Community Music Center of Boston

Morgan Beckford, originally from Memphis, Tennessee, embraces her work as an arts administrator, teaching artist, and performer. She is very excited to bring her experience to Boston, having sharpened her education and outreach, programming, and development skills with Opera Memphis, the Opera Memphis Summer Conservatories, and the Memphis Music Initiative. With a background in classical voice and musical theater, she enjoys singing, as well as cultivating a love of music in others.

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Originally from Houston, Texas, Elizabeth is a classically trained violinist, teacher, and performer who looks forward to working in arts administration as a way of giving back to her community. She is a recent graduate of Longy School of Music with her M.M in Violin Performance, prior to which she was at Boston College studying applied psychology and playing chamber music. She has volunteered and taught at schools such as Gardner Pilot Academy and Conservatory Lab Charter School in Dorchester and hopes to continue supporting musical education through fostering healthy and positive relationships with all the families at CMCB.  Currently she plays with Brookline Symphony Orchestra to satisfy her love for orchestral repertoire – when she is not practicing she enjoys spoiling her pet bunny, occasional morning workouts, and checking in on her three younger sisters.

Rebecca Connors is excited to bring her marketing and communications skills to CMCB and support the mission of equity in music education. In her creative career, she has been the vocalist for two rock bands and still remembers how to play the piano.

Besides working at CMCB, she is also an MFA candidate at the Solstice MFA program at Pine Manor College. Along with her writing and studying, she volunteers for her daughter’s public school, and uses her digital skills to help progressive women win elections. She has too many plants and a weakness for regency romances, horror stories, and disease ecology. She lives in Boston with her family and also has a tuxedo cat named Lizzie.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Stephanie graduated from Manhattan School of Music in 2013. A trained classical soprano, she is an active performer, recitalist and curator, specializing in 20^th and 21^st century repertoire. Stephanie has received performance prizes from the Puffin Foundation and the John Cage Orgel Stiftung in Halberstadt, Germany. She has collaborated with ensembles such as Ekmeles (NYC) and Verdant Vibes (Rhode Island), and has sung in spaces from National Sawdust (NYC), the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston) and to the Slipper Room (NYC). As an administrator, Stephanie has worked with I Care If You Listen, as well as the George London Foundation for Singers, Inc. She is also an avid swing dancer! www.stephanielamprea.com

Miguel holds a B.M. in Music Business From the University of Massachusetts Lowell and enjoys a multi faceted career as performer, teacher and administrator.
He started studying classical piano at a young age and, through his studies, has branched out to Jazz and contemporary music while also dabbling as a conductor/music director. Miguel looks forward to honing his keyboard skills and engage with the community while working at the CMCB.

Ly’s love for music started at age five, when they started taking piano lessons from a classmate’s neighbor.  They have been acting and singing professionally since the age of 13, and now have an active freelance career performing musical theatre, dance, drag, jazz percussion, plays, cabarets, stand-up, and interactive theatre across New England. Ly is also one of the cofounders of The Rainbow Connection, a Boston-based theatre initiative with the mission to tell queer stories and amplify queer voices. They attended Bard College and The Colburn School for Classical Voice and Opera Studies, and are a proud native of Los Angeles.

Christopher Perry is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a degree in music therapy.  Whether working with adults with developmental disabilities, children with special needs, Early Intervention, or children with autism, Christopher has a passion for connecting with others through music.  He has experience practicing music therapy with groups and individuals, in classrooms, homes and community spaces.

Singer, Scholar, and Social Activist Quentin B. Powell holds a M.M. in Voice Performance, a B.A. in Music Performance, a B.A. in English with a concentration in Speech & Hearing Sciences, and has done extensive graduate study in Education & Curriculum Design. Quentin has been an active Arts & Culture administrator for over a decade, and has been working diligently to create equitable access to the arts for underprivileged youth. As the lead teaching artist and founder of the Mosaic Music Project Quentin provides music enrichment for incarcerated communities and volunteers regularly for multiple social justice initiatives. Quentin maintains an active for performance career, singing the standard tenor operatic repertoire, and has a vibrant voice studio.

“Miss Jenn” has studied various forms of dance including ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern, tap, Latin and theatre for over 25 years, receiving her primary instruction from Genevieve Severens. She is Assistant Director of the School Outreach & SummerARTS programs at Community Music Center of Boston and teaches dance and drama to more than 300 children each week in the Boston Public Schools in addition to studio teaching at North Reading School of Ballet & Wilmington Dance Academy. Jennifer is certified in group exercise by AFAA and is also a licensed Zumba instructor.  Her graduate work at Lesley University in Elementary Education specialized in creative arts in learning.  Her passions for both the performing arts and fitness inform her teaching each and every day.

Most recently, Jennifer performed with the Lexington Women’s Dance Ensemble.  She worked for several years with the Albany Berkshire Ballet as rehearsal mistress for “The Nutcracker” and often stage manages productions for local dance groups.  She is delighted to share the joy of dance with her students and strives to make her classes creative, safe spaces for dancers of all ages and abilities to explore and enjoy movement.

Zach is a flutist, composer, and arts administrator originally from Vermont. He’s thrilled to move home to Boston after five years in New York, where he worked as Managing Director of the Talea Ensemble and as Executive Director of the [Switch~ Ensemble]. Zach currently serves as Principal Flute in the Cape Cod Symphony performs as a freelancer with Boston Ballet, the Portland Symphony, Albany Symphony, Talea Ensemble, and more. Summers have brought Zach to engagements at the Spoleto Festival USA, Aldeburgh Festival, Britten-Pears Young Artist Program, IRCAM’s Manifeste, Klangspuren Schwaz, the June in Buffalo Festival, and Colorado College Music Festival. He holds an MM and a Performers Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and a B.A. from Harvard University. Read more and listen at zachsheetsmusic.com. Zach grew up watching baseball with his dad, a Missourian, and will forever be a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but if someone from the AL has to win the Sox are cool, too.

Hannah Sigel holds a BM from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she studied voice under the tutelage of Kevin Wilson. Having performed and taught privately for years, Hannah is delighted to share her passion for music with the community and inspire the next generation of musicians. Originally from Miami, FL, Hannah is passionate about the importance of music in our communities and its members lives. She hopes to inspire a will and drive to make a difference in our communities through music education and performance.

Lisa Sailer is a violist and certified Alexander Technique teacher originally from Washington, D.C.  She holds a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from SUNY Purchase and a Master of Music in viola performance from The Boston Conservatory.  Lisa recently completed a three-year training course at Boston Conservatory at Berklee to become a certified Alexander Technique instructor. Because of her Alexander training, her music teaching emphasizes healthy playing, body awareness, and injury prevention. Lisa teaches music at several after-school and weekend programs around Boston and has been a guest lecturer and teaching assistant at Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music.

Originally from Bel Air, MD, Elizabeth Stefan is currently a freelance violist in the Boston area playing regularly with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and is a founding member of the newly formed ensemble, Phoenix.  She has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, both in orchestral and chamber music settings.

As a founding member of the Sumner Quartet, one of two resident string quartets of the non profit musiConnects, she also serves as the Program Director and teaches at community centers and schools in the Mattapan area.  In addition to keeping a private studio of violin and viola students, Elizabeth teaches violin in several schools with Making Music Matters! and has recently joined the faculty at the Community Music Center of Boston after teaching at their Summer Music program for two years.  She has also been selected as a participant in the Music Educators and Teaching Artists fellowship through the Massachusetts Cultural Council for 2016-2018.

Elizabeth completed her master’s studies at the New England Conservatory where her principal teacher was Dimitri Murrath.  Previously, she studied with George Taylor at the Eastman School of Music, where she earned her BM, and an Arts Leadership Certificate with a focus in contemporary orchestral issues.  She also received the Robert L. Oppelt Viola Prize for the class of 2009.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Anne Lemos Edgerton is a trained musician and dancer. She holds a MALS  in Composition from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and a Dalcroze Degree and Certificate from the Longy School of Music. She has been teaching dance for over 25 years and Dalcroze Eurhythmics for 15 years. In addition she is a choreographer who has created multiple dance pieces for the past 25 years while choreographer-in-residence for the Moving West Repertory Dance Theatre based in Framingham.

