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SUDBURY VALLEY
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Staff Members - Who is Helping You Learn?
STRINGS:
Oliver Chang teaches violin and viola at Wayland’s public schools, general strings at Belmont’s Saturday Morning Music School, and maintains a private teaching studio in Boston. He plays viola in the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony Nova, along with performing regularly with the Boston String Quartet, New England String Quartet, the Semiosis Quartet, and the Amherst String Quartet. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree at the Eastman School of Music, and his Master’s Degree and Performance Diploma at the Boston University School of Music. Previous teachers include Michelle LaCourse, George Taylor, Carol Rodland, and Lisa Suslowicz.
Kett Chuan Lee, cellist, was the youngest member of the National Symphony Orchestra (OSK) 
and Radio Television Orchestra (RTM) in Malaysia before coming to the US in 2003 to pursue higher education. He holds performance diplomas from The Boston Conservatory and Longy School of Music, where he studied with Rhonda Rider and Mihail Jojatu. Kett released his debut solo album – Beethoven and Franck Cello Sonatas in 2017. He was the cellist of nationally acclaimed Boston String quartet (BSQ) and Voyage Piano Trio; he toured with the BSQ to prominent venues for concerts, and dozens of schools for education outreach programs in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio and locally in Massachusetts. Kett owns the Lee's Music Studio in Framingham where he teaches cello lesson and performs recitals regularly.
BANDS:
Diane Muffitt is the co-founder and music director of Sudbury Valley New Horizons Music. 
Diane was introduced to the New Horizons concept when her brother, music director for the Baton Rouge Symphony, and the Lansing Symphony in Michigan, having just filled in as conductor of the Lansing New Horizons Band, called and raved about the experience. Diane, now retired, was a public school band director for 38 years, most recently band director at Wayland Middle School (1980-2012). She was active in the Massachusetts Music Educators Association as District Chairperson, as a member of the Mass Music Educators' Conference board, organizing Junior District festivals, and conducting Junior District several times throughout the state. Diane has also been a clinician at the Conference and for pre-service & in-service music educators. She was for many years conductor of the Freedom Trail Band. In 2013, Diane was appointed Program Director to create a new band camp for adults, New England Adult Music Camp, in Maine (follow link for more camp information).
A French horn player and folk singer in earlier years, Diane is now playing euphonium and enjoying the tuba quartet playing! Diane is passionate about canoeing, camping and anything outdoors; another retirement project is a nature blog. During the summers, she and Linda travel extensively in their 1991 VW camper van.
Linda Murdock is a retired educator who has worn a number of different hats in her career, including lawyer, teacher, and school principal, as well as playing the French horn in various Boston area bands and orchestras. She is the co-founder of SVNHM and one of the band directors. She has had many roles with SVNHM: taught the beginner brass class and played horn, trumpet, clarinet and most recently, tuba in concerts. She also started SVNHM woodwind choir. She enjoys arranging music for the band and woodwind choir, and helps Diane with organizational work.
John McLellan: With degrees in Music Education and Music Composition from East Carolina University and the Hartt School of Music, John has 40 years of experience in band rooms from North Carolina through New England. His tenure of 35 years in Belmont, MA brought him the Lowell Mason Award, the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors’ Association Hall of Fame Award, the Excellence in Chamber Music Education from Chamber Music America, and others. He has served as
clinician and/or commissioned composer in five states with over 600 compositions to his credit. Now retired, he continues to listen and review student submissions from all over the US through the Bartlett Press Levels Program that he created, and greatly enjoys his growing family of (so far) two grandchildren.
Dan Foote, Percussion Coordinator, has performed in a wide variety of musical roles nationally and internationally, including freelance work in Hawaii, Peru, Germany and France. His role as the visual time keeper has taken him from the concert hall to the cruise ship, pit orchestra, recording studio, television, radio and nightclub. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the Berklee College of Music, three time Boston Music Award winner and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Dan served as the Jazz Department chair, and on the board of the Arts and Education Committee, for Indian Hill Arts and was an adjunct faculty member at UMASS Lowell where he taught world music to grad students. He has been the percussion instructor for the Weston Public Schools for over 30 years and his students regularly make it into the district and all-state bands. Dan has had the opportunity to enrich, engage and entertain at many schools throughout the metrowest area with RhythmKids, an interactive multicultural group of percussionists. He and his wife Penny reside with their three children in Weston, Massachusetts.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Muffitt by Harold Curtin
Chang by Rintze Zelle
McLellan by Russ Keene
others by D.Muffitt or L.Murdock
or unknown
