Garrett Mendez is the Director of Performing Arts at King School in Stamford, CT. Additionally, he is the founding Artistic Director of Project Music, an intensive after-school youth music program, and the Artistic Director of the Archipelago Project, an acclaimed chamber music ensemble and organization that is dedicated to advocating the musical arts through performance, residency, and consultation. As an active performer, Garrett tours with Archipelago around the world and is currently the bass trombonist with the Bridgeport and Waterbury Symphonies. He has played with prestigious ensembles throughout the Midwest such as the Detroit Chamber Winds and performed with groups including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Sigmund Romberg Orchestra, and Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.
An active educator as well as a performer, Garrett has been the Adjunct Professor of Trombone at Albion College in Albion, MI, as well as serving as a sabbatical replacement for Elliot Chasnov’s University of Illinois Trombone Studio in 2005. Garrett received an ABD in Musical Arts from the University of Illinois, and has received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Trombone Performance and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Professional expertise, resources, and/or connections that the candidate would bring to the board: Connections to peer organizations with a national profile, High Level Pedagogue, Founder of El Sistema Program, Created the 1st El Sistema focused summer program in the United States. Integral in the creation of Baltimore’s OrchKids and Tuned In programs