Joe Hartigan is a percussionist living in the Boston area, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with dual degrees in Music Education and Music Performance. Joe started at CMCB as a student in middle school pursuing his love of drums and percussion. He made the switch to faculty when he joined the SummerMUSIC program as the rhythm instructor which he has done for the past 6 years. Joe has been a member of the CMCB school outreach team since the fall of 2014 and specializes in percussion, bucket drumming and general music. Joe is also involved at CMCB teaching drumming in the early childhood program, teaching private percussion lessons and leading ensembles. He is also an active performer, playing throughout Massachusetts and the New England area in orchestras, marching bands, jazz combos and various other popular music groups. He maintains a private studio practice and continues to spread his love and knowledge of music to as many students as possible.

Liza received her undergraduate degree in music composition and her graduate degree in ethnomusicology. She worked as an accompanist and composer in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Boston in 1998. In Boston, Liza trained with Music Together and has been working professionally with children for the past 15 years. Liza also teaches piano privately at her home studio in Somerville where she lives with her husband and daughter. In 2009, she created Wild Tales, a children’s theater program, which she continues to direct. Visit her website at lizakitchell.com

Javier Rosario was born in the Dominican Republic on October 10, 1986. His fascination for sounds took him on a wonderful journey since an early age, starting his first serious studies on violin at the age of 10, switching to guitar by the age of 16. Two years later, he was awarded the first Michel Camilo Scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2009.  Since his 2006 arrival in Boston, he has performed with many artists including Joe Lovano, Phil Grenadier, Vardan Ovsepian, Jeff Galindo, John Lockwood, Matt Savage, Fernando Michelin, Fernando Huergo, Pablo Bencid, Brooke Sofferman, Bret Willmott, Eugene Friesen, Leo Genovese, Bob Weiner, Dan Meron, Winston Maccow, Nikolas Anadolis, Berklee All-Stars, Fenway Back Bay Brass Orchestra, among others. He also studied under master guitar instructors Mick Goodrick, Tim Miller, Bret Willmott, Joe Morris, and David Patterson, as well as improvisation with renowned educator Hal Crook, and Grammy award winning pianist, composer and bandleader Michel Camilo.  In the Spring 2010, Javier was awarded with the Presidential Scholarship, Ambassador Assistantship and the Experiential Education Assistantship at the Longy School of Music of Bard College earning a masters degree with focus on performance, composition and teaching in the Spring 2012. Javier is recognized as a leader, not a follower with a wonderful imagination and exceptional guitar playing. His life and music do not compromise. An impressive, groundbreaking and very intense new talent in the Jazz world.

-“I believe Javier has a great talent and potential to become one of the key players in the Jazz world.” — MICHEL CAMILO

-“He’s sure to be known as part of the future generation by his command of voicings and expression as a serious musician.” — MICK GOODRICK

-“Javier continues to grow and become himself a wonderful musician who’s tireless in his pursuit for excellence.” — JOE LOVANO

-“Javier Rosario is a creative and hard-working musician, constantly charting new musical territory through his dark and intense playing style.”-MATT SAVAGE

-“Javier is in that new generation of extraordinarily talented guitar players, and I’m confident we’ll be hearing more and more of him in the future.” –BRET WILLMOTT

María Doreste Velázquez was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, and studied classical piano and Musicology at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. Simultaneously Maria studied two years of Composition and she graduated from her Master’s in Music Education at the Boston Conservatory last winter.

Maria Doreste has taught in private institutions, developing curriculum for the youngest grades, and supervising music programs as part of the Musica para Todos company instructors’ team (Spain). She has also worked for the Brookline Public Schools and in the Boston Publics Schools as part of the Outreach Program of the Community Music Center of Boston, developing lessons that reinforce multicultural aspects of our society.

Recipient of the Promising Music Educator Award 2014 by the MMEA (Massachusetts Music Educators Association), Maria is convinced that we should be able to teach music to each student, facilitating deep musical opportunities as well as building a trustful environment where they grow as performers and human beings. She believes music has the power to transform individuals, to help them express themselves and to find who they are.

Currently, Maria is a piano instructor in the Autism Spectrum department at Boston Conservatory, a General Music and Early Childhood Music instructor for the Community Music Center of Boston & The Children Music Center of Jamaica Plain, and a piano instructor with the Baro-Doreste piano studio.

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In addition to a busy freelance career in settings ranging from jazz and blues to electronic and orchestral music, Mr. Gabriel leads his own ensembles performing original music throughout New England. His debut recording, Blueprints, was released by Creative Nation Music Productions (www.cnmpro.com) in February 2005. He is a former student of Donald Palma and Charlie Banacos. He is on the faculty of UMass-Lowell.

Active performer and composer in Jazz, Blues and Funk genres. In addition to playing and recording two CD’s with his own trio, Mr. Giordano also performs with the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra, Maria DeMaio and The Fellas, and others. Private lessons focus on playing fundamentals, transcriptions and working with the students individual strengths and goals. Mr. Giordano is currently a faculty member at The All Newton Music School, and has previously taught at the Ted Herbert Music School in Manchester, NH.

www.mikegiordano.net

A native of Mexico, Santiago Diaz began playing guitar at the age of 13 at the National School of Music in Mexico City and made his first public recital two years later at the Sala Huehuecóyotl. Acclaimed for his lyrical and passionate performances, Mr. Diaz is one of the leading virtuoso guitarists of his generation and is an active concert guitarist in both Mexico and the United States. The Boston Globe wrote “He’s a really spectacular player. The combination of his technique and his passionate performance is really not to be missed”…”A player with flair, lyricism, and technical finesse”. According to the guitar figure Joaquín Clerch “Santiago is a young virtuoso who possesses a secure technique, a beautiful sound and an imaginative and sincere musicality”. Moreover, legendary guitarist Eliot Fisk said “He is an extraordinary young virtuoso with a solid technique, unique artistic interpretation and superb musicality”. In addition, renowned guitarist David Leisner said, “He is blessed with a strong, perfectly natural musical instinct and with an impressive technical facility on the guitar”.

Highlighted performances include solo recitals at the Hall of Ideas in Boston, the Newport Art Museum in Newport RI, Masters of the Future Concert Series in Newport, the Boston Athenaeum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, First Church as part of FirstNight Boston, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Universidad de Guadalajara in Mexico, the Merida International Guitar Festival in Mexico, and a solo recital at the Manuel M. Ponce Hall in Mexico City as part of the Bellas Artes Guitar Cycle. Mr. Dìaz had his solo debut inJordan Hall in June of 2007, to great success, as part of the prestigious Boston GuitarFest directed by guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk.

Future engagements include concerts with the Mexico City Chamber Orchestra, the Queretaro Camerata Orchestra, recital at the Ocampo Theater in Cuernavaca as part of the Morelos International Guitar Festival, and a solo recital at the Les Cordes Pincees International Guitar Festival in Morocco.

Mr. Diaz received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in guitar with distinction in performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with David Leisner and Eliot Fisk. Both degrees were possible thanks to scholarships granted by the same institution.

Phil Sargent has worked with a number of prominent musicians including David Liebman, Jerry Bergonzi, John Lockwood, Fernando Huergo, Bruno Raberg, Bob Moses, Matt Wilson, Phil Grenadier, Yosuke Inoue, Thomson Kneeland and others. He studied at the University of New Hampshire and in New York City with critically acclaimed guitarists Ben Monder, and Brad Shepik. Phil leads his own group whose compositions draw from a variety of influences, most prominently the odd meters and eastern tonalities of ethnic Balkan music and modern jazz improvisation. Phil released his first recording (For Carl) in 2002. His 2010 release (A New Day) has received critical acclaim. In addition to writing for his own group he composes and has released recordings with the genre bending groups Iskar and The Industrious Noise Trio. Phil also performs nationally as a sideman in the Sonic Explorers, Bruno Raberg Nonet, Rick DiMuzio Quintet, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol Jazz Orchestra, John Funkhouser Quartet, Brooke Sofferman Perspective, and a variety of other ensembles ranging from straight ahead jazz to the avante-garde.

