Saxophone/Woodwinds

Karel Ruzicka Jr. - Saxophone

Listen to Karel:
"Bye Bye Baby"
Neighborhood: Prospect Park, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: flute, clarinet
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Karel.

Award-winning saxophonist, composer and producer Karel Ruzicka Jr. was born in Prague, Czech Republic into a very musical family. His mother was in the Czech opera and his father, Karel Ruzicka, is a well-known jazz pianist, composer and educator. Karel studied piano and flute from age 5, and on to Prague Conservatory and the Conservatory of Jaroslav Jezek. Since emigrating to the U.S in 1997, he has studied with Barry Harris, Charles Blenzig (musical director for Michael Franks), and Grammy Award winners Bob Mintzer and Joe Lovano. Karel Jr. began his professional career at 16 as leader of "The Four," at clubs, jazz competitions and festivals in Europe. He was featured soloist with Big Band Radio Prague and recorded with the prestigious European Broadcasting Union Big Band. Karel Jr. is featured soloist with the Karel Ruzicka Quartet in Europe and the U.S.A. He performed with the Roy Hargrove Quintet in Europe plus concerts with Wynton Marsalis and members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. In 2003 Karel Jr. toured the United States with "Voice of the Dragon," led and written by Chinese-American baritone saxophonist Fred Ho. Recently he toured with the R&B legend Ben. E. King, jazz singer/songwriter Michael Franks and with the great drummer/composer Jeff "Tain" Watts. He is a highly sought after performer and recording artist with George Benson, Ravi Coltrane, Joe Locke, Nellie McKay, Benny Reitveld (bassist for Miles Davis and Santana) and Michael Franks. For more about Karel, visit www.myspace.com/karelruzickajrquartet.

Peter Sparacino - Saxophone

Listen to Peter: "Pleasant Planet"
Neighborhood: Bushwick, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: flute, clarinet
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Peter.

Saxophonist and woodwind player Peter Sparacino is an active, versatile musician. During his tenure in San Francisco, Peter appeared regularly with the top working bands in the city including the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, Collective West Jazz Orchestra and legendary Bay Area salsa powerhouse Mazacote among others, as well as leading his own busy quartet/quintet. In addition he maintained a private studio of woodwind students as well as teaching at the Young Musicians Program in Berkeley. In the fall of 2008 Peter moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he currently resides. A busy performer, Peter has appeared as a sideman as well with his own groups at such venues as Rose Live Music, B.B. King's, the Underground Lounge, the Shrine, Bowery Poetry Club, and Showman's as well as many others. Peter, a graduate of the renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music jazz studies program, has been fortunate to study with some great teachers in the jazz idiom, including David Baker, Tom Walsh, Mel Martin, and Seamus Blake. For more about Peter, visit www.myspace.com/sparacinojazz.

Loren Stillman - Saxophone

Listen to Loren:
"Personal Tonal"
Neighborhood: Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 10-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: flute, clarinet
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Loren.

"The music of saxophonist and composer Loren Stillman has found acclaimed reviews in such publications as The New York Times, Downbeat Magazine, Jazziz, Jazz Times, and National Public Radio, marking him as an innovative voice of modern jazz. With his training stemming from Lee Konitz and David Liebman, Stillman has performed, recorded, and educated throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. Alongside an impressive record of performances, recordings, and masterclasses with his own ensembles, Stillman has performed alongside Charlie Haden, Paul Motian Trio 2000+2, Carla Bley, John Abercrombie, Andy Milne's DAPP Theory, Michele Rosewoman Quintessence, Joe Lovano, Eivind Opsvik, John McNeil, Brad Shepik, Russ Lossing, Vic Juris, and The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. An early start to his musical career found Stillman as recipient of two Outstanding Performance Awards (1996 & 1998) and the Rising Star Jazz Artist Award (2004) from Down Beat Magazine. Stillman attended Manhattan School of Music (1998) and The New School (2002) on full music scholarship, and was a semifinalist in the 2002 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition. In 2005, Stillman received the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award. Stillman's original recordings, It Could Be Anything (Fresh Sound, 2005), The Brothers' Breakfast (Steeplechase, 2006), and Blind Date (Pirouet, 2006), received critical acclaim from The New York Times and four star recognition in BBC Jazz Review, Jazz Man Magazine and Downbeat Magazine. Stillman has been featured on WKCR, Weekend America Public Broadcasting, and LIU Radio programming." --Budd Kopman, Cadence Magazine, May 2004. For more about Loren, visit www.LorenStillman.com.

Michael Webster - Saxophone/Woodwinds

Listen to Michael:
"Integrity"
Neighborhood: Flatbush/Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
(will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adv
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: flute, clarinet
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Michael Webster.

