John Palatucci enjoys a distinguished career as a performing musician, conductor, clinician, an adjudicator and educator. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education and a Master of Arts degree in music performance from Montclair State College of New Jersey and has been honored by the Jaycees with an "Outstanding Young Man of America" award.

In 1983, Mr. Palatucci made his New York City solo debut with the Mark Heter Brass Band. He became the euphonium soloist of the famous Goldman Memorial Band in 1986, that season making his Lincoln Center solo debut with this ensemble. Included among his other solo engagements are the Hartford Symphony, the Ridgewood Concert Band, the Missouri Brass Consortium, the American Chamber Orchestra, the Garden State Symphonic Band and the Montclair Citadel Band of the Salvation Army. He has toured as principal euphonium with Keith Brion's New Sousa Band and in 1992 performed at the Sousa Centennial playing The Voice Of The Departing Soul, a work for solo euphonium and band which was the first piece ever played by the Sousa Band. In the summer of 2003, he toured the French Riviera as a featured soloist with the Ridgewood Concert Band. He has been heard over WFME and WQXR radio and has recorded for Delos Records International, the Educational Testing Service, Koch Records and the Musical Heritage Society.

Mr. Palatucci has appeared in both recital and concert with the New York Philharmonic's principal trumpet Philip Smith and principal trombone Joseph Alessi, jazz euphoniumist John Allred and tuba virtuoso Harvey Phillips and has presented master classes for the New York Brass Conference, the New Jersey Music Educators Association and William Paterson State University. He has performed under the batons of Henry Brant, Lucas Foss, Morton Gould, Skitch Henderson, Alan Hovhaness, Karel Husa and Leonard Smith. His orchestral engagements include the American Ballet Theater, the Ars Musica Chorus and Orchestra, the Gramercy Brass, the New Jersey Pops, the New Jersey State Opera, the North Jersey Philharmonic, the Summit Symphony and the New Jersey Guild of Composers. Appearances with other musical luminaries range from Placido Domingo, Jerome Hines and Robert Merrill to Dave Brubeck to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Mr. Palatucci has led the New American Concert Band with whom he made his NYC conducting debut. Since 1990, he has served as music director of the Orpheus Club Male Chorus of Ridgewood and from 1996 through 1998 led the Ridgewood Singers Mixed Chorus. He has guest conducted the American Boychoir. Furthermore, he is a charter member of the Ridgewood Concert Band and was its first associate conductor. In 1993 he served as music director and principal conductor of The Camp-of-the-Woods Staff Band and Chorus in Speculator, New York while in 1991, as a member of the executive committee for the Billy Graham Northern New Jersey Crusade, he was responsible for the recruiting and overseeing of a 3,000 voice choir. For two years he served the North Jersey School Music Association as JHS orchestra auditions chair. Over his career, Mr. Palatucci has conducted many festival bands, choirs and orchestras including the New Jersey Peninsula Combined High School Band, the All-North Jersey Junior High School Orchestra and the Central Jersey Intermediate School Band.

An instrumental music teacher in Livingston, New Jersey, Mr. Palatucci formerly directed choral and orchestral ensembles for the Madison High School, served as department chairman for the Eastern Christian School Association in North Haledon where ensembles and individual students under his leadership amassed an impressive list of awards and distinctions, founded the Faith Conservatory of Music in Wyckoff, was employed by the Ridgewood and Elizabeth, New Jersey Boards of Education.

Mr. Palatucci is highly regarded as a teacher of brass instrument playing in the NY/NJ metropolitan area. For almost thirty years, his prize students have won principal chairs in honor bands and orchestras at the regional, state and national levels. Many of these students have gone on to study at such prestigious institutions as the Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College, James Madison University, Oberlin Conservatory, Ohio State University, Montclair State College, the University of Michigan and Rutgers University. He has served on the faculty of William Paterson State University and presently is a visiting specialist in euphonium at Montclair State University.