Since beginning his professional teaching career in 1998, Jeff has worked with a wide range of music students in various capacities, including 5th-grade beginning music lessons at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, 9-12th-grade lessons as the band director at Port Washington High School, first-year college aural skills as a visiting lecturer at UW-Whitewater, and graduate-level form and analysis as an associate lecturer at UW-Madison.

Jeff is especially interested in the history and theory of 19th and 20th-century music. After completing a Ph.D. in Music Theory at the UW-Madison, he published articles on theories of orchestration in Theoria (2012), Organized Sound (2013), the Journal of Music Theory (2013), and Music Theory Spectrum (2014). He has also contributed articles to Best Music for Young Band (2005), an anthology of beginning band music.

Jeff currently performs with the Madison Chamber Choir, the Madison Brass Band, and the Madison Area Community Orchestra. He draws particular musical inspiration from his 11-year-old, 8-year-old, and 6-year-old sons’ curiosities about musical craftsmanship and performance.

Glenda Phillips has been teaching piano/voice lessons for 40+ years. She received her Bachelors from Syracuse University and a Masters from Ithaca College, both in piano performance with voice as a minor. Glenda has two children, Sarah (36) and Daniel (33), and a grandson, Carter (7), who is her favorite playmate. The whole family is in the Midwest but has lived in several states over the years. Glenda loves to grow flowers, swim with her grandson, and take ‘forest-bathing’ walks. Of course, she loves to hear music, whether in lessons or on the stage.