After studying Jazz Performance and Composition at the University of New Hampshire Phil has since enjoyed a full roster of private students in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In addition, Phil has been an active clinician, teaching improvisation and performance master classes at various colleges and high schools throughout New England.

www.philsargentmusic.com.webloc

coming soon!

Joe Hartigan is a percussionist living in the Boston area, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with dual degrees in Music Education and Music Performance. Joe started at CMCB as a student in middle school pursuing his love of drums and percussion. He made the switch to faculty when he joined the SummerMUSIC program as the rhythm instructor which he has done for the past 6 years. Joe has been a member of the CMCB school outreach team since the fall of 2014 and specializes in percussion, bucket drumming and general music. Joe is also involved at CMCB teaching drumming in the early childhood program, teaching private percussion lessons and leading ensembles. He is also an active performer, playing throughout Massachusetts and the New England area in orchestras, marching bands, jazz combos and various other popular music groups. He maintains a private studio practice and continues to spread his love and knowledge of music to as many students as possible.

Dr. Shamu has taught trumpet, presented master classes, and directed ensembles in the Boston Public Schools, at Boston University and its Tanglewood Institute, and at other universities and summer festivals across the country. He has taught classes in Brass Pedagogy and Methods at Boston University; Music History, Music Theory, and Intensive French at Harvard University.

He performs regularly with the Orchestra of Opera Boston, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and several other groups in New England. Also an active chamber musician, he is a founding member of Boston’s Riverside Brass. He has appeared as a soloist at the Music Center’s Kleshinski Concert Series, throughout the United States, and in Europe.  A versatile player, Geoff spent several years performing and recording as a member of the reggae band Pressure Cooker, has played for countless musical show productions—and just about everything in between. His teachers include Terry Everson, Mark Gould, Stephen Jones, Timothy Morrison, and Pierre Thibaud, with whom he studied for several years after coming to Paris on a Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship.

More information—including a calendar of upcoming performances—may be found at gshamu.com.

In addition to a busy freelance career in settings ranging from jazz and blues to electronic and orchestral music, Mr. Gabriel leads his own ensembles performing original music throughout New England. His debut recording, Blueprints, was released by Creative Nation Music Productions (www.cnmpro.com) in February 2005. He is a former student of Donald Palma and Charlie Banacos. He is on the faculty of UMass-Lowell.

Flutist, composer, author and educator Fernando Brandão is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has performed extensively as a bandleader, sideman, chamber musician and as a soloist with many ensembles and prominent orchestras both in Brazil and the US.

His new album,  Sem Tradução (Without Translation) features nine original songs with Marcella Camargo as the lead singer and 14 prominent musicians from the Boston area. His vocal and instrumental compositions are centered mostly around Brazilian styles including choro, samba, bossa, ijexá, and baião, and feature traditional and contemporary language and arrangements. With precise technique and refined sound, his interpretations on concert, alto, bass flutes and pífanos combine jazzy improvisations to a truly Brazilian language and sound.

He leads the Fernando Brandão Ensemble, which has recently been featured at the First Cambridge Jazz Festival, and the Isabella Gardner Museum. He also leads the group Alma, the gafieira band Bohemia Carioca, and he is an active member of the groups Pablo Ablanedo Octet, Trio Choro Brasil, Sergio Brandão & Manga Rosa and Teresa Inês Quintet. He has also played or recorded with Oscar Castro-Neves, Rosa Passos, Luciana Souza, Kris Adams, John Stein Quartet, Leandro Braga, Maria Teresa Madeira, Emmanuel Music Orchestra with conductors Criag Smith, Seiji Ozawa, and pianist Russell Sherman.

Mr. Brandão is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and a faculty member of the Community Music Center of Boston. A leading educator in Brazilian music, he has given many lectures about its music styles, history and composers, and he is the author of the play-along book Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception, published by Advance Music. His compositions have been recorded by Choro das Três, guitarist Almir Cortes and New World Guitar Trio. He was the first prize winner of several national music competitions in Brazil, and the 1991 Pappoutsakis Flute Competition in Boston.

Active performer and composer in Jazz, Blues and Funk genres. In addition to playing and recording two CD’s with his own trio, Mr. Giordano also performs with the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra, Maria DeMaio and The Fellas, and others. Private lessons focus on playing fundamentals, transcriptions and working with the students individual strengths and goals. Mr. Giordano is currently a faculty member at The All Newton Music School, and has previously taught at the Ted Herbert Music School in Manchester, NH.

www.mikegiordano.net

Mr. Lawrence is both a composer and performer. He has written numerous works for flute and other mediums in the contemporary idiom. He has appeared as soloist with such jazz greats as Quincy Jones, Eubie Blake and the late Duke Ellington. He is also very involved in presenting avant garde jazz. He was presented with the Marilla MacDill prize for excellence in teaching and community service.

Mr. Shea has been playing piano and composing professionally for two decades. He spent 1975-87 as house pianist at the legendary El Chapultepec Club, backing such great artists as Eddie Harris, Jerome Richardson and Joe Turner. He worked regularly with the Brazilian Band, Bridges, and Denver’s premiere salsa group, Conjunto Colores. In 1987 he moved to Boston, where he played with the late blues singer Jellybelly, the Artie Shaw Band, and the Either/ Orchestra. Mr. Shea has composed new concert music including “Wyoming,” an orchestral fantasy recorded for MMC Records by the Slovak Radio Orchestra. He writes, records and tours with his own ensemble, the Michael Shea Quartet. Their most recent CD, ‘Last Night While You Slept,’ is now available.

A naturally inquisitive and curious person from birth, Aidan has always been fascinated with sound. As a composer, he finds himself often categorized as a writer of experimental music, due to his fascination with texture and color as primary musical forces, but he has also been trained as a jazz and classical composer, and retains great interest in an eclectic variety of music, from pop to the farthest reaches of the experimental, and maintains that all such genres are far more closely related than one might initially imagine. Mr. Ramsay is particularly interested in the intersections between music and diagetic sound design, and is always searching for the music hiding in everyday life. He is currently finishing a master’s degree at Boston University, where he studies with Joshua Fineberg. He previously studied at the University of Oregon under Robert Kyr and David Crumb. Though young and early in his career, Aidan has managed to make a name for himself writing for artists such as JACK Quartet and Esteli Gomez, of Roomful of Teeth fame.

Kira Helper is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Therapy and a minor degree in psychology. Kira has an extensive background in musical theater performance and enjoys incorporating the elements of dramatic expression, dance, and movement into her music therapy sessions. She performs regularly around New England, singing in various function bands, and accompanying herself on guitar for children’s events. She has been involved in local and feature film projects around the Boston area, appeared as an alumnae guest for the Berklee Musical Theater Ensemble, and will perform with the Hackmatack Playhouse for their 2018 summer season. Outside of music, Kira also works as a reiki practitioner, amateur hair braider, and social activist.

Swara is a vocalist from Mumbai, India. She is a Music Therapy major from Berklee College of Music. Starting in childhood, music was a constant companion and an outlet for expression.  Following her from India to Shanghai to Malaysia, music was a way to connect with people.  Swara has a belief that music can connect and help other people throughout the world.  This belief got her interested in Music Therapy. Her late mother ran a center for children with special needs in India.  Helping out at the center developed Swara’s passion for helping others. Swara has studied various styles of music including Hindustani, Western Classical, Pop, R&B, Bollywood and the basics of Carnatic music. She has been an ardent member of the Berklee Indian Ensemble. She has toured with them and performed with famous Indian artists Vijay Prakash, Raghu Dixit, Indian Ocean, Shreya Ghoshal and others. In her free time, Swara is a writer.  She writes about topics that inspire youth, movies and music reviews.

