JOE PARILLO Pianist, Grammy nominated composer, and Steinway Artist Joe Parillo, has performed in Brazil, Italy, Germany, and New Zealand and has played nationally and internationally with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and has worked with vibraphonist Jay Hoggard. Mr. Parillo was invited as featured artist for the Steinway Artists Celebration performing at Boston Symphony Hall in honor of the 150th Anniversary of Steinway and Sons. He holds a master's degree in composition from the New England Conservatory, has written and arranged music for theater and film. His most recent works have aired on WSBE-TV and the SciFi Channel's "First Wave." Mr. Parillo has been commissioned to write three jazz ballets and has arranged and recorded over twenty-five full-length children's productions. He has also produced "SongBook," "Clouds," and the compact discs "Almost Carefree" and "Block Island Summer" for his ensemble as well as the gospel CD "Meditations of the Heart." He has recorded two CDs with the Worcester-based Sonic Explorers. Mr. Parillo's CDs "Angels Gather," "Morning In The Garden," "SandBox" and "Segments" are available through his own Neoga Records label. Joe Parillo wrote and produced a master class CD, "Using Altered Scales to Create Improvised Lines," for the July 1998 issue of JazzPlayer Magazine and writes a jazz column for the quarterly Rhode Island Music Educators Review. Coordinator of the Rhode Island Music Educators high school jazz festival, Mr. Parillo has been Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Rhode Island for the past twenty years. In the Fall of 2003 Mr. Parillo brought to fruition the Jazz Studies specialization under the BM Performance and BA degrees, as well as the Jazz Studies minor at the University. He has also held the role of Director of the annual URI Jazz and World Music Festival consistently since 1993. Joe Parillo is a member of the BMI Lehman-Engel Musical Theater Workshops in New York. He was President of the Rhode Island Chapter of the International Association of Jazz Educators for five years and one of the 2004 recipients of the Steinway excellence award .