Craig McGorry

Craig W. McGorry is a tenor and soprano saxophonist and music educator. He is a co-founder and leader of Interchange Jazz, a jazz combo performing in various settings throughout New York City.

As a performer, he frequently organizes and plays in duo, trio, quartet and larger ensemble settings for cafes, restaurants, and private corporate and non-profit organization events. He also organizes weekly jazz workshops to work with other jazz musicians on the never- ending process of developing as improvisational musicians. As an educator, Craig is committed to bringing musical experiences to children. He is the instrumental music teacher at P.S. 90, The George Meany School in the South Bronx, NY.

In the late 1980s, Craig studied at Five Towns College of Music in the Jazz & Contemporary Music Performance program. He studied jazz harmony & theory there with such great teachers/musicians as Peter Rogine, Joe Carbone, Paula Berardinelli, Steve Kenyon and Robert Emery. Originally a keyboard major, Craig added saxophone in his second year, eventually deciding to focus primarily on saxophone. He finds that the time he spent studying keyboard continues to inform his saxophone playing and teaching. After college, he continued to study with such various NYC-based instructors as Paul Sullivan (Guitar), the late David Gross (Saxophone), Sam Kanter (Piano), Travis Sullivan (Saxophone) Mark Vinci (Saxophone), Dror Ben-Gur (Saxophone), and Avram Fefer (Saxophone).

As a person with broad interests beyond music, Craig received his Master of Arts degree in Liberal Studies from New York University in 1996. In 2006, Craig completed a second Masters degree, receiving his Master of Science in Elementary Education through Mercy College. During the summer of 2006, he also completed Level I of his Orff certification (music education) through the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He has also completed Level I (2007), Level II, (2008), and Level III (2009) of his Kodaly certification at New York University.

In 2004, Craig left an eight year career in business behind and became a full-time music educator and performing musician. He applied to and was accepted into the NYC Teaching Fellows program (www.nycteachingfellows.org). The Fellows program recruits people who want to become directly involved in bringing change to some of the city's most underserved, hard-to-staff public schools. Through this program, he became the instrumental and vocal music teacher at PS 90x, The George Meany School, in the Bronx, New York. He now teaches at PS35, also in the Bronx, New York.

When his schedule allows, he also holds private teaching sessions with beginner and intermediate-level saxophone and piano students, both adults and children, and also teaches music theory.

Gear

Keilwerth SX904 Tenor, Yanigasawa Soprano