Christopher Perry is a graduate of Berklee College of Music with a degree in music therapy.  Whether working with adults with developmental disabilities, children with special needs, Early Intervention, or children with autism, Christopher has a passion for connecting with others through music.  He has experience practicing music therapy with groups and individuals, in classrooms, homes and community spaces.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Neil Godwin is a native of West Monroe, LA, where he began his horn studies with Dr. Gary Greene at Northeast Louisiana University. Neil holds degrees in horn performance and conducting from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he was a student of Dennis Behm in horn and Drs. Timothy Koch and Jay Dean in conducting. In 2001, Neil came to Boston in order to pursue further horn studies at Boston University under the tutelage of Eric Ruske. Additionally, he has performed in masterclasses and workshops with such noted horn players as Dale Clevenger, David Jolley, Roger Kaza, Jeff Nelsen, Karl Pituch, Denise Tryon, and Frøydis Ree Wekre. While in Boston, Neil has engaged in a busy and varied career as both a performer and pedagogue. As a new music specialist, Neil enjoys performing frequently with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Callithumpian Consort, and on the other extreme, he has explored natural horn performance practice with Grand Harmonie. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Neil performs with the Solar Wind Quintet, the Boston Woodwind Society Octet, and the Epic Brass Quintet. Neil is a member of the Plymouth Philharmonic, and he has formerly held positions with the Discovery Ensemble, the Hillyer Festival Orchestra, the Simon Sinfonietta, and the Gardner Museum Chamber Orchestra. Furthermore, Neil has performed with many of the orchestras in the region including the Boston Philharmonic, the New Bedford Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, Symphony by the Sea, and the Claflin Hill Symphony. Neil is a member of the brass and ensembles faculties at the Community Music Center of Boston where he teaches brass private lessons both in house and at the Boston Latin School and serves as director of the Junior Wind Ensemble. Neil is also the assistant director of CMCB’s Summer Music program, where he directs the wind ensemble and coaches chamber music.

In addition to the CMCB Chamber Orchestra, Mark Miller conducts the Boston University All-Campus Orchestra and is an assistant conductor of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO). Also a clarinetist, he is principal clarinetist of the Cape Cod Symphony, Plymouth Philharmonic, and the Simon Sinfonietta, and is a member of the wind quintet Arcadian Winds. Mr. Miller currently teaches clarinet at St. Mark’s School and at Foxboro High School, where he also conducts the clarinet choir. He has been commissioned to write many substantial works for Foxboro’s performing groups, and his other compositions and arrangements have been widely performed. More at www.markmillermusic.com.

Karl Ørvik has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Norway and South Korea. A violinist with both the Boston Public Quartet and Trio Klaritas, he has also performed as a concerto soloist, concertmaster and section violinist with numerous orchestral ensembles. Mr. Ørvik is a dedicated teacher who works easily with students of all ages and abilities. He is a member of the violin/viola departments at the Community Music Center of Boston, the Waldorf School of Lexington, and the Dedham School of Music, and in summers, he teaches at Point Counterpoint in Vermont and the Youth and Muse Festival in Boston. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he has been published in the ASTA Journal, and is the author of New Scale Method, an innovative scale method book for advanced violinists. A native of Canada, Mr. Ørvik has studied with many distinguished violinists and chamber musicians, including Roman Totenberg, Stephen Majeske and Calvin Wiersma, and members of the Muir, Cleveland, Cavani and Fine Arts string quartets. He holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Lawrence University, and in January of 2012 he received his DMA from Boston University.

Ms. Underhill teaches at the South Shore Music Center and Boston College as well as serving as Manager for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (GBYSO) and Director of Instrumental Music at St. Mark’s School. She has performed with the Moody Blues, Placido Domingo, Tony Bennett and the Panamanian Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Harvard University Mozart Society Orchestra, GBYSO, and the Little Orchestra of Victoria. She has also performed in Minneapolis, Chicago, Holland, New York City and St. Petersburg, Russia. She is also a member of Alea III. She has developed a cataloguing system for ethnic recordings with composer Martin Bartlett and has organized Gunther Schuller’s personal collection. She is the recipient of the 2001 Kay Logan Award for her development of the chamber music program at GBYSO.

Teaching Philosophy:

I am passionate about music and playing the bassoon.  I try to help each student discover what about music and bassoon speaks to him or her.  My hope is that this is something that they will take with them for the rest of their lives.  What we work on in lessons is something I modify based on the level, learning style and goals of the individual student.  Most of my students use bassoon as part of their college application whether they are just planning continuing playing or are majoring in music; I help guide students through this process.

Matt Savage, has had a fifteen-year professional career as a jazz musician, bandleader and composer with ensembles of different size. He’s played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Chick Corea, the Ellington All Stars, Chaka Khan, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Watson, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Jason Moran, Arturo O’Farrill, John Pizzarelli, Joshua Redman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi and Donny McCaslin among others. Along the way, he’s recorded twelve albums as leader and one as collaborator. He is a Bösendorfer piano artist.

As a composer, Matt has garnered respect. He composed and recorded the score for a full-length documentary film,Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story. The movie, which premiered in 2014, chronicles the life of jazz alto saxophonist Frank Morgan. Additionally, Savage wrote almost all the songs on his twelve albums, several of which have been used in short documentaries, on web sites, in school music curricula and in government educational materials. Savage has toured worldwide and had many national media appearances including performances at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland, the Blue Note, Bohemian Caverns, Town Hall, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Scullers, the Jazz Standard, the Pantages Theatre, the Iridium, the Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Heineken Jazzaldia (Spain), the Costa Rica International Jazz Festival, the International VSA Arts Festival, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Japan, Curacao, Aruba and for the president of Singapore.

A graduate of Manhattan School of Music and Berklee College of Music, Matt balances his professional music career with teaching. He teaches at Community Music Center of Boston, and at Applied Behavioral Learning Services (an organization near Boston for children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities). Matt gives masterclasses and workshops domestically and internationally (in English and Spanish) as well as private piano lessons.

An award-winning teacher and pianist, Alexander Morollo has been seen in performances in the United States and Canada. He has performed at piano festivals, masterclasses, and competitions, both as a solo recitalist and chamber musician.   He began his training at the age of six under pianist and composer Dianne Rahbee. Other piano teachers include Phyllis Lehrer, Galina Gertsenzen, and Hugh Hinton; coupled with masterclasses with Dianne Anderson, Andrew Staupe, Ena Barton, James Goldswerthy, Andrius Zlabys, Andreas Klein, Marvin Blickenstaff, and Mykola Suk. Highly trained in music theory as well, he has studied with Paul Brust and Judy Ross.  Mr. Morollo has competed in the NEPTA Piano Competitions, won the Catherine Dower-Gold Performing Arts Award, and won First Prize in the Young Artists Piano Competition of Western Massachusetts and Connecticut in the highest division. Additionally, Mr. Morollo was the 2015 recipient of the Mary Ellis Smith Prize for ‘Excellence in the art of Piano Pedagogy’.

An avid teacher, Mr. Morollo maintains a private studio in Medway, MA and in addition to CMCB, holds positions on the piano faculty at The Starline Academy for the Performing Arts in Stoughton, MA, The North End Music and Performing Arts Center in Boston, Along with the Encore Music Academy in Franklin. Throughout his teaching career he has prepared students for proficiency exams in piano, sight reading, solfege, and music theory, along with the MTEL teacher certification test. During his undergraduate education at Longy, he was hired by the school to co-instruct graduate students in secondary piano through classroom instruction and private lessons. Several students of his have been accepted into Bachelor of Music programs themselves, most recently at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and Ithaca College in New York.

Performance Diploma, Longy School of Music;  Bachelor of Music, Emerson College;  Master of Music, Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Boston based harpsichordist Nickolai Sheikov began his first music lessons on the piano at the age of nine in his native country of Bulgaria. Later, he received professional music training at the L. Pipkov National School of Music in Sofia in piano performance, graduating cum laude in 1999. In 2000, after being awarded a full scholarship at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, Mr. Sheikov further perused his studies, receiving both Bachelor and Master degrees in Harpsichord Performance. His prime teacher and mentor there was harpsichordist John Gibbons. Upon graduating, Mr. Sheikov has been participating in a number of harpsichord master classes, both in Europe and USA, with Gustav Leonhard, Menno van Delft, Peter Watchorn, Jaap Schröder (chamber music) amongst others.  While the main focus of Mr. Sheikov’s repertoire is the music of the late 16 th , 17 th and early 18th centuries, he also explores works of the 20 th century as well as current harpsichord repertoire. Such performances include compositions by Robert Baksa, Daniel Pinkham, Elodie Lauten, Bohuslav Martinu, Manuel Ponce, and others. At the dawn of his performing career, Mr. Sheikov’s numerous solo performances have been critically acclaimed. The Boston Musical Intelligencer described him as a “noteworthy” and “an excellent harpsichordist”. 2015 marks a critically acclaimed solo debut CD release ofsonatas by Domenico Scarlatti for the Musica Omnia label with a second recording to follow in 2017. In 2016, Mr. Sheikov has founded and directed the Early Music Evenings concert series in Boston, which focuses on period instrument performances.

