2004. He works as a freelance musician in classical and jazz music and plays regularly with the "Camerata Salzburg", the "oesterreichisches Ensemble fuer neue Musik" (OENM). He preforms a lot music from the centuries with Baraockensembles like Musica Antiqua Salzburg, Concerto Stella Matutina or the Trompeten Consort Innsbruck. He frequently plays jazz with the Lungau Bigband (Salzburg), the and the "Jazz-Orchester Vorarlberg".  He teaches at the musicschool of Berchtesgaden (Germany) and at the "Musikum" Salzburg.
Stefan joined Archipelago in 2007.

link: Homepage

Matt Cameron - Trombone

Matt is currently Principal Trombone in the Cedar Rapids (IA) Symphony Orchestra and Instructor of Low Brass at Grinnell College.  Along with the CRSO, he has performed with several other orchestras around the Midwest including the Des Moines Symphony, Quad Cities Symphony, Ohio Light Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera, and has also played with numerous big bands, chamber groups and new music ensembles. 
Matt also keeps busy aggressively promoting music education locally and nationally.  Locally, as part of his symphony duties Matthew is a member of the CRSO Brass Quintet performing over 40 educational concerts annually; he also gives masterclasses to low-brass students at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School and has arranged to give clinics and solo with high school bands around Iowa.  Nationally, Matt has performed with the Brass Company on educational performance tours throughout Kentucky, and as a member of The Archipelago Project travels regularly throughout the United States and Europe.  He earned his Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois and completed his undergraduate studies at Iowa State University.
Matt joined Archipelago in 2007.

Casey Fitzpatrick - Woodwinds

Casey Fitzpatrick graduated from the University of Illinois with a Masters in Jazz Studies. A talented and versatile musician, Casey has performed with a variety of ensembles in many different styles of music ranging in diverse venues such as cruise ships and on the road with rock bands. He has performed as a back up musician to jazz greats such as John Faddis and Clark Terry. He has received outstanding soloist awards at the North Texas Jazz Festival and at the International Association of Jazz Educators conference(IAJE) in New York City. Casey’s innovative and melodic style of improvisation along with his calm and patient approach to teaching makes him an excellent educator of jazz and improvisation.
Casey has been with Archipelago since 2004.

Chris Baker - Drums

Chris, originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area, grew up in a music family with his mother being a music teacher and his father being a professor of jazz studies at Kent State University. Chris just finishing his undergraduate degree in music from the University of Illinois is a successful drummer who has performed with many great jazz groups in the Cleveland area. Besides being a great jazz and rock drummer, Chris has also performed in many great bands and orchestras demonstrating his versatility as a percussionist.
Chris joined Archipelago in 2006.

Luke Scott - Vocals, Piano

Armand Hall - Band Director, Clarinet, Saxophone

Armand is a woodwind player from Detroit, MI.  He has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Music Education from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, where he studied clarinet with Deborah Chodacki.  He studied jazz on clarinet and saxophone in Detroit with Wendell Harrison, Marcus Belgrave, and Teddy Harris. Armand spent four years in the Michigan Marching Band on tenor saxophone and continues to teach band camps during the summer.

He teaches middle and high school band in Farmington Hills, MI, and during his free time, he is the music director for the Clarinet Connexions Clarinet Choir and the guest conductor for the Flint Youth Wind Ensemble.  Armand’s schools have participated in two Archipelago residencies in the past.
Armand joined Archipelago in 2007.

Martina Veiter - Pedagogy Expert

Erika Santek-Pircher - Guitar teacher

Kathrin Polzer - Musikalische Früherziehung

Kathrin studied „Elemental Music and Dance Pedagogy“ at the Orff-Institute in Salzburg. She completed the university courses „Music and Dance in Social Work and Integrative Pedagogy“ and „Elemental Music Education“, a training for „Expressive Dance Education“ an holds a diploma in Montessori Pedagogy.

Kathrin teaches „Music Education for young children“ an Singing classe for schoolchildren for the Musikschule Innsbruck.
She also does music and dance trainings for nursery teachers and parents, for example for the Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Kathrin joined the Archipelago Project in 2011 and works in the refugee home in Innsbruck.