WILL MANDELBAUM
HIGH SCHOOL

Will Mandelbaum is the Director of Choral Activities at Wilton High School in Wilton, CT, where he oversees four choral ensembles, an award-winning a cappella program, and teaches AP Music Theory. Named the 2023 CT-ACDA Emerging Conductor of the Year, Will has an extensive background as a performer, conductor, and arranger of classical and contemporary choral music. In 2024, Will co-founded the inaugural Resonance A Cappella Festival with Greenwich A Cappella, which hosted world-class clinicians Ben Bram (Pentatonix), Tracy Robertson (A Cappella Academy), and Shabnam Abedi (Lyyra). WHS Choirs recent collaborations have included award-winning artists such as VOCES8, Lyyra, Jake Runestad, and Jocelyn Hagen.

Will currently serves as the CMEA Western Region Mixed Choir Co-Chair, as a staff vocalist and composer at Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport, CT, and as co-music director of VOICEBOX, a new Connecticut-based choral ensemble that performed at the 2022 CT-ACDA conference. Will also enjoys an active career in musical theatre, music directing and supervising all theatrical productions at Wilton High. Originally from Fairfield, CT, Will started music directing at Fairfield Teen Theatre at age 19, where he conducted eight shows over the span of five years. He is set to music direct Wilton Playshop’s production of SWEENEY TODD this coming Fall.

Will holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in Music Education from the University of Connecticut, where he was Assistant Conductor of the UConn Festival Chorus and music directed and arranged for his co-ed a cappella group Extreme Measures. His undergraduate honors thesis, "Analyzing Non-Strophic Forms through the Facets Model: The Early Compositional Style and Technique of Trey Anastasio and Phish" has over 3,000 downloads from across the world.

DR. GAYLON ROBINSON
COLLEGIATE

Dr. Gaylon Robinson is the Director of Choral Activities at Central Connecticut State University, where he conducts the University Singers, Chorale, and Vocal Jazz Ensemble. At CCSU, he also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and music education. Dr. Robinson holds a Ph.D. in Choral Conducting/Music Education from Florida State University, and both the Master of Music degree in Music Education and Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from the University of Memphis.

Robinson is an active guest conductor, having led honor choirs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee. In addition, Dr. Robinson has had the privilege of conducting choral performances in noted concert venues including David Geffen Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center, the Knight Concert Hall in Miami, FL, the Cannon Center in Memphis, TN., and Carnegie Hall. Dr. Robinson has also served as a choral adjudicator and clinician at choral festivals in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

Dr. Robinson has led his choirs to appearances at the state, regional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association. His choirs have also been invited to perform for the on multiple occasions at the State Conference of the Tennessee Music Education Association.

SAM EURICH
TENOR-BASS

Originally from Marlborough, CT, Sam Eurich completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Music (piano performance) and a Bachelor of Science in Education. He then went on to pursue his Masters of Science in Music Education from Central Connecticut State University and has continued his studies at Idaho State University. Presently, he is the choral director at Conard High School, having taught choral music in West Hartford for eighteen years. Sam is the musical director and audio engineer for the Conard High School Musical, in which capacity he received the inaugural Stephen Sondheim Award for music direction in 2025 for his work on Disaster! The Musical. In addition to teaching, Sam competes as a member of the 2023 Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) Northeastern District champion quartet, Destination, with which he has qualified for and performed with at the BHS international contests in Cleveland and Denver. He looks forward to being a TTBB and music theatre resource for ACDA members, a bridge to the Barbershop Harmony Society, and to be a part of this wonderful ACDA R&R team.

JOHN MORROW
MUSIC-IN-WORSHIP

John Morrow is an Oklahoma native who currently lives and works in Connecticut. In August 2023, John began serving as the Director of Music & Organist at First Congregational Church in Darien, CT, and as Assistant Director of Choral Programs at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. He directs and sings with different project ensembles around Connecticut, most recently participating as a conductor and singer with the "Path Project," organized by students at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

John has attended both international (Sacred Music Today Masterclass, Stockholm; Kammerkoor Venus, Utrecht; on staff with the Classical Music Festival, Austria) and national (Conducting Apprentice, CCM Choral Intensive; Norfolk Chamber Choir, Yale; Conductor, Summer at Eastman) choral masterclasses. While at the Jacobs School of Music, he assisted in initiating both the first Compline Choir and the IU Schola Cantorum, a highly selective high-school and undergraduate experience in sacred choral and organ music. He served as a collaborative pianist and singer for the IU Choral Department.

John is an avid believer that music brings communities and people - who might not otherwise meet - together around a common purpose. His research interests include organizational leadership principles in the choral rehearsal and repertoire from regions that do not yet have a public facing publishing presence in the United States.

EDWARD TYLER
COMMUNITY

Edward Tyler, a native of Auburn, New York, earned his Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Connecticut, and his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the Crane School of Music. He retired in 2022 after teaching Choral Music, Theory, and Theatre for thirty-five years. Ed is currently the Artistic Director of the Master Singers of Worcester, a community choir based in both Worcester, MA and Manchester, CT. He is a singer, clinician, adjudicator, and a published composer/author with over seventy titles and two textbooks to his name. In 2019, Ed was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Chapter of the American Choral Directors' Association. He has recently completed his most ambitious composition, "An American Requiem," a tribute to the victims of mass and school shootings. It was premiered by CONCORA in May, 2025, and will be reprised this September.

JACK ZAINO
COMPOSITION

Jack Zaino is a professional music educator living in Wethersfield. He is a full-time choral editor at Alfred Music, where he works directly with composers and authors to prepare their work for print. An active choral writer himself, Jack embraces the artistry in popular styles, and his arrangements are carried by industry-leading publishers.

With a background in the middle school classroom, Jack is in demand as a guest conductor and regularly travels to provide professional development for teachers. He also serves on the programming committee for Consonare, a local organization that builds community through singing. Jack was honored to be named Young Choral Director of the Year by CT-ACDA in 2020.

Jack holds an M.A. in Curriculum & Instruction from UConn, where he was a founding member of the UConn Chamber Singers and continues to enjoy collaboration with music education students.