Currently Mr. Sheikov performs as a soloist and chamber musician at various music venues in USA and abroad. Past highlights include recitals in National Palace of Culture in Bulgaria, Jordan Hall in Boston, First Church of Boston Concert Series, First Church in Cambridge, Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Concerts, Boston Community Music Center Kleshinski Concert Series, Friends Meeting House Concerts. In addition, he has partnered with artist such as guitar virtuoso Grisha Goryachev, harpsichordist Elaine Comparone and BSO oboist Keisuke Wakao.

Currently Mr. Sheikov serves as the Chair of the Piano/Keyboard Department at the Community Music Center of Boston, where he teaches both harpsichord and piano. For more information, please visit the artist’s web page at www.sheikov.com.

Sarah Bob originally hails from Teaneck, N.J., which, amazingly enough, is also the home of Sesame Street’s “Bob” and the place where Sarah’s childhood infatuation with sharing the BOB name with Bob McGrath began. After starting piano lessons in the 3rd grade, Sarah not only became known as a brilliant pianist, but also as a girl who runs exactly like the character “Laura Ingalls” from the beloved family show, Little House on the Prairie.  Sarah, now living in Jamaica Plain, M.A., is in charge of putting new music concerts together with new visual art in Boston and calls the events the New Gallery Concert Series. She does the same with classical music up in Brownfield, Maine at theStone Mountain Arts Center.  She also plays with other musicians in groups called the Firebird Ensemble, Radius Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and, with her percussionist husband, Primary Duo. Sarah loves to play concerts, from Carnegie Hall in New York City to De Doelen in Holland, and also teaches piano to grown ups and little kids both privately and at the Community Music Center of Boston. Eventually, Sarah did meet Bob McGrath (she has the picture to prove it!) and while dark chocolate, dogs and flowers are only three of Sarah’s favorite things, you can learn more about her on her website: www.sarahbob.net.

Born in 1983, in Madrid (Spain), Manuel García-Baró is a composer and pianist that lives in Boston since 2010. He began his music studies at age 8 in his hometown, at the Escuela de Musica Creativa. From the very first moment, he combined his piano lessons with a total passion and dedication to composition.
Always interested in very diverse styles of music, he studied classical piano with the Armenian master Serouj Kradjian, and at the same time, jazz, latin, and flamenco with Adolfo Delgado and Pepe Rivero. His composition studies are also very wide in terms of stylistic approaches. He first studied modern harmony and arranging, and later on he’d get into classical harmony and counterpoint.
After graduating in Philosophy by the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, he entered the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Madrid. He majored in classical composition and had the enormous opportunity of studying with teachers such as Daniel Vega and Angel Huidobro.
In 2010, he was awarded with the Berklee/SGAE scholarship to study in the prestigious Berklee College of Music (Boston). Manuel completed a dual major in Contemporary Writing and Production, and Film Scoring, and a minor in Scoring for Videogames and was awarded with the Doug Timm award for his contribution to the film scoring department.

Gwenn is currently a faculty member at Community Music Center of Boston where she is a Permanent Substitute Piano Teacher and Piano Teacher to several students. At six, Gwenn was enrolled at the Summit School of Music, Summit, NJ, where she concentrated in piano and also studied organ, violin, saxophone, percussion instruments, voice, and dance.  Upon graduating, she continued private piano lessons throughout high school until college (Chatham College/Carnegie Mellon Tech), where she received a B.A. degree in music composition with a piano major. Always able to play the piano by ear, Gwenn did many gigs during her teenage years at private functions and local restaurants.  She performed leading roles in all grade school and high school musical productions as piano accompanist, soloist, and singer.  During college years, Gwenn did piano gigs at Pittsburgh restaurants and supper clubs and held the offices of Class Pianist for four years and All-College Pianist for three. Throughout her life, Gwenn has utilized her piano expertise at such venues as New Milford Senior Center (Music Director), church (pianist and organist), and before moving to Boston in 2007 and becoming employed at CMCB) at The Renaissance Center, Southbury, CT, where she was piano teacher on the full-time faculty from 2002 to 2007.  Gwenn has also been a member of The New York Choral Society and the Summit, NJ Choral Society at different times in her career.

Kathy Maskell, a lifelong church musician, has a varied and rich musical background.  She studied organ with Donald Willing at New England Conservatory and piano with Bob Winter, pianist with the Boston Pops.  She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music and a Masters of Music Education degree from Boston University.  Kathy has been a highly successful piano instructor both in her home studio and in the many years she owned and directed MusicWorks, Inc. a commercial music education facility offering lesson in piano, voice, guitar, strings and drums.

Her interest in music technology has led her to give presentations on the subject at national conferences for both Music Teachers National Association and the National conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.  Her music technology articles have been published in Clavier Companion, a periodical for piano teachers.  Since 2003 Kathy has been adjunct professor at Regis College in Weston, MA teaching piano classes, music theory, keyboard ensemble and several independent studies with students interested in vocal arranging and counterpoint.  Kathy has been organist and pianist here at Old Cambridge Baptist Church since 2003 also, happily returning to collaborate with Thomas Jones after their tenure at Tremont Temple Baptist Church.  With her background in technology, Kathy aids the OCBC choir with rehearsal compact disks as they prepare for special holiday services.  The choir has performed her composition “Send Down Your Spirit” written for choir and piano.  Her background in composition and arranging has given her opportunities to write original music for keyboard ensembles and most recently incidental music for the children’s book “Gwendolyn the Graceful Pig” by David Rottenberg.  Kathy continues to explore musical opportunities to enhance her musicianship and to benefit her students.

Mr. Shea has been playing piano and composing professionally for two decades. He spent 1975-87 as house pianist at the legendary El Chapultepec Club, backing such great artists as Eddie Harris, Jerome Richardson and Joe Turner. He worked regularly with the Brazilian Band, Bridges, and Denver’s premiere salsa group, Conjunto Colores. In 1987 he moved to Boston, where he played with the late blues singer Jellybelly, the Artie Shaw Band, and the Either/ Orchestra. Mr. Shea has composed new concert music including “Wyoming,” an orchestral fantasy recorded for MMC Records by the Slovak Radio Orchestra. He writes, records and tours with his own ensemble, the Michael Shea Quartet. Their most recent CD, ‘Last Night While You Slept,’ is now available.

In addition to performances across the United States and Europe, Mr. Yenger taught at Louisiana State University and a Magnet High School for the Performing and Academic Arts. Frequently requested as an adjudicator and lecturer on music and the humanities, he has served as a faculty member for summer music festivals including the prestigious music camp in Haiti, and is the founder of Chamber Music at Corrynmore House, a summer music festival on the island of Achill in Ireland. In addition to piano performances, he is a specialist in vocal and chamber music coaching, and is establishing himself as a composer.

Danielle Andersen born in Omaha, Nebraska moved to Boston in 2015 to continue her education and work bringing music and dance to children in their schools. She holds a degree in Dance and Early Childhood Education at the Young Americans College of the Performing Arts. Teaching and performing in over 200 schools across the United States and Europe, Danielle thrives to expose the benefits of art with children.

Anthony Douglass is an elementary school music teacher at The Community Music Center of Boston.  He received his Masters of Music Education from The Boston Conservatory.  He also holds a Masters of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts in African Drumming and Dance, as well as a B. M. from Berklee College of Music.

Anthony has been been teaching private lessons, workshops, after school programs and elementary music for over twenty years.  He has taught in the Los Angeles public schools, the Oakland public schools, the Somerville public schools and is currently teaching in the Boston public schools.  He has also taught African drumming at California Institute of the Arts and Cal. State Long Beach.

