Saxophone/Clarinet/Flute/Oboe All beginning through intermediate band and orchestra instruments
Richard Theriault Musical Director, Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble Associate Director, Bristol Choral Society
Rich has been the musical director and conductor of the Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble since 2008. Under his leadership, BBWE was selected and performed at the Festival of Bands, Lake George, New York in July 2013. The band recently performed with the Travelers Chorale at Bushnell Auditorium for two holiday concerts. Rich is also the former director of the Bristol Reunion Jazz Band. He earned both a BS and MA in music education from Western Connecticut State University. His musical teaching career spans forty years during which he was the former director of bands at Bristol Eastern High School. Currently, he is former woodwind instrumental teacher at Miss Porter’s School and gives private music lessons. He has been guest conductor and adjudicator for numerous Regional Band Festivals including the Connecticut Music Educators Northern, Southern and Western Band Festivals, and the Bristol Symphony and is the retired musical director of the 102nd Army Band. His many professional accomplishments have earned him national recognition as Connecticut’s representative for School Band and Orchestra Magazine’s “50 Directors Who Make a Difference.” As a saxophonist, he has played with pit orchestras for Sammy Davis and Frank Gorshen, both the jazz bands of Harold Zinno and Steve Lord, and many other jazz groups around the Connecticut area. Locally, the Board of Directors of the Bristol Center for Arts and Culture honored him as a 2013 recipient of an “ACE” award for his contributions to the local arts, culture, and entertainment environment and was voted Bristol’s 1993 Teacher of the Year. He is past president of the Connecticut chapter of Phi Beta Mu - Band Directors fraternity, as well as former chairman of the Arts Committee for the Connecticut Association of Secondary Schools. Rich lives with his wife Jane in Bristol.