Paul Tomashefsky received his bachelor’s degree in music education from the Berklee College of Music. Although classically trained early in his playing career, his studies while at Berklee included working with trumpeters Jeff Stout, Mike Metheny, and Lou Mucci (who recorded with the Miles Davis / Gil Evans Jazz Orchestra). Paul was the director of the Bentley College Jazz Ensemble in Waltham, MA from 1985 until 1996. During that time, he initiated an inter-collegiate jazz festival exchange program between M.I.T., Boston University, Harvard University, and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute jazz departments. He was a faculty member of the Westborough, MA Public Schools Fine Arts / Music Department from 1989 through 2020, teaching band, chorus, and general music. Before moving to central Massachusetts, he taught instrumental music in the East Boston, Newton, Malden, Duxbury, Wellesley, and Dedham public school systems.
Paul is active as a freelance performer with such local groups as The Fantasy Big Band, Midtown Horns, and The Sultan's of Swing. Past performances and recording credits include: Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Jordan Valentine & the Sunday Saints, a Decade of Soul, Quintessential Brass, Bobby Rydell, The Four Tops, Jacques D’Amboise and the National Dance Institute, and The Double Take Jazz Combo.
Presently teaching at the Oak and Sherwood middle schools, as a substitute music educator and after-school trumpet instructor, Paul has received three Westborough Education Foundation Teaching Grants: Music Notation in the next Millennium, Music of West Africa and the Diaspora, and Journey into Jazz. The latter of which was an after-school instrumental program which encouraged fifth and sixth grade band students to explore and perform music from various jazz periods and styles.
Paul is a Yamaha Performing Artist.
