About Us
Piano and Organ Musicians
Current piano and organ players for Occasional Brass and Strings all hail from New England, and enjoy playing weddings and events in the Boston area. Get to know them here.
Amy Lee - Piano
Pianist Amy Lee is an active musician in the greater Boston area. She graduated from the Longy School of Music with a Master's of Music degree, where she studied with Randall Hodgkinson. Amy is multi-faceted musician, passionate about collaboration, chamber music, and education. She has played concerts throughout the Northeast and abroad, with solo performances at the Gardner Museum, New England Conservatory, Harvard University, Bentley University, the Brevard Music Center, chamber music recitals in New York, the UK, as well as the the Sheung Wan Civic Center in Hong Kong. Amy teaches piano, music theory, coaches piano ensembles, and composes arrangements. She is the currently the co-Chair of the Piano Department at the Indian Hill Music School.
amylee@occasionalbrass.com
Brian Friedland - Piano
Composer/pianist Brian Friedland's music displays relentless creativity and deep musical thought through a large body of works for jazz and chamber ensembles. His recorded works include music for chamber orchestra, big band, strings, brass quintet, saxophone quartet, prepared piano, and various sized jazz groups, influenced by genres ranging from the classical avant-garde to Balkan folk music. He has toured with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Il Divo, and recorded on several creative music projects including an album by Grammy nominated composer Kim Richmond. Brian has a master's degree in jazz composition from New England Conservatory and a bachelor's degree in jazz performance from the University of Southern California.
brianf@occasionalbrass.com
Emmett Harrity - Piano
Emmett Harrity is an active pianist in the Southern ME region who performs and enjoys a wide variety of music, specializing in jazz and other improvised music. A 2012 graduate cum laude of the University of Southern Maine School of Music, he now resides in Portland and spends his time performing, accompanying and teaching private lessons. He is the pianist for The Fogcutters big band and the piano trio Standard Issue, both based in Portland. Emmett can be heard featured as the pianist on multiple recordings by both the Fogcutters and Standard Issue, as well as the Maine Saxophone Project’s album Celebration.
emmett@occasionalbrass.com
Helena Veranian - Piano, Organ
Helena Veranian received her M.A. in Piano Performance and Choir Conducting from the Erevan Conservatory in Armenia. She took numerous organ performance classes, and perfected her skills under the tutelage of concert organist Berj Zamkochain. Helena has participated in more than 500 concerts throughout Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain and the United States. She has been the organist and accompanist at Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church in Winchester (MA) since 1995. Helena is married to Maestro Arthur Veranian.
helena@occasionalbrass.com
Jeanne Drumm - Violin, Viola, Piano
A native of Seattle, WA, Jeanne received Master of Music degrees in both piano and viola from the University of Washington before moving to Boston to pursue a Doctorate in viola at New England Conservatory with Carol Rodland, Marcus Thompson and Kim Kashkashian. She frequently performs with many area orchestras, including principal viola with the Cape Ann and Brockton Symphonies. Over the past three decades, Jeanne has been heard in theater pits, as part of a jazz ensemble, playing chamber music in Jordan Hall, as a concerto soloist in Seattle's Meany Hall, performing in Swiss chapels, and at many windy weddings. She hopes to one day be a college professor.
jeanne@occasionalbrass.com
Joe Reid - Piano
Pianist Joe Reid enjoys a busy music career, playing 100+ concerts a year throughout New England. He can usually be heard performing jazz - from solo piano to big band - but also has worked with various classical, klezmer, and R&B ensembles. Joe has worked as an accompanist for the Boston Conservatory, the Longy School of Music, the New School of Music and several choral groups. He has also worked as a pianist with dance troupes (the Mark Morris Dance Company and the Boston University Dance Department) and with theatre companies (New England Light Opera, Mass Theatrica, Riverside Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, the Revels and others). Joe teaches piano and jazz improvisation at his home studio in Belmont and at the New School of Music in Cambridge, and is a graduate of Harvard College.
joe@occasionalbrass.com
Lianne Goodwin - Piano, Vocals
Lianne Goodwin is a talented pianist, conductor, and vocalist. She is currently Chorus and Drama Director at Salem (MA) High School, and has been Music Director at Marblehead Little Theatre for productions of Violet, Les Miserables, Godspell, Next To Normal, Spring Awakening, Hairspray, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Oklahoma!, and Once On This Island. Lianne received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of New Hampshire and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from The University of Missouri-Columbia. As a singer, Lianne performs with Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which performs regularly with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestras. She is also a member of Capella Nova Mundi, a chamber ensemble based in Southern NH.
lianne@occasionalbrass.com
Monique Weiss Byrnes - Piano, Organ, Vocals
Monique Weiss Byrnes is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied organ with Haskell Thompson while earning a Master's degree in Teaching with a Choral Emphasis, after earning her Bachelor's degree in Organ Performance. She has performed the music of Bach, Buxtehude, Brahms, Franck, Hindemith, Mendelssohn, Messiaen, Mozart, Vierne, Vivaldi and Widor on organs throughout the United States. She spent two years studying music in Bayreuth, Germany; Vienna, Austria; and London, England, and played organs in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Monique also studied jazz piano with Harvey Diamond and Charles Banacos and jazz voice with Lisa Thorson, Bob Stoloff and Sheila Jordan. She has been a jazz and classical pianist/singer in the Boston area since 1988.
monique@occasionalbrass.com
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