Ensembles

Todd W. Pray is an educator, performer, and conductor who has led the Adirondack Youth Orchestra since January 2008. Currently a music teacher at Peru Central School, he teaches 7th grade general music, conducts three concert bands, directs jazz, marching, and pep bands, and teaches small-group woodwind, brass, and percussion lessons to students in grades 6-12. He has served as Adjunct Faculty and Saxophone Instructor at SUNY Plattsburgh and maintains a private saxophone studio for students of all ages. Pray has conducted the CCMEA All-County Band and Symphony Orchestra, led many Broadway-style productions for Peru Musical Theatre and Peru Drama Club, and serves as Secretary on the Board of We Are Instrumental, a non-profit whose mission is to improve accessibility to musical education for children in Northern NY.

An active performer, Pray appears regularly with the Adirondack Jazz Ensemble (AJE), Adirondack Jazz Orchestra (AJO), Frontier Saxophone Quartet, and the Adirondack Wind Ensemble. His performances throughout the eastern United States and Canada include solo, chamber, large ensemble, and guest artist work encompassing a wide range of musical styles.

Pray holds a master's degree in Saxophone Performance and a bachelor's degree in Music Education from the Ithaca College School of Music, where he studied with Dr. Steven Mauk. He also holds an associate's degree in Music Education and Performance from Schenectady County Community College, where he studied with Brett Wery.

Adrian Zemor graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in Cello Performance. While studying there, he explored other styles of music including rock, metal, blues, and genre-crossing work that captured his interest. He performed with a number of ensembles, including the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra and Berklee World Strings, and after graduation taught cello in after-school music programs such as El Sistema Somerville in Boston and Enriching Lives Through Music in San Rafael, California, as well as teaching individual students.

In 2018, he moved to Minnesota to study Violin Repair at the Red Wing program of Minnesota State College Southeast, graduating in May 2019. From mid-2019 through the end of 2022, he worked as a string instrument repair technician, first at Heid Music in Wisconsin and later, after returning to the East Coast, at Vermont Violins.

Inspired by his performance experiences, he began writing his own music. He combines his long-time enthusiasm for heavy metal with his classical training in a cello project called Metalbuddha, which led to a five-song album released in June 2020 and available on Bandcamp, with additional music now in progress.

Relatively new to the North Country, he has recently performed on cello with the Keeseville-Peru Ecumenical Choir and Peru Drama Club's Into the Woods, and is currently part of the Artistry Community Theater production of Sweeney Todd. He also serves as a permanent building substitute at Peru Middle School and is eager to share his enthusiasm for string music with the talented players of the Adirondack Youth Orchestra.