Education

Ms. Bachleitner received a bachelors degree in Jazz Composition from Manhattan School of Music and a masters degree in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas where she was a teaching fellow for grammy-nominated composer, Rich DeRosa. She has studied with Joanne Brackeen, Garry Dial, Roger Kelloway, Manny Albam, Alan Baylock and Rich DeRosa. 

 

Jazz Advocacy

Ms. Bachleitner has spent the past 42 years devoted to the immersion of jazz education and performance into the folds of mainstream academia. At the age of twenty, she co-founded the committee that launched the Discover Jazz Festival now in its 40th year of annual jazz events. In the early 90s, she served as the director at the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Preparatory Division and is the founding director of The Jazz Apprenticeship Program which recently ran its 17th season at Jazz @ Lincoln Center's Educational Facility. 

 

Professional

At the age of 16, Ms. Bachleitner won the composers award to commission an Operetta for The Metropolitan Opera Guild which aired on PBS with a personal interview. Ms. Bachleitner has performed as a professional pianist in both New York City and abroad and has managed several bands including her jazz quintet and the successful Motown band, Shaketown. Ms Bachleitner has served over four decades as a music educator, conductor and band director with incentives to develop innovative programming at the high school and college level. Ms. Bachleitner has shared the stage with Quincy Jones, Clark Terry, Anthony Braxton, Pat LaBarbara, Tom Jones, The Harper Brothers, Mo Holmes and the Pioneers, The Glenn ​Miller Orchestra and the Stan Rubin Big Band.

 

Recent Highlights

In 2017, Ms. Bachleitner was commissioned to compose for the King of Thailand and was the recipient of the University of North Texas Music Entrepreneurship Award for innovative jazz programming. In 2019, Ms. Bachleitner was hired to launch the new high school band program at Greenwich Country Day School where she taught Concert and Jazz Bands, Music Technology, Composition and Music Theory.

She currently serves as the Music Director at the Darrow School in New Lebanon, New York.