1. Richard Theriault
Musical Director, Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble
Associate Director, Bristol Choral Society
Rich has been the musical director and conductor of the Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble since
2008. Under his leadership, BBWE was selected and performed at the Festival of Bands, Lake
George, New York in July 2013. The band recently performed with the Travelers Chorale at
Bushnell Auditorium for two holiday concerts. Rich is also the former director of the Bristol
Reunion Jazz Band. He earned both a BS and MA in music education from Western
Connecticut State University.
His musical teaching career spans forty years during which he was the former director of bands
at Bristol Eastern High School. Currently, he is former woodwind instrumental teacher at Miss
Porter’s School and gives private music lessons. He has been guest
conductor and adjudicator for numerous Regional Band Festivals including the Connecticut
Music Educators Northern, Southern and Western Band Festivals, and the Bristol Symphony
and is the retired musical director of the 102nd Army National Guard Band.
His many professional accomplishments have earned him national recognition as Connecticut’s
representative for School Band and Orchestra Magazine’s “50 Directors Who Make a
Difference.” As a saxophonist, he has played with pit orchestras for Sammy Davis, Frank
Gorshen, and the Herold Zinno, Steve Lord Jazz bands as well as many other jazz groups
around the Connecticut area.
Locally, the Board of Directors of the Bristol Center for Arts and Culture honored him as a 2013
recipient of an “ACE” award for his contributions to the local arts, culture, and entertainment
environment and was voted Bristol’s 1993 Teacher of the Year. He is past president of the
Connecticut chapter of Phi Beta Mu - Band Directors fraternity, as well as former chairman of
the Arts Committee for the Connecticut Association of Secondary Schools. Rich lives with his
wife Jane in Bristol.