Nicholas Schleyer is a versatile and experienced trumpeter and educator based in the Greater Boston and Providence, RI region.

 

As an educator, he is on faculty at the Community College of Rhode Island teaching trumpet. He is the Director of Bands and chair of the Arts Department at PVD Prep in Providence, Rhode Island. He has been working as a Brass and Marching Arts Instructor with marching bands, including the US Bands National Champions Blackstone Millville Chargers Marching Band (of which he is an alum) and King Philip Regional Warrior Band, New England Regional Champion Cranston East Thunderbolt Marching Band, and the Westerly, Cumberland, and Narragansett marching bands. He has been on faculty with the online teaching platform Maestro Music Professionals, the URI Summer Music Academy, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School. In the summer of 2017 he had the opportunity to travel to Jamaica with the Jamaica Field Service Project of SUNY Fredonia to teach general music classes in elementary schools. He is certified to teach K-12 Music in the state of Rhode Island.

 

As a performer, he has been a member of the American Band of Providence, Rhode Island under the direction of Brian Cardany, and the New England Brass Band under the direction of Terry Everson. He has also performed with the  Warwick Symphony Orchestra,  Metropolitan Wind Symphony, and Ocean State Pops Orchestra. At the University of Rhode Island he was a soloist with the URI Symphonic Wind Ensemble and was principal trumpet and guest conductor of the URI Symphony Orchestra. He is an experienced chamber musician, having performed in several groups such as the URI Brass Quintet and Trumpet Ensemble, Renaissance Five Brass Quintet, and Longy's Ensemble Uncaged. He performs in pit orchestras for musicals throughout New England and he performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2017. 

 

He completed degrees in Trumpet Performance, Music Education, and Piano at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and the University of Rhode Island. His primary teachers have included Andy Kozar, Ashley Hall, and David Wharton. He has also studied with George Kent, Bob Izzo, Nicholas Marcotte, and Ronald Pouliot. He studied piano with Manabu Takasawa, Rebecca McCourt, and Paula Ryan.

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Teaching Philosophy:

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I teach music because it is a fundamental part of being human. My goal is to draw out the music that is already within my students. I have a deep rooted belief in the potential of everyone to succeed. All students should have the opportunity to create and perform music. In creating and performing music, students should have a historical, cultural, and analytical understanding of a diverse repertoire of music. As a New Music Equity Action signatory, I am committed to providing students with a diverse program of study, with at least 25% of materials being created by underrepresented minorities, including females, non-binary, LGTBQ+, and BIPOC. Music is a competitive field, and music education for students should have a competitive edge, within the classroom and outside the classroom. The classroom should be a safe and supportive environment where all students have the opportunity to grow and learn from each other. In music, students learn necessary life skills: teamwork, communication, discipline, humility, courtesy, problem-solving, critical thinking, resilience, and leadership. For the student, music is fundamental to their growth in becoming a member of society.