Minesh Shah

Minesh A. Shah received his Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in trombone performance from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. At Lowell, Shah was the acclaimed Willis Traphagan's final trombone student. With "Trap" he studied not only trombone, but also brass pedagogy.

After finishing his undergraduate studies, Shah moved back to N.J. and received a graduate assistantship at Montclair State University. While at MSU, he studied with Robert Wigness (University of Vermont), Anthony Mazzocchi (freelance trombonist, director of Kinhaven Summer Music Festival, supervisor of music in Maplewood, N.J.) and James Markey (principal bass trombone with the New York Philharmonic). He also coached many chamber ensembles and coordinated conferences such as the CBDNA conference in 2005.

After graduate school, Shah served as visiting specialist in brass pedagogy at Montclair State University where he taught undergrads how to teach brass instruments.

Shah has been teaching and consulting marching, concert, and jazz bands as well as drum and bugle corps for a majority of his adult life, including The Reading Buccaneers from 2009–2011 and The Cadets since 2010. He is an active clinician and adjudicator for the USSBA.

Currently, Shah is  band director at the Dr. Antonio Pantoja school in Elizabeth, N.J., and music instructor for the Elizabeth High School Marching Band which was awarded the 2011 USSBA Group VA National Championship.  

On top of his responsibilities in Elizabeth, Shah is the director of bands at Manhattan College, a Lasallian school in New York City, as well as maintaining a successful low brass studio at Bridgewater Raritan High School.

Shah lives in Parsippany with his fiancee Kara and his two cats, Peanut and Bailey.