Mark Neslusan & Friends

Mark Neslusan grew up in Oxford, Massachusetts, and began playing clarinet at age nine in 1971. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell with a bachelor's degree in Music Education and Composition in 1985. After attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he did graduate work in musical composition, he began teaching music in Bucksport in 1986 and has taught there for the past 38 years. In addition to directing the band, jazz bands, and choirs, he has performed jazz professionally for over 25 years as a clarinetist and bassist.

Brandon Kelley, a native of Bucksport, began studying guitar with Mark in 2015 when he was a sophomore at Bucksport High School. He has played jazz guitar professionally since 2016 and has performed throughout Maine. He received a Bachelor’s of Music from the University of Maine at Augusta.

Nina Emery graduated from Bucksport High School this year. She has been selected to sing with the Maine All State Jazz Choir for three consecutive years. In this year's Maine State High School Instrumental Jazz Festival, Nina played piano and sang with Bucksport High School’s Gold Medal-winning jazz combo.  She also received the Dale Huff Award as the top musician in this year's festival. Nina was awarded a full scholarship to study vocal jazz performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she will begin her studies this fall.

Daryl Rhodes,a NewYork native,began music studies at age 9 with jazz guitarist Mike Guargna and by age 12  was accepting paid engagements as lead guitarist for  a combo headed by Dave Goldstein(later.a.k.a.Rupert Holmes).Piano studies commenced at age 12 and  though focused on classical literature,Jazz remained a deep-rooted love.Five years later,Daryl's first recording featuring his lead guitar work,was released on the Roulette record label  receiving 4 star ratings in both Cash Box and Record World magazines.He received a  music degree from the Boston Conservatory having studied classical piano with Katja Andy and Dr. Alfred Lee.As a post-graduate,he went on to study jazz piano with world renown jazz educator Charlie Banacos.In 1979,Daryl worked as head of production for a well-known Boston recording studio.This position included his services as  head writer,arranger,studio pianist in jingle and soundtrack production heard on radio and television at the time..To date Daryl continues to love the more than 6000 students past and present,under his tutelage-many now teaching and performing throughout the world.His book titled "The Loss of Listening" is currently offered for sale through Amazon.