Saxophonist Michael Webster's compositions have been played by Joe Lovano, Tom Harrell and Arturo O'Farrill at Birdland and by John Benitez at the Blue Note in New York City. In March 2008, Michael conducted the Grammy winning Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra at Symphony Space in Manhattan, where they premiered his original commissioned composition "Mombogro". He returned to lead the ALJO's performance of two commissioned arrangements in October 2008 featuring guitarist/composer Michele Ramo. Michael appears regularly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada as an orchestral saxophonist, and has been a featured soloist in this capacity with John Pizzarelli, Doc Severinsen, Barbara Cooke, Lou Rawls, Ian Tyson, Glen Campbell & Carol Welsman. Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Michael earned his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Saxophone at the University of Toronto in 1999. He was awarded the J.B.C. Watkins Award for Postgraduate Studies, along with a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, which enabled him to move to New York City in 2002. Michael graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in May 2004 where he earned his Master of Music degree in jazz composition under the tutelage of Michael Abene. While at MSM, Michael began collaborating with Grammy-winning bassist John Benitez, playing saxophone, co-writing and arranging music for the John Benitez Group and the 12-piece Gospel Latin Jazz Project. Since 2003, Michael has been collaborating with Puerto Rican trombonist/percussionist William Cepeda as an arranger for big band and symphony orchestra, as well as playing saxophone in Cepeda's International Sextet. In September 2005 Michael recorded his debut CD as a leader entitled Leading Lines. The album presents 8 original works, for jazz nonet, woodwind quintet and strings. Featured are John Benitez on bass, drummer Obed Calvaire, trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, and Gordon Webster on piano. Presenting a unique blend of Latin Jazz rhythms, classical textures, funky odd meter settings and sheer groove, Michael's 13-piece orchestra, Leading Lines, is a perfect springboard for melodically accessible, harmonically rich & rhythmically infectious music. The group features some of NYC's best young jazz musicians in a unique setting, including Sara Caswell on violin, Rob Mosher on soprano sax & oboe, and Erica vonKleist on saxophone and flute. A passionate educator, Michael continues to serve as musical director of United Rhythms & Visions, a New Jersey-based arts agency bringing music, art & drama to inner-city schools. He has over ten years of experience teaching private lessons in saxophone, clarinet, flute, composition, arranging, jazz theory & improvisation. For more about Michael, visit www.OneManMusic.com.

Other saxophone/woodwind players who can teach in your home:
Laura Dreyer
Oscar Feldman

Trumpet

Peck Allmond - Trumpet

Listen to Peck:
"Dr. Strange"
Neighborhood: Sunset Park, Brooklyn
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Ages taught: ages 7-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: saxophone, clarinet, flute, kalimba
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Peck.

Peck Allmond is a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Brooklyn, NY. His primary instruments are trumpet, flute, and tenor sax; and he doubles fluently on a long list of other brass and woodwinds including clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute, piccolo, mellophone, peckhorn, euphonium, sousaphone, and soprano, alto, and baritone saxophones. He also plays the kalimba, a beautiful harplike thumb-piano related to the mbira, to which he brings an unusual degree of virtuosity. Peck has performed and/or recorded with Me'Shell NdegeOcello's Spirit Music Sextet, Oliver Lake, Peter Apfelbaum, Don Cherry, Julius Hemphill, John Hicks, Rickie Lee Jones, Rufus Wainwright, Ray Lamontagne, Sean Lennon, Will Lee, Randy Newman, Lenny Kravitz, and James Brown; and leads his own units, the Peck Allmond Group and Kalimba Kollective. His compositions were performed by the late jazz legend Jackie McLean in McLean's quintet. Peck studied classical and jazz trumpet at New England Conservatory of Music with Robert Nagel and John McNeil from 1980-82, and earned his B.A. in Music from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1986. He has also studied trumpet and saxophone at intensive jazz workshops in Banff, Alberta, Canada; Naropa Institute, Boulder CO; and Creative Music Studios, Woodstock, NY; with Dave Liebman, Steve Coleman, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Cecil Taylor, Charlie Haden, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. He has taught privately, in schools, and at numerous jazz camps for close to three decades. Since 2005, Peck has been the trumpet clinician for the Monterey Jazz Festival's "Traveling Clinician" program. For more about Peck, visit www.PeckAllmond.com.

Dan Blankinship - Trumpet

Listen to Dan: "I Love France"
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adv
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Dan Blankinship.

