Biography:

Bud Caputo, music supervisor for the Montgomery County Public Schools (Rockville, MD) from 1983 through 1999, currently teaches elementary strings for the Fairfax County Public Schools (Northern Virginia). In 2000, he created Caputomusic.com in an effort to publish his own music for “big band” jazz strings along with traditional music and materials for student musicians. Dr. Caputo’s other string publications include; The Star Spangled Banner (FJH), Blues for Dee and Manassas Memories (Alfred-Highland Etling), Chanukah Oh Chanukah and Fun Tunes for Strings (Carl Fisher). In addition, Caputo formed a professional jazz string orchestra, The Washington Jazz String Project, which performed at the Kennedy Center in the spring of 2002. He is a regular adjudicator at concert and jazz band festivals throughout the state of Maryland and at major theme parks on the east coast. Dr. Caputo has presented workshops at the Maryland Music Educators Association Conference, the MENC Eastern Division Conference, the Mid-West Clinic, ASTA, and the Virginia Music Educators In-Service Conference.

During the 2003-2004 school term he was adjunct advisor in Music Education for The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC) where he has taught the jazz ensemble and music supervision courses at the graduate level. He has also served as adjunct professor on the campus of Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, where he conducted the college community band, brass band, and jazz ensemble, taught trombone and Music Fundamentals. His work in the public schools spans elementary to high school where he has taught band, orchestra, jazz ensembles, as well as theory, music history and literature, electronic music, and guitar. He was vice-president of the Maryland Chapter of the International Association of Jazz Educators from 1984-1995. He has conducted all-county jazz and concert bands in Charles, Carroll, and Anne Arundel Counties in Maryland.

Bud continues to maintain an active private trombone studio. As a free-lance performer in the Washington, DC, area he has performed for a variety of pop artists and Broadway shows at the National Theater, Warner Theater, and Wolf Trap. He performed with the Beethoven Pops and Washington Civic Opera Orchestras and toured with Larry Elgart and the Frankie Carle orchestra. Caputo served with the U. S. Army Band of Ft. Meyer, VA from 1967-70.

Dr. Caputo has earned degrees from The Catholic University of America, the Manhattan School of Music, and the State University College, Potsdam, NY. His trombone studies were with Edward Herman of the New York Philharmonic; Roger Smith of the Metropolitan Opera, and John Marcellus of the National Symphony Orchestra. He has studied arranging with Hank Levy and Sandy Feldstein.