Don O'Keefe is a registered Music Together teacher and the director of Music Together of Brookfield, LLC.
His father was a drummer and he has been playing drums and percussion all of his life. He studied performance and professional music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. His time at Berklee was instrumental in his development as a drummer, professional musician and teacher. He has performed professionally with a variety of bands both live and in studios. His recording experience includes records at The Hit Factory and The Manhattan Center Studios in New York City. Some of the many notable musicians he has worked with include: Joan Osborne, Dave Rosenthal, Eileen Ivers, Geoffrey Blythe and Thomas Hamlin. Don has performed with The Pat McGuire Band for over 15 years, playing extensively along the East Coast including an appearance on national TV on the Late Night with Conan O’Brian Show. He studied with Joe Morrello from the Dave Brubeck Band and teaches privately at a local studio in Brookfield.
He is the father of 2 young children Kayleigh & Ryan who are his whole world. His passion for music and love of young children led him to pursue a career in Music Together and he couldn't be happier with the decision.

Ali Froman, has twelve years of dance training including ballet, modern, jazz and ballroom. Ms Froman studied at Alvin Ailey American Dance School and the American Ballet Theatre School in NYC as well as in Westchester County, NY.
She studied in the Professional Theatre Training Program at SUNY Purchase in Purchase, NY. Her work there included: acting, voice, speech and movement for the stage.
Ali Froman has studied acting privately with Phil Gushee in NYC. She also studied Linklater Technique for the stage with Elizabeth Himmelstein at the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Ali has been with us here at Music Together of Brookfield since we opened our doors. She is a registered Music Together teacher who has taught in Fairfield County for many years.

Erin Volpintesta received her Bachelor of Music from Cal State University, Long Beach, in vocal performance. In California she performed as a soloist with Opera Pacific, the Los Angeles Theater Center and Capitol Records. Internationally she has toured with the Pink PoP Jazz Festival and the French band Simple Image. Erin and her husband Rob run Angel Thorne Music Co. in Bethel, CT. where they teach private music lessons, run Rock Camps and operate a recording studio. Erin is a registered Music Together® teacher and a former center director as well. She has been involved with Music Together for many years and we are very happy and fortunate to have her on our staff.

Bizzy Bender is a life-long, self taught musician and performing artist who has been actively teaching in a variety of settings for the past 3 years. She is one of the teachers involved in the ground breaking study, Total Learning Initiative in Bridgeport, CT.
She is the mother of three children aged from 12-26 years and has taught Tae Kwon Do to children aged 3 to adult at CMA in Danbury where she holds a black belt in the discipline.
Bizzy has also been involved in the children's music ministry at Grace Community Church in New Canaan, CT. and she is currently one of the worship leaders at that church as well as at Walnut Hill Community Church in Bethel, CT.
She has recorded 2 CD's and performed all over New England and throughout the country. Her music is a favorite with some of the indigenous people of Fiji and you can see them singing to Bizzy's song "Isn't God Great?" on Youtube.
An avid songwriter, she has penned more than 300 songs and hopes to get back to the recording studio in the near future. You can check out her music at www.bizzybender.com.
Bizzy is a registered Music Together teacher. She brings a wonderful spirit and energy to her classes at Music Together of Brookfield and we are happy to have her on board.

Rob Volpintesta was the co-director of Music Together in Bethel and Danbury from 2005-2008 and has taught in Connecticut and California since 2002. His energetic and creative teaching style make his classes enormously popular. He retired from Music Together in 2008 but is back with us for one semester while his wife Erin is with their newborn.

Liz LaBua has been involved with music all her life. At age 4 she started piano through the Suzuki program. At age 12 she began playing the drums. She participated in jazz band, concert band and marching band throughout high school. She then went on to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. After college she played in a local rock band in Danbury, CT. She began teaching Music Together 3 years ago. She also taught her own music program at Kid's Time in Georgetown and Maimonides in Danbury. She had taken some time off to  finish  Massage Therapy school. She is looking forward to getting back into creating music with children and their parents through Music Together and we are happy to have her on board.

Hannah Roemhild hails from Deep River, CT and has been heavily involved in music from a young age. In school, she played clarinet, sang in the choir, madrigal singers, and participated in music festivals and competitions. Hannah has performed at Carnegie Hall twice before he age of 20. At 13, she sang in the chorus of Beethoven's Mass in C, in 2003. At 19, she sang in the chorus of Rimsky Korsakov's opera, The Tsar's Bride, under the direction of maestro Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New York in 2008.  Hannah is currently a junior at Western Connecticut State University where she is studying voice privately and majoring in Music Education. Opera credits with WCSU include a "sheperdess" in Amahl and the Night Visitors, "Suor Dolcina" in Puccini's Suor Angelica and "Barbarina" in The Marriage of Figaro. In 2001 She will perform the demanding role, "The Queen of the Night", in Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute.  She brings a wonderful energy and vibrant spirit to her teaching and we are happy to have her continue with us this winter.

Kristen Beinhower is a classically trained vocalist who also plays piano and has just started to take up the guitar. She studied both piano and voice at a young age at the Westminster Conservatory at  Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. She continued to study Classical Voice Performance at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Kristen opted to pursue a career in the Corporate world after college but was brought back into the musical community when she started taking her children (ages 3 and 18 months) to Music Together classes 3 years ago. Kristen found that the non performance based/playful way that Music Together exposes children to music and supports their musical development was so exciting and enriching for her own children that she knew she wanted to be a teacher and share Music Together with other families. Kristen is so excited to be able to unite her two passions, music and children, and join the Music Together community. She looks forward to making lots of wonderful music with your families!

Penny Volpe began studying clarinet at the age of 8. She graduated Western Connecticut State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education. She studied for 2 years with James Campbell, a leading clarinetist of Canada. She has worked as an Administrator in the Professional field and is a registered Music Together teacher. Penny has two children and is excited to get back to working with kids through Music Together.

Stephanie Gaumer-Klien is a trained classical pianist and has her Masters in Special Education, Behavior Analysis, and Supervision and Administration from Columbia University, New York and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music from Western Connecticut State University. She is a professional musical director and has performed many shows in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania for regional and community theaters, toured Europe with 42nd Street and has played cabarets in New York City. After an extensive career as a special education teacher, she turned her interest toward Music Together when her first daughter was six months old. She fell in love with its philosophy and wonderful music so much so that she decided to own and operate Music Together of Western Fairfield County for eight years. After selling her company when her adopted daughter arrived from China, she became a potter and a piano teacher. She is currently teaching Musical Theatre and Voice at the Regional Center for the Arts in Trumbull, a magnet performing arts high school and is musically directing shows at St. Joseph High School and for surrounding area community theatres and schools. She missed Music Together so much she called Don O'Keefe (whom she knew as drummer for one her shows) and is so excited to be returning as a teacher for such a wonderful organization. She looks forward to singing and dancing with the children and the moms and caregivers and bringing the joy of music to so many people.