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

Joe Hartigan is a percussionist living in the Boston area, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with dual degrees in Music Education and Music Performance. Joe started at CMCB as a student in middle school pursuing his love of drums and percussion. He made the switch to faculty when he joined the SummerMUSIC program as the rhythm instructor which he has done for the past 6 years. Joe has been a member of the CMCB school outreach team since the fall of 2014 and specializes in percussion, bucket drumming and general music. Joe is also involved at CMCB teaching drumming in the early childhood program, teaching private percussion lessons and leading ensembles. He is also an active performer, playing throughout Massachusetts and the New England area in orchestras, marching bands, jazz combos and various other popular music groups. He maintains a private studio practice and continues to spread his love and knowledge of music to as many students as possible.

Kevin Dacey is a percussionist, performer and instructor based out of Boston. He graduated Magne Cum Laude from the University Of Massachusetts in 2014 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Percussion Performance. There he studied the performance art of drum set and orchestral percussion with Fred Buda and Jeff Fischer. He was also granted the opportunity to be the principle percussionist for the University Wind Ensemble under the direction of David Martins and the principle percussionist for the University Concert Band under the direction of Dan Lutz.

Outside of college, Kevin has played extensively with a plethora of ensembles including The Concord Orchestra, The New England Philharmonic, The Plum Island Pans, Bleep Blop Electroacoustic Ensemble and indie rock outfits such as The Ghost of Electricity and Warped forest. Dacey is also heavily invested in sound experimentation and improvisation. He can be seen around Massachusetts playing with various performance artists wielding strange electroacoustic setups or with a group like the Metal Chaos Ensemble.

As an instructor, Kevin has resided at Zach Field Drum Studios in Newburyport, MA for a little over 2 years now instructing students of all ages privately on drum set, hand drums, and mallet percussion. Recently he has started to teach groups of children basic rhythmic concepts at the Pauline Agassiz Shaw Elementary School in Dorchester, MA and North Shore Montessori School in Rowley, MA. As he progresses through each day of instruction, he hopes to incite his students with his passionate love for the expressive creation that is music. Nothing brightens his day more than seeing a classroom full of smiles and excitement for melody, rhythm, and self expression!

Liza received her undergraduate degree in music composition and her graduate degree in ethnomusicology. She worked as an accompanist and composer in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Boston in 1998. In Boston, Liza trained with Music Together and has been working professionally with children for the past 15 years. Liza also teaches piano privately at her home studio in Somerville where she lives with her husband and daughter. In 2009, she created Wild Tales, a children’s theater program, which she continues to direct. Visit her website at lizakitchell.com

Ms. Miklich is a freelance violinist in the Boston area and performs with Boston Classical Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Emmanuel Music and the New Hampshire Symphony. She has also performed with the Portland Symphony, Dinosaur Annex, Monadnock Music, Alea III, Bard Music Festival and the New Hampshire Music Festival. In addition to being the Chair of the String Department at the CMCB, she teaches in her private studio. She was presented with the Marilla MacDill prize for excellence in teaching and community service.

Kara Nelson is a Syracuse University graduate with a B.A. in Music History & Cultures, and a minor in Film Studies. Kara has been involved with the Music Center since she was 6 years old, when she started attending SummerARTs, and has been teaching as a part of School Outreach since 2010. Along with teaching, Kara performs in musicals at community and professional theaters in the area, a passion and appreciation she strives to pass onto her students in Boston Public Schools.

Ms. Schukis has had a multi-faceted career as a character mezzo, actress, stage director, choreographer, vocal coach, educator and administrator. She has sung a wide variety of operatic, oratorio and broadway repertoire to great critical acclaim and has performed roles with the Boston National Company of Nunsense starring Pat Carroll and Alice Ghostley, Boston Lyric Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Providence, New England Light Opera, Intermezzo Chamber Opera, Raylynmoor Opera, Wheelock Family Theater; Lyric Stage Company of Boston; New Opera and Musical Theater Initiative, Opera New England, Longwood Opera Company, Northeastern Repertory Theater, Boston Publick Theater, the Stoneham Theater, Fine Arts Chorale in Weymouth and Newton Symphony.

Ms. Schukis has been a soloist/section leader for the historic Old North Church, Boston, Massachusetts for 27 years and a soloist for 16 years at St. Paul Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts and continues to perform in theater, opera and concert engagements throughout the United States and has performed in Austria. Special performances that deserve mentioning are: National Anthem at a Boston Red Sox Game at Fenway, National Anthem on the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) turn around, National Anthem at New England Dragway, Epping, NH and the National Anthem at Lebanon Valley Speedway, MA and a televised performance with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Salt Lake City, UT.

In addition to being a performer, Vanessa is an award winning teacher with over thirty years experience in performing arts education focusing on students with learning disabilities and special needs. Currently Vanessa teaches music at The Murphy School, Dorchester, MA and The Harvard-Kent School in Charlestown, MA through the outreach program of Community Music Center of Boston. In 2014, Vanessa received the MacDill award for excellence in teaching. Ms. Schukis has been member of the guest faculty at New England Conservatory, Boston, MA and visiting faculty at Longy School of Music Cambridge, MA.

For more information please visit her website: www.classicalsinger.net/vanessaschukis

Lisa Sailer is a violist and certified Alexander Technique teacher originally from Washington, D.C.  She holds a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from SUNY Purchase and a Master of Music in viola performance from The Boston Conservatory.  Lisa recently completed a three-year training course at Boston Conservatory at Berklee to become a certified Alexander Technique instructor. Because of her Alexander training, her music teaching emphasizes healthy playing, body awareness, and injury prevention. Lisa teaches music at several after-school and weekend programs around Boston and has been a guest lecturer and teaching assistant at Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music.

Originally from Bel Air, MD, Elizabeth Stefan is currently a freelance violist in the Boston area playing regularly with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and is a founding member of the newly formed ensemble, Phoenix.  She has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, both in orchestral and chamber music settings.

As a founding member of the Sumner Quartet, one of two resident string quartets of the non profit musiConnects, she also serves as the Program Director and teaches at community centers and schools in the Mattapan area.  In addition to keeping a private studio of violin and viola students, Elizabeth teaches violin in several schools with Making Music Matters! and has recently joined the faculty at the Community Music Center of Boston after teaching at their Summer Music program for two years.  She has also been selected as a participant in the Music Educators and Teaching Artists fellowship through the Massachusetts Cultural Council for 2016-2018.

Elizabeth completed her master’s studies at the New England Conservatory where her principal teacher was Dimitri Murrath.  Previously, she studied with George Taylor at the Eastman School of Music, where she earned her BM, and an Arts Leadership Certificate with a focus in contemporary orchestral issues.  She also received the Robert L. Oppelt Viola Prize for the class of 2009.

Cellist Timothy Paek is an enthusiastic chamber musician and dedicated teacher. Recent highlights of Timothy’s career include an appearance at the Brookline Library Music Association as founding cellist of the Meadowlark Piano Trio, and numerous concerts with Symphony NOVA. He has also performed as a guest on numerous faculty recitals at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Timothy completed degrees at Carnegie Mellon University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Nebraska—Lincoln; his primary mentors include Anne Martindale Williams, Melissa Kraut, and Gregory Beaver.

As an educator, Timothy has worked at the St. Margaret’s School for the Art’s summer music programs as a chamber music coach, private cello instructor, and eurhythmics professor. His prior teaching engagements include the Dedham School of Music, while occasionally subbing at the Chamber Music Connection. He currently teachers at the Community Music Center Boston and the Josiah Quincy Orchestra Program. He also completed Suzuki teacher training and certification at the
Cleveland Institute of Music.  As the founding cellist of the Meadowlark Piano Trio, Timothy has performed in concert venues and outreach programs throughout the nation. A recent honor includes the semifinalist of the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as Cellist of the Meadowlark Trio. Summer festivals include: Avaloch Farm Institute, Garth Newel Music Center, Round Top Festival Institute, Mimir Chamber Festival, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, and the Caroga Lake Music Festival. Aside from music, Timothy loves to pursue culinary interests, dancing, basketball, and playing board games.

Ms. Miklich is a freelance violinist in the Boston area and performs with Boston Classical Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Emmanuel Music and the New Hampshire Symphony. She has also performed with the Portland Symphony, Dinosaur Annex, Monadnock Music, Alea III, Bard Music Festival and the New Hampshire Music Festival. In addition to being the Chair of the String Department at the CMCB, she teaches in her private studio. She was presented with the Marilla MacDill prize for excellence in teaching and community service.

