Teaching Experience
Private Teaching
I taught my first private lesson in the late 1980s. I have continued to enjoy this type of teaching in my private studio and in the schools I teach at.
I have taught hundreds of students at all levels (including the lead guitarist of an award-winning local rock band) as well as countless beginners and intermediate players. My students have ranged in years from 5 to 83. In 20+ years of teaching I have gained experience working with blind and partially deaf students, adults and children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, as well as children with ADHD diagnosis. All people are welcome as students.
Some of my advanced students have begun to teach, as well as perform and record their own original music.
Classroom Teaching
I currently work part-time as faculty/ visiting artist at Tinicum Art and Science High School. I am developing art/ music curriculum there with the full-time faculty, as well as teaching workshops, ensembles, and private lessons to faculty and students.
From 2002-2004, I wrote and implemented music curriculum for The Uphams Corner Charter School in Boston. In the mid 1990s I initiated the Improvisatory Expressive Music Group at Citybound, a residential treatment center serving at-risk urban youth.
That’s me there with my cello teaching a workshop on free improvisation in a public school in Houston, Texas. Nameless Sound is the excellent organization that sponsored this event and many others like it.
I have developed a music composition curriculum that features expanded monochords with movable/ removable frets. I designed the instrument to be extremely approachable by music beginners and yet capable of posing challenges to experienced musicians. For this class the students built their own instruments with tools and materials I provided. Shown here is the aftermath of a week spent working with high school students (I’m the bald guy in the way back).
Workshops and Special Projects
I have taught collective improvised music at venues ranging from Harvard University (culminating in a performance at Paine Hall) and The Rivers Music School (I presented at their annual Seminar on Contemporary Music for the Young in 2007) to high schools, community centers and improvised music festivals throughout North America.