Staff
Executive Director
Michael J Hoffmann is the owner of Edge Business Solutions a business consulting firm that specializes in accounting, human resources, payroll, and business management and has clients all over Massachusetts. In the past, he has helmed a 21-franchise McDonalds and a 33-store franchise of Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Mike is also Director of Music/Organist at Saint Anna Parish in Leominster and resident music director for Dramatically Incorrect Theatre Group of Lowell. He also is a member of the 495 Chapter of the BNI Networking Group.
During his career he has music directed and/or directed productions of The Addams Family, Peter Pan, Les Misérables, West Side Story, Disney’s Beauty & the Beast, 42nd Street, Cinderella, Once on this Island, Evita, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, Grand Hotel, West Side Story, Seussical, Oliver, The Wizard of Oz, 3 Ghosts, The Butler Did It, Singing, Rumors, The Philadelphia Story, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, Murder on the Nile, A Murder is Announced, Mary Poppins, Twisted and many more. Mike is also a concert organist, having performed in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Washington, D.C., as well as a founding member of StageWorks, Inc. Mike lives in Lowell with his son Christian a graduate of UMASS Lowell, and his daughter Michaela, a senior, also at UMASS.
Mike gives a shout-out to all the lives he has touched with music and mourns the loss of several musicians and actors who have helped shape his career. In memorial, Susan Walsh, David Castillo, Abby Hall, Robert “Bobby” Arsenault, and Lisa Stanton.
Micheal keeps in contact with nearly every actor, musician, and staff member that has been part of his Arts journey.
Conductor & Music Director
Jared Bloch is currently on the music faculty at Wachusett Regional High School in Holden, MA where he directs the Honors Wind Ensemble, the Green Concert Band, the Mountaineer Pep Band, and the Honors Jazz Ensemble.
Prior to his position at Wachusett, Jared served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he studied conducting with Dr. Matthew Westgate. At UMASS he conducted many of the university’s ensembles in performance including the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Band, Concert Band, Percussion Ensemble, and the Minuteman Marching Band.
Jared has been invited to guest conduct the Anna Maria College Wind Ensemble, the Florence Community Band, and the Amherst Community Band. Additionally, he served as the music education intern and assistant conductor of the Valley Winds, an audition-based community band in western Massachusetts for their 2018-2019 season. In 2019 he was asked to conduct the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s New England Regional Junior High Honor band at Mechanics Hall in Worcester.
Jared is a native of Westborough, MA, and holds a Master of Music Degree in Conducting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education with Performance Honors from the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University.
Assistant Conductor
James Minnix is Director of Bands and Professor of Music Education at Central Connecticut State University in New Britian, CT. He is a DMA Candidate in Instrumental Conducting at The Hartt School Conservatory within the University of Hartford. From 2020-2023, James taught at Hartt as an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Music Education and Music Theory. He also held the position of Conductor of the Miss Porter’s School Orchestra from 2021-2023. He earned his Master’s Degree in Wind Conducting from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2020, where he worked closely with both the Concert Band and Athletic Band programs. Before attending graduate school, James was a Director of Bands, teaching both middle school and high school programs in Richmond, VA. James earned his bachelor’s degree in Music Education from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. He is grateful to his teachers and mentors from Carlisle and Chambersburg High Schools in Pennsylvania where he discovered his love for music. James lives in Simsbury, Connecticut with his wife Sara, and their two fur children Parker and Grace.
Librarian
Maria is a freelance flutist, flute teacher, and board-certified music therapist in private practice as founder/director of Ramey Music. She holds principal flute positions in the North Worcester County Symphony Orchestra, the New England Film Orchestra, and the Firebird Pops Orchestra; and piccolo in the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra. She plays regularly throughout New England with multiple orchestras on stage and in the pit and has often performed live on both radio and television as well as recording in the studio. She has been the featured concerto soloist in orchestral concerts on both piccolo and flute and can be heard on various CDs, including as an alto flute soloist with the Song of the Angels Flute Orchestra.
Maria has a special interest in low flutes and performs often at National Flute Conventions and in other settings on contrabass flute including with the Harmonie Transverse Flute Choir, the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra, and the Flutephoria Flute Choir which she also directs. She also enjoys playing a multitude of specialty and ethnic flutes for the film music she often performs. Maria holds a Master’s degree in Music Therapy from Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy with an additional emphasis in music performance from California State University Northridge.