MJ Territo

Performance: MJ Territo is the founder of the Ladies Day Jazz Ensemble, a group of women musicians dedicated to discovering and performing the compositions of classic and contemporary jazz women.  With Ladies Day and other jazz groups, she is a frequent performer in the tri-state area.  MJ's jazz ensembles present a variety of jazz standards as well as original compositions and collaborations.  She especially enjoys finding and singing forgotten gems from the Great American Songbook and the jazz standard repertoire.  Composer/Lyricist: MJ collaborates frequently as a lyricist with jazz composers, and also writes her own songs.  Her collaboration with composer Linda Presgrave, "The Bird of Ceret (The Story)" appears in Along the Path, an album of Presgrave's original compositions, released on January 2015 on Metropolitan Records.  MJ is a member of ASCAP. Music Education: As a music educator MJ focuses on the joy in the moment, and strives to provide an opportunity for students of all ages and abilities to find their unique voices and to make music with comfort and confidence. MJ is proud to be on the Teaching Artist Roster of ArtsWestchester, and is available for jazz residencies for students of all ages, as well as for early childhood music residencies and music workshops for early childhood educators. She is also on the Teaching Artist Roster of Lifetime Arts (www.lifetimearts.org), at the intersection of aging and the arts, and is available to work with older adults. In her private studio, MJ works with vocal jazz students, particularly in the areas of improvisation (scat singing), repertoire selection, and chart preparation.

BA, University of Pennsylvania. Private studies in jazz and improvisation. Dalcroze Eurythmics. Registered Music Together teacher.

MJ joined the ArtsWestchester Teaching Artist Roster in 2010.  Since then, she has completed a wide variety of music and movement residencies in schools and community settings.  She designed and has presented in a variety of classrooms and grades Music and Math: A Study in Meter and Pattern as part of the ArtsWestchester/Mt. Vernon School District Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant from the US Department of Education.  MJ is dedicated to arts education, especially in introducing people of all ages and abilities to jazz, and to deepening their understanding and appreciation for America's classic music.  Jazz is not only a wonderful medium for teaching the building blocks of music, but also so much more in its ability to involve the whole student and connect students to the wider world.  Jazz improvisation stretches the mind; its rhythms engage the body.  It captures the best of the American spirit of multiculturalism and encourages individual contributions to an ever-evolving whole.