Tony Kostecki was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, the oldest of five children. He also completed his undergraduate and graduate schooling in Kansas, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Benedictine College in Atchison, KS and a Master of Music degree in piano accompanying and organ performance from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. During the summer of 1996, while still in graduate school, he began work as a piano accompanist, music director and conductor at Seagle Music Colony. During the next ten years, Tony continued on the music faculty at Seagle Music Colony while also working professionally as an accompanist in opera companies across the country including Florida Grand Opera in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Utah Opera in Salt Lake City, Shreveport Opera (Louisiana), and Fort Worth Opera (Texas). He made the transition to arts management while working at Fort Worth Opera where from 2002-2007 he was Director of Education. As part of his work in Fort Worth, he helped create and was the director of the Fort Worth Opera Studio, a young artist program, chorus master and also wrote many of the projected English supertitles for the opera. In the summer of 2006, Tony also transitioned to the administrative team at Seagle Music Colony and in 2008 moved to Schroon Lake as the first full-time year-round General Director in the company’s almost 100 year history, a position he still holds. Since moving to Schroon Lake full-time in 2008, Tony has been deeply involved in the local and regional community as a member, board member and now Vice-President of the Schroon Lake Chamber of Commerce. He has also volunteered as organist at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church, played the piano for Schroon Lake Central School shows and concerts, and been an integral part of the “Rising Stars” program at the Wood Theatre in Glens Falls. He lives on the north end of the Town of Schroon with his partner Javier Aldaco-Solis, a nurse in the Hudson Headwaters Health Network, and their dog Charlie.