Faculty
Tom Hojnacki, Piano, Voice
Tom Hojnacki is pleased to join the faculty of the Worcester Music Academy. He has had a long career as a musician and teacher and really enjoys teaching and sharing music with others!
A versatile pianist equally at home in classical, jazz and popular music, Tom has worked with national touring productions of A Chorus Line, Altar Boyz, Rock of Ages, Matilda and Beautiful!–the Carole King Musical, and on Finding Neverland at the American Repertory Theatre. He has served as music director for dozens of theatrical productions. He has worked with Opera Boston, the Prague Radio, Concord, Plymouth Philharmonic and New Bedford Symphony Orchestras. Tom has played in performances of chamber music by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Hindemith, Messiaen and Shostakovich.
As a jazz pianist he has shared the stage with saxophonists Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Pierce, Joe Lovano and George Garzone, guitarist Larry Coryell, the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, the Kenny Hadley Big Band, Brass Attack, the Cab Calloway Orchestra, the Jazz Composers Alliance and with singers Al Martino, Robert Goulet and Aretha Franklin.
From 2001-2015 he was the composer-in-residence and guest conductor of the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra. An award winning composer (Telly, GEMA) Tom has written over 50 works for diverse ensembles. He is the co-author of the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony (Berklee Press/Hal Leonard) and has co-authored two courses in Music Theory and Composition for Berklee Online.
Tom holds a bachelor of music degree in voice performance and a master of music degree in jazz studies-piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has taught at Dean College and the New England Conservatory. Tom has recently retired from the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he taught for 23 years.