Dan Blankinship is a soulful and versatile trumpet player, composer, and educator. Born and raised in Richmond, VA, he started playing the trumpet at age 11. Over the next several years he was selected for numerous regional and state-wide honor bands, leading him attend the Interlochen Arts Camp and Boston University Tanglewood Institute summer programs while in high school. Dan continued his musical education at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he stayed for two years immersed in classical music. At this point Dan decided to abandon a 'legit' musical career and took a two-year break from school to join the funk band Jay Jay. In 1999 he then moved to NYC to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where he completed his BFA. His next stop on the formal education circuit was to earn an MA from the Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music. Dan is a proud member of The Flail, a cooperative jazz quintet that has been playing and composing together since 2001; they have released three albums, toured France several times, and regularly perform such venues as Blues Alley, Smalls, Chris' Jazz Cafe, and Fat Cat. He also freelances with small combos and big bands in styles ranging from modern to traditional jazz and son cubano to salsa. Some of these groups are the Fat Cat Big Band, Tip Top, Harbor Conservatory Latin Big Band, Lapis Luna, Ray Rivera con Sabor Latino, Conjunto Guantanamo, and the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn. He has shared the stage with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Jon Faddis, Candido, Lenny Pickett, Johnny Griffin, Junior Mance, George Garzone, Jose Madera, Curtis Fuller, Ray Santos, Cyro Baptista, and Eek-A-Mouse. In addition to his private studio, Dan has been a teacher for Education Through Music, Bronx Lab School, Bronx Charter School for the Arts, and the Litchfield Jazz Festival Summer Music School. For more about Dan, visit www.TheFlail.com.

Trombone

Mike Fahie - Trombone

Listen to Mike:
"The Journey"
Neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: piano (from age 5), composition
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Mike Fahie.

Trombonist and composer Mike Fahie has been active performing and writing music in New York since 2000. A native of Ottawa, Canada, Mike began his professional career in Montreal, performing and touring with many great musicians, including Ranee Lee, Vic Vogel, and Jesus "El Nino" Alejandro. Mike moved to New York to pursue his Master's Degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with legendary jazz trombonist Conrad Herwig, and becoming the first ever Canadian Fulbright Scholar in the field of Jazz. While at MSM, Mike and fellow Montrealer Billy Bouffard formed the sextet Utopia. They were invited to perform at the inaugural Carnegie Hall Jazz Workshop, an event that culminated in a highlight performance at Carnegie Hall in 2002. Shortly after finishing his Master's Degree, Mike was selected as a finalist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trombone Competition. Mike is a member of the Gramercy Brass Orchestra of New York, the renowned contemporary music ensemble Continuum, Pedro Giraudo's "Mr. Vivo Big Band", the Paul Carlon octet, Darcy James Argue's "Secret Society", and others. Mike has performed and toured with other renowned jazz artists, such as John McNeil, Ken Peplowski, Ingrid Jensen, Donny McCaslin, Jon Cowherd, John Ellis and others. For more about Mike, visit www.MikeFahie.com.

Other trombone players who can teach in your home:
Joe Beaty
Jeff Fairbanks

Guitar

Brad Shepik - Guitar

Listen to Brad: "Lima"
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 5-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: bass
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Brad.

Guitarist and composer Brad Shepik has performed at jazz festivals across Europe and North America since 1991 both as a leader of his own groups and with Paul Motian, Dave Douglas, Joey Baron, Charlie Haden, Bob Brookmeyer, Carla Bley and many others. He regularly performs with Brad Shepik Trio, Human Activity Suite, Joey Baron's Killer Joey, Simon Shaheen's Quantara, Matt Darriau's Paradox Trio, Pachora and others. His most recent recording is "Human Activity Suite" (Songlines 2009). Brad holds a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance/Composition and has taught workshops and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and Europe. Brad has also taught guitar at City College, Long Island University, New England Conservatory, the New School, The School for Improvisational Music and currently teaches guitar, ensembles and world music at New York University. For more about Brad, visit www.BradShepik.com.

Russ Spiegel - Guitar

Listen to Russ: "Chimera"
Neighborhood: Greenpoint, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 5-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Russ.