In addition to a busy freelance career in settings ranging from jazz and blues to electronic and orchestral music, Mr. Gabriel leads his own ensembles performing original music throughout New England. His debut recording, Blueprints, was released by Creative Nation Music Productions (www.cnmpro.com) in February 2005. He is a former student of Donald Palma and Charlie Banacos. He is on the faculty of UMass-Lowell.

A native of Norwalk, Connecticut, Stephen has received a Bachelors degree with honors from the University of Connecticut, a Masters degree from Boston University, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at BU under the direction of Michael Reynolds. Stephen’s formative teachers include Kangho Lee, Marc Johnson, and Rhonda Rider. As a passionate advocate of contemporary music, Stephen has worked with numerous composers, and has played with several new music ensembles in the Boston area. Stephen has attended music festivals at the Banff centre, SoundSCAPE in Maccagno, Italy, and the Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany.  Stephen has played in master classes for artists such as the Arditti Quartet and JACK Quartet. Stephen has a wide range of musical interest that include contemporary chamber music, improvisatory music, and electronic music. In his spare time, Stephen is an avid hiker and outdoorsman.

Karl Ørvik has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Norway and South Korea. A violinist with both the Boston Public Quartet and Trio Klaritas, he has also performed as a concerto soloist, concertmaster and section violinist with numerous orchestral ensembles. Mr. Ørvik is a dedicated teacher who works easily with students of all ages and abilities. He is a member of the violin/viola departments at the Community Music Center of Boston, the Waldorf School of Lexington, and the Dedham School of Music, and in summers, he teaches at Point Counterpoint in Vermont and the Youth and Muse Festival in Boston. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he has been published in the ASTA Journal, and is the author of New Scale Method, an innovative scale method book for advanced violinists. A native of Canada, Mr. Ørvik has studied with many distinguished violinists and chamber musicians, including Roman Totenberg, Stephen Majeske and Calvin Wiersma, and members of the Muir, Cleveland, Cavani and Fine Arts string quartets. He holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Lawrence University, and in January of 2012 he received his DMA from Boston University.

A multi-instrumentalist and singer, Ms. Sollogub performs on and teaches Appalachian dulcimer, recorders, tinwhistle and guitar. She has studied conducting at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell and also with conductor Joshua Jacobson and has completed two levels of Dalcroze Eurythmics at Longy School of Music. Ms. Sollogub has published two books: “Shiron L’Shalom,” a source book of Jewish music for peace education, and “A Dulcimer Portfolio,” original and traditional tunes for the advancing mountain dulcimer player. She has led classes in general music, recorder and chorus at five Boston Public Schools.

Cellist Benjamin Swartz hails from Richmond, VA, and has concertized extensively in the United States and Europe with a particular emphasis on historically-informed performance, electroacoustic collaboration, and the exposure of neglected repertoire. Equally at home on cello, Baroque cello, and viola da gamba, he is gaining increased recognition for multi-instrumental virtuosity spanning the Ars Subtilior to the present day.

An honors graduate of the double-degree program at Johns Hopkins University (BA/MA, American history) and Peabody Conservatory (BMus, cello), Ben was a recipient of both the Peabody Career Grant and the Johns Hopkins Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship.  As a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he studied the historically-informed performance practice of the Bach Cello Suites with Anner Bijlsma and Pieter Wispelweij on period and modern instruments, respectively, in Amsterdam, Holland.  Ben later earned his postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London (MMus with Merit in cello and historical performance) where he was awarded the Nancy Nuttall Early Music Prize.  Ben recently returned from a year in Karlsruhe, Germany, as a Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst Stipendiat (DAAD Scholar) where he researched music theory (proportional ratio systems of extended Just Intonation) and performed as a chamber musician throughout Europe.

As an advocate for 21st-century music, Ben is a member of Sound Energy, a dynamic string trio which commissions & performs works by living American composers. He has performed as a member of the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony, Baltimore Baroque Band, Bridgeport Symphony, Cape Ann Symphony, Equilibrium Ensemble, Orchestra of Indian Hill, Peabody Concert Orchestra, Royal Academy Symphony Orchestra, Royal Academy Viol Consort, Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Video Game Orchestra (Boston) in venues such as Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, and Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood).  His festival credits include Aspen, Tanglewood, Kneisel Hall, London Master Classes, Aurora, and Manchester, and he has studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Brentano, Shanghai, Amaryllis, and Fauré quartets.  Ben’s major teachers have been Alison Wells and John Moran in Baltimore, Mats Lidström and Jonathan Manson in London, and Anner Bijlsma and Pieter Wispelweij in Amsterdam.

A much sought-after teacher and clinician in the Boston area, Ben is currently on the music faculties at Community Music Center in Boston, Shore Country Day School, Ipswich public schools, and as chamber music coach with the Northern Massachusetts Youth Orchestra.

For more information, please visit www.benswartz.net

Samantha Gambaccini is a freelance director, singing actor and educator in the Boston area. Currently a teaching artist in private and group voice, general music and theatre performance, Ms. Gambaccini specializes in musical theatre audition preparation and musicianship training with emphasis on the transition from dialogue to song. She serves as music director for singing ensembles and theatre groups of all ages. Most recently, she has performed with Anthem Theatre Company, Emerson College, and sung with the Church of the Redeemer chamber choir in Newton, MA, under the direction of Michael Murray. She has performed the operatic roles of Ruggiero (Alcina), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Ottone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Puck (The Fairy Queen) and Juno (Dido & Aeneas). Previous credits also include Production Stage Manager for the world-premiere opera The Garden of Martyrs with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Producer for Kennedy Elementary School Drama in Somerville, MA, and Assistant Director at the New Brunswick Early Music Festival. Locally, she has served as artistic director with the North Shore Players and Wakefield Repertory Theatre, and her own philanthropic production company Little Dinos Productions. Recent faculty positions include School Outreach and Early Childhood instructor in voice, piano and choir at the Community Music Center of Boston, singing instructor for the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, director of the North Shore YMCA’s Glee Club, and director of the nationally recognized a cappella group WitchPitch? at Salem High School.

A Connecticut native, Katie O’Reilly is a Boston-based singer, music director, pianist, and educator. An active performer in the Boston opera scene, her recent roles include the Sandman (Hansel and Gretel, MetroWest Opera,) Rose (Lakmé, Lowell House Opera), and Josephine (HMS Pinafore, MIT Gilbert & Sullivan Players.) She works as a music director and vocal coach for youth training programs, including Boston Backyard Opera and Mssng Lnks, Inc, and has experience teaching singers of all ages and backgrounds. Katie is also a keyboardist well-versed in musical theater style and repertoire, having worked with both amateur and professional companies as a pit musician, accompanist, music director, and assistant music director. Katie holds degrees from Oberlin and the Boston Conservatory, and is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda musical honors society. Please visit her website (www.katieoreilly.com) for more information!

coming soon!

Joe Hartigan is a percussionist living in the Boston area, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with dual degrees in Music Education and Music Performance. Joe started at CMCB as a student in middle school pursuing his love of drums and percussion. He made the switch to faculty when he joined the SummerMUSIC program as the rhythm instructor which he has done for the past 6 years. Joe has been a member of the CMCB school outreach team since the fall of 2014 and specializes in percussion, bucket drumming and general music. Joe is also involved at CMCB teaching drumming in the early childhood program, teaching private percussion lessons and leading ensembles. He is also an active performer, playing throughout Massachusetts and the New England area in orchestras, marching bands, jazz combos and various other popular music groups. He maintains a private studio practice and continues to spread his love and knowledge of music to as many students as possible.

Flutist, composer, author and educator Fernando Brandão is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has performed extensively as a bandleader, sideman, chamber musician and as a soloist with many ensembles and prominent orchestras both in Brazil and the US.

His new album,  Sem Tradução (Without Translation) features nine original songs with Marcella Camargo as the lead singer and 14 prominent musicians from the Boston area. His vocal and instrumental compositions are centered mostly around Brazilian styles including choro, samba, bossa, ijexá, and baião, and feature traditional and contemporary language and arrangements. With precise technique and refined sound, his interpretations on concert, alto, bass flutes and pífanos combine jazzy improvisations to a truly Brazilian language and sound.

