The Professors are Mark Dziuba, Vinnie Martucci, Jeff “Siege” Siegel & Rich Syracuse. Their life’s work is defined by the creation and performing of great music and sharing their lifetimes of performing and teaching experiences with the upcoming legions of aspiring jazz musicians.

Having met up in the Woodstock/New Paltz area of New York’s Hudson Valley in the early 90’s after years of living in New York City, the group members were destined to become friends, band mates and colleagues. Coming together for the first time as a unit in 1994 on guitarist Mark Dziuba’s CD release “Up Until Now”, the unit officially formalized as a quartet once bassist Rich Syracuse joined the other three Professors faculty at SUNY New Paltz in 2015.

The four friends have continued their joy of performing together in side projects and gigs throughout the decades ever since, and in fact, the friendships and playing associations go back as far as the mid 80’s for some of the members. The founding musicians of the The Professors, guitarist Mark Dziuba (Director of Jazz Studies, SUNY NP), pianist Vinnie Martucci (former Chair of Music, SUNY NP), drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel (Adjunct Professor of Percussion, SUNY NP) and jazz bass professor at the time, John Menegon, officially started the group in 2010 to perform at a local venue. Performances and clinics with the group continued in as far away places as Beijing, China in 2011 at the University of Beijing (w/ Menegon) to local gigs around the Hudson Valley area of New York. In 2018 a unique partnership between the Escuela de Musica y Audio Fernando Sor in Bogota, Colombia and SUNY New Paltz continued the The Professors overseas activities, now joined by Rich Syracuse, where they performed clinics and performances. Club performances and concerts have since followed.

The pandemic of 2020 has not held back the intense desire of the group to make music together and they are happy to announce a new compilation of original material by the four band members (all composers in their own right). The video and audio were recorded, mixed and mastered at Vinnie Martucci’s studio. (Album now available for pre-order.)

The Professors are now offering their decades long chemistry and lifetimes of experience in both live and virtual jazz clinics for your university or public school. Private lessons on guitar, bass, piano, drum set, arranging and composition, recording techniques and more are also available individually by the group members.