John and Peter Coco '04

December 2009

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Twin brothers John and Peter Coco are the co-founders and owners of the Music Academy of Garden City (MAGC),  which provides Garden City and the surrounding areas with the highest quality musical education available – connecting students with dynamic music educators and performers.  The pair realized the necessity of a school such as MAGC while still Hofstra students, both majoring in music (for Peter, music performance; for John, music education).  Peter is an accomplished bassist and pianist, and John is an accomplished guitarist.  Both brothers’ entrepreneurial spirit and creativity helped them successfully build, grow, and market the MAGC.

Peter Coco has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, and performed and recorded with artists such as Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Jane Monheit; Bucky Pizzarelli; Frank Vignola; drummer Matt Wilson; Tony Bennett’s musical director, John Bunch; and vocalist Janis Siegel of Manhattan Transfer.  Peter has also contributed lessons and articles about jazz bass to talkbass.com and Mel Bay’s basssessions.com. Each summer, Peter conducts a jazz camp for high school students through the MAGC. There, he leads ensembles and teaches jazz repertoire, improvisation and performance practice.

John has performed with Anthony Hart, Tony Tedesco (John Pizarrelli), Frank Vignola and Jerry Weldon from the Harry Connick Jr. Band.  He founded Gravity Guitar Innovations which manufactures original tools and accessories for guitar that are sold throughout the country.  John has written articles and music for internationally published magazines such as Just Jazz Guitar and Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Both brothers continue to actively perform solo and in ensembles across Manhattan and Long Island in addition to running the Music Academy of Garden City.

Both brothers continue to actively perform solo and in ensembles across Manhattan and Long Island.