Music Institute

Katie Chambers is an accomplished and passionate cellist and educator based in Brooklyn, NY.  She has played on various television shows, at many prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kimmel Center, Kennedy Center and Strathmore, and has performed chamber music on several tours in Europe. Katie performs in pit orchestras up and down the East Coast and with various singers/songwriters/performers, including Evanescence, Lindsey Stirling, Brian Falduto and Victoria Vox.  She received her Masters Degree in cello performance from The San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Anton has also worked with or played alongside with many of the great musicians in jazz, such as Ray Charles, Rosemary Clooney, Clifford Jordan, Mel Lewis, Al Foster, Norman Simmons, Brad Meldau, Bill Carrothers, Larry Goldings, Terell Stafford, Dave Stryker, and Bill Stewart, to name only a few. Anton has also been a featured soloist at The Napa Valley Jazz Festival, the Istanbul Jazz Festival (with the NY Jazz Giants) and the LaVillete Festival in France (with the Bill Carrothers Trio).  Recorded work includes the critically acclaimed Bill Carrothers Trio CD, Ghost Ships, Happy Apple’s, Blown Shockwaves & Crash Flow, and John McKenna’s Apparition, to name only a few. As an educator, he has served on the faculty of JazzHouse Kids, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Temple University and has been an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University since 1999.

Pianist/composer Nicki Denner has worked with diverse artists such as Sheila E., Randy Brecker, Savion Glover, and Michelle Shocked as well as other jazz and Latin artists in The United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Ms. Denner has released three CDs under her own name. Her trio recording, Moliendo Café, was named one of the "Top Ten Picks of 2006" in Latin Beat Magazine.  She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Apollo Theater, and has performed for the United Nations as a musical ambassador for the State Department in Central America. She is currently the Musical Director for the highly acclaimed group Cocomama whose debut CD Quiero was included in the 2016 Grammy pre-nominations for Best Tropical Latin album.

Chris Nicolosi is a singer, songwriter, producer and stage performer as well as the PreK and Kindergarten music teacher here at Saddle River Day School! In addition to SRDS, Chris teaches voice and piano at the Bach to Rock music schools in Wyckoff, NJ and Nanuet, NY, as well as The Studio for Performing Arts in New Canaan, CT. He holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Emerson College and a MM in Music Production from Berklee College of Music. Chris loves helping kids of all ages get in touch with the musician inside of all of us! 

Vocalist and recording artist Sofia Tosello is on the faculty of Jazz at Lincoln Center and New Jersey State University.  Her album Lluvia Fue, a collaboration with Latin Grammy winner Fernando Otero, is a journey through classic and contemporary songs from the tango repertory.  She has performed with Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, Aquiles Baez, Thalia, Julio Santillan, Alex Cuba, Folklore Urbano, at Summerstage Central Park, the Blue Note, the Heckscher Theater, the Jazz Standard, BAM Café, the Aaron Davis Hall and other NYC landmarks, as well the Art Museum of Philadelphia, Ryles Club, the Michigan Women’s Festival, el Teatro Real (Argentina), Macau Jazz Festival (China) and more.