He leads the Fernando Brandão Ensemble, which has recently been featured at the First Cambridge Jazz Festival, and the Isabella Gardner Museum. He also leads the group Alma, the gafieira band Bohemia Carioca, and he is an active member of the groups Pablo Ablanedo Octet, Trio Choro Brasil, Sergio Brandão & Manga Rosa and Teresa Inês Quintet. He has also played or recorded with Oscar Castro-Neves, Rosa Passos, Luciana Souza, Kris Adams, John Stein Quartet, Leandro Braga, Maria Teresa Madeira, Emmanuel Music Orchestra with conductors Criag Smith, Seiji Ozawa, and pianist Russell Sherman.

Mr. Brandão is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and a faculty member of the Community Music Center of Boston. A leading educator in Brazilian music, he has given many lectures about its music styles, history and composers, and he is the author of the play-along book Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception, published by Advance Music. His compositions have been recorded by Choro das Três, guitarist Almir Cortes and New World Guitar Trio. He was the first prize winner of several national music competitions in Brazil, and the 1991 Pappoutsakis Flute Competition in Boston.

Dr. Shamu has taught trumpet, presented master classes, and directed ensembles in the Boston Public Schools, at Boston University and its Tanglewood Institute, and at other universities and summer festivals across the country. He has taught classes in Brass Pedagogy and Methods at Boston University; Music History, Music Theory, and Intensive French at Harvard University.

He performs regularly with the Orchestra of Opera Boston, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and several other groups in New England. Also an active chamber musician, he is a founding member of Boston’s Riverside Brass. He has appeared as a soloist at the Music Center’s Kleshinski Concert Series, throughout the United States, and in Europe.  A versatile player, Geoff spent several years performing and recording as a member of the reggae band Pressure Cooker, has played for countless musical show productions—and just about everything in between. His teachers include Terry Everson, Mark Gould, Stephen Jones, Timothy Morrison, and Pierre Thibaud, with whom he studied for several years after coming to Paris on a Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship.

More information—including a calendar of upcoming performances—may be found at gshamu.com.

Neil Godwin is a native of West Monroe, LA, where he began his horn studies with Dr. Gary Greene at Northeast Louisiana University. Neil holds degrees in horn performance and conducting from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he was a student of Dennis Behm in horn and Drs. Timothy Koch and Jay Dean in conducting. In 2001, Neil came to Boston in order to pursue further horn studies at Boston University under the tutelage of Eric Ruske. Additionally, he has performed in masterclasses and workshops with such noted horn players as Dale Clevenger, David Jolley, Roger Kaza, Jeff Nelsen, Karl Pituch, Denise Tryon, and Frøydis Ree Wekre. While in Boston, Neil has engaged in a busy and varied career as both a performer and pedagogue. As a new music specialist, Neil enjoys performing frequently with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Callithumpian Consort, and on the other extreme, he has explored natural horn performance practice with Grand Harmonie. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Neil performs with the Solar Wind Quintet, the Boston Woodwind Society Octet, and the Epic Brass Quintet. Neil is a member of the Plymouth Philharmonic, and he has formerly held positions with the Discovery Ensemble, the Hillyer Festival Orchestra, the Simon Sinfonietta, and the Gardner Museum Chamber Orchestra. Furthermore, Neil has performed with many of the orchestras in the region including the Boston Philharmonic, the New Bedford Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, Symphony by the Sea, and the Claflin Hill Symphony. Neil is a member of the brass and ensembles faculties at the Community Music Center of Boston where he teaches brass private lessons both in house and at the Boston Latin School and serves as director of the Junior Wind Ensemble. Neil is also the assistant director of CMCB’s Summer Music program, where he directs the wind ensemble and coaches chamber music.

Anna Bradford is a performer and educator in the Boston area, and is also a doctoral candidate at Boston University.  She currently holds positions as the oboe fellow of Symphony Nova and as principal oboe of the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra. As a freelancer, Anna also performs with the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, and the Claflin Hill Symphony. In 2014, Anna was named the winner of the Boston Woodwind Society’s Ralph Gomberg Oboe Competition for a performance of Telemann’s Sonata in E Minor TWV 41e:6.

As a music educator, Anna has taught private oboe lessons since 2006 and is currently on the faculty at the Community Music Center of Boston and the Dana Hall School of Music. She also teaches chamber music and coaches woodwind sectionals for non-major students at Boston University. Previous to her time in Boston, Anna helped to kick-start the Musical Arts Youth Orchestra (MAYO) in Bloomington, Indiana by performing and recruiting in public schools. She has also led clinics and master classes in Michigan public schools and at summer music camps throughout Michigan.

Anna Bradford is currently in pursuit of her Doctorate of the Musical Arts at Boston University, and holds a Master of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from Western Michigan University. Her principal teachers have included Robert Sheena, Andrew Price, Linda Strommen, Roger Roe, Dr. Michael Miller, and Dr. Nancy Ambrose King.

Earl Grant-Lawrence is a Wind Instructor at the Community Music Center of Boston. He holds a B.M. Degree in Applied Flute from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and a Masters of Music Degree in Music Composition from the Boston Conservatory of Music. During the early 70’s at Fisk University, he was a soloist with the Jazz band called the Orchestrated Crowd. This band had the distinction of appearing with such jazz greats as Quincy Jones and the late Duke Ellington.

He is currently a member of the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he plays the contrabass flute. As a member of the flute orchestra, he toured France, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He will tour England and Scotland with the orchestra in 2016.

From 2008-2013 he played the concert flute during the winter season with the Melrose Symphony Orchestra. From 1993 until 2005 he worked as an Instrumental Band Director in the summer DARTS program at Tanglewood, an arts camp for New England Area students, sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

From 1994 to 2000 he was a member of the Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble. The ensemble performed with Raphe Malik and also performed at the Toronto Jazz Festival in Canada.

One of the area’s most versatile musicians, Ms. Matasy has been described in The Boston Globe as “a musician of depth and refinement,” and her solo performances have been praised as “a rare feat,” “riveting,” “ravishing” and brilliant.” She has performed (as clarinetist, bass clarinetist and/or accordionist) with most of the region’s major musical organizations, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, among others. Highly regarded as an interpreter of contemporary music (with “technique to burn”), she is a founding member of the critically acclaimed new music ensemble Dinosaur Annex and a frequent guest artist with Boston’s many new music groups. In addition to teaching at the CMCB, she is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music and Wellesley College.

A multi-instrumentalist and singer, Ms. Sollogub performs on and teaches Appalachian dulcimer, recorders, tinwhistle and guitar. She has studied conducting at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell and also with conductor Joshua Jacobson and has completed two levels of Dalcroze Eurythmics at Longy School of Music. Ms. Sollogub has published two books: “Shiron L’Shalom,” a source book of Jewish music for peace education, and “A Dulcimer Portfolio,” original and traditional tunes for the advancing mountain dulcimer player. She has led classes in general music, recorder and chorus at five Boston Public Schools.

Ms. Underhill teaches at the South Shore Music Center and Boston College as well as serving as Manager for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (GBYSO) and Director of Instrumental Music at St. Mark’s School. She has performed with the Moody Blues, Placido Domingo, Tony Bennett and the Panamanian Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Harvard University Mozart Society Orchestra, GBYSO, and the Little Orchestra of Victoria. She has also performed in Minneapolis, Chicago, Holland, New York City and St. Petersburg, Russia. She is also a member of Alea III. She has developed a cataloguing system for ethnic recordings with composer Martin Bartlett and has organized Gunther Schuller’s personal collection. She is the recipient of the 2001 Kay Logan Award for her development of the chamber music program at GBYSO.

Teaching Philosophy:

I am passionate about music and playing the bassoon.  I try to help each student discover what about music and bassoon speaks to him or her.  My hope is that this is something that they will take with them for the rest of their lives.  What we work on in lessons is something I modify based on the level, learning style and goals of the individual student.  Most of my students use bassoon as part of their college application whether they are just planning continuing playing or are majoring in music; I help guide students through this process.