Faculty

Leslie La Barre smiling

Leslie La Barre, DMA
Assistant Professor of Music, Composer
Discipline Coordinator

Ryan Lambe, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Music

Music instructors

Our music program offers a variety of musical instruction from experts available to students wishing to learn an instrument or improve their skills.

Joe Braccio

Joe Braccio
Instructor of Guitar & Bass, Steel Drum Band Director
B.A., Eckerd College
braccijk@eckerd.edu

Joe Braccio is a respected teacher and performer in  several styles of acoustic guitar, playing over a hundred engagements a year in top  venues. He is also a noted coach of steel drum ensembles and is director of the  Tampa Bay Steel Orchestra. In addition to teaching at Eckerd, Braccio is on the  faculties of St. Petersburg College and several magnet arts programs in the Pinellas  County Public Schools. Joe’s recordings are posted to the Buscarino Guitars website  and available for download on iTunes. Braccio studied locally before pursuing advanced instruction at the Scuola Cresciani di  Roma Conservatory.

Amy Collins
Instructor in Oboe
B.A., University of South Florida

Instructor Collins is an accomplished teacher and performer who has played oboe and English horn for all the area’s major orchestras. She teaches at the U. of South Florida and several other area institutions in addition to Eckerd.

Rebecca Zapen Douglass
Instructor in Violin and Viola, Co-Director: String Orchestra
B.S. & B.A, Florida State University
douglarz@eckerd.edu

Instructor Zapen is a teacher, performer and composer with expertise across genres: classical, jazz, world and folk. She teaches private lessons in violin and viola and also coaches Eckerd’s string orchestra and chamber ensembles. To learn more about her many recordings and performances, visit her website.

Dawne Eubanks

Dawne Eubanks
Instructor in Voice
B.A., Florida State University
eubankdw@eckerd.edu

Instructor Eubanks is well-known as a teacher and performer in the Tampa Bay Area and beyond. In addition to her duties at Eckerd, she teaches voice at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts and taught for many years at Hillsborough Community College. A graduate of Florida State University, Eubanks is also an active church musician.

Alfred Gratta

Alfred “Fred” Gratta
Instructor in Cello, Choir Accompanist
B.M., Cleveland Institute of Music
M.M., University of Southern California
grattaa@eckerd.edu

A long-time member of The Florida Orchestra, St. Petersburg Opera Orchestra and of summer festival orchestras in Eisenstadt, Austria and at Washington’s Bellingham Festival of Music, Mr. Gratta also teaches at the State College of Florida. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music and his Master of Music degree at the University of Southern California.

Kurt Grissom

Kurt Grissom
Instructor in Percussion
B.M., University of Tampa
grissokd@eckerd.edu

Instructor Grissom is a versatile, long-time percussionist with The Florida Orchestra who teaches not only at Eckerd but also for many other local institutions including the Pinellas County Center for the Arts and the Pinellas Youth Symphony. He also taught for many years at Hillsborough Community College. He holds a B.M. degree from the University of Tampa.

David Manson

David Manson
Instructor in Low Brass
D.M.A., College Conservatory, University of Cincinnati

Instructor Manson teaches and coaches at St. Petersburg College in addition to working with students at Eckerd. He is also a composer and well-known performer of avant garde and jazz trombone music.

Stacey McColley

Stacey McColley
Instructor in Clarinet
B.M., University of South Florida
M.M., University of California – San Diego

Instructor McColley earned her B.M. degree from the University of South Florida, pursued graduate studies at the University of Southern California, then completed her M.M. degree at the University of California – San Diego. She has played clarinet and/or bass clarinet in most of the region’s professional orchestras including the Sarasota and Port Charlotte Orchestras and the Sarasota Opera Orchestra. She is also an active chamber musician and soloist, often promoting new compositions for the clarinet. In addition to teaching at Eckerd, McColley teaches at Florida Southern College and Southeastern College in Lakeland and at St. Petersburg College.

Erol Ozsever
Rock Lab, director and instructor of Advanced Music Production
DMA, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

Erol Oz is a classically trained guitarist whose music defies genre boundaries. He is an award-winning guitarist and author who has been featured on radio stations across the country. His songwriting is an amalgam of indie rock, power pop, colorful jazz chords, folk-inspired fingerpicking, and altered tunings. His classical guitar programs include an eclectic range from serene to fiery tango to avant-garde. He has recorded, mixed, and produced artists from across the Tampa Bay Area.
Website: https://erolozmusic.com

Instructor with horn

Kaitlyn Resler
Instructor in Horn
M.M., B.B., The Juilliard School
Instructor Resler plays 2nd Horn with The Florida Orchestra. She is also an active chamber musician who plays in prominent summer festival orchestras and in Broadway pit orchestras. A native of Pinellas County, she is happy to have returned to her home territory.

Emeriti

Joan O. Epstein
Professor Emeritus of Music, Instructor in Trumpet

Marion Smith
Professor Emeritus of Music