Guitarist and composer Russ Spiegel was born in Los Angeles, and raised in Santa Monica, California. While in high school he moved with his family to Germany and traversed back and forth between there and the US for a number of years. While in Europe, he established himself as an award-winning, in-demand musician, touring the Continent with various ensembles, performing at well-known Jazz festivals, and appearing on numerous television and radio shows. In 2001, Russ returned to the US, settling in the mecca of New York and quickly found himself busy on the music scene. Alongside performing - from solo guitar to running his ensemble The Russ Spiegel Jazz Orchestra (a 17-piece band featuring Russ's compositions and arrangements) Ð Russ is a commissioned composer who has released several CDs, written music for film, TV, and musicals, toured Europe and Asia, taught college-level courses, run workshops & seminars, given private instruction, and has copied music for Broadway shows and major-label recordings, as well as having appeared in a number of feature movies as both a musician and actor. Russ has also worked the last four years as the on-set music instructor for the hit Nickelodeon TV show, "The Naked Brothers Band." Russ received his Bachelor's Degree at the University of Michigan, majoring in Philosophy, studied Composition, Arranging and Guitar Performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship, and went on to get his Masters degree in Jazz Performance at the City College of New York, under the aegis of world-renowned bassist, composer and educator John Pattitucci. For more about Russ, visit www.RussGuitar.com.

Other guitar players who can teach in your home:
Alejandro Florez
Sten Hostfalt
Andre Matos

Piano

Randy Ingram - Piano

Listen to Randy:
"For No One"
"The Road Ahead"
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 5-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Randy.

Randy Ingram is a thoughtful, versatile young pianist, composer and improviser, with an expressive touch and a keen imagination. Since moving to Brooklyn in the fall of 2003 he has become an in-demand sideman and band leader and gained a reputation as one of the most promising up-and-coming pianists of his generation. His debut record, "The Road Ahead", will be released this October on the Brooklyn Jazz Underground label, and features his trio of Matt Clohesy (bass) and Jochen Rueckert (drums), as well as special guest John Ellis (saxophones). Originally from Laguna Beach, CA, Randy received a scholarship to the University of Southern California and quickly became a fixture on the Los Angeles jazz scene, apprenticing with Tierney Sutton, Joe LaBarbera and the great Billy Higgins. Upon graduating, he received another scholarship to get his Masters' degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA, where he studied with his two mentors, Fred Hersch and Danilo Perez. Upon arriving in NYC he has recorded and performed with Ben Monder, Kate McGarry, Joel Frahm, Joe Locke, Mike Moreno and Kendrick Scott. He has performed at many of the best jazz clubs in the country, including Birdland, the Jazz Standard, Regattabar and the Catalina Bar and Grill. He is a recipient of the 2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer's award. An experienced educator, Randy has given numerous college clinics, has taught at the University of New Hampshire, and is currently on the faculty of the Larchmont Music Academy. For more about Randy, visit www.myspace.com/randyingram.

Sean Wayland - Piano

Listen to Sean: "Countdown"
Neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 4-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Sean.

"If you took the names of Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings or Joey Calderazzo, [Sean Wayland] is a player of the same high caliber." - All About Jazz

Pianist Sean Wayland Sean Wayland was born in Sydney, Australia, and currently resides in New York. He is well known and respected for his prolific writing, and unique harmony and rhythm. He has had 20 years experience as a teacher of all ages and styles of piano, including early elementary through college age students and adults. Sean studied jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 1992 and 1993. He also has a Masters degree in contemporary music performance from the Australian Institute of Music . While at the Conservatorium he received the Jack Chrostowski piano award. In 1993 he was a finalist in the National Jazz Piano Awards at the Wangaratta Festival. In 1999 Sean received a grant from the Australia Council to study jazz piano in New York which helped him to relocate there. Sean has worked with a number of internationally renowned musicians including Madeliene Peyroux, Keith Carlock, Tim Lefebvre, Adam Rogers Tim Miller, Ingrid Jensen, Jon Gordon, Dave Smith, Dan Pratt, Ike Sturm, Matt Geraghty, The Dangit-Bobbys, Moses Patrou, Cornell Dupree, Jesse Harris, and Sheryl Bailey. Sean has released over 14 critically acclaimed CDs, and he has performed in many countries including U.S.A, China, Japan, England, Germany , Hong Kong and New Zealand under his own name. In 2004, with his trio, Sean made the first instructional jazz DVD produced in China by foreigners. He has appeared on numerous other jazz releases including albums by David Binney, Elana Stone, Tim Hopkins, Banana, John Mackie and Nick McBride and Luca Benedetti. Sean's compositions and arrangements have been recorded by James Muller, Lily Dior, The Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, Matt McMahon, etc. For more about Sean, visit www.SeanWayland.com.

Other piano players who can teach in your home:
Gabriel Guerrero

Bass

David Ambrosio - Bass, Afro/Cuban Bata

Listen to David: "Hi Beck"
Neighborhood: UWS, Manhattan (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with David.

For more about NYJA's Afro/Cuban Bata Drumming Workshops, click here.

Bassist and Bata drummer David Ambrosio, originally from the New York area, has been a vital component of New York's Jazz scene for more than 15 years. Since the start of his career in New York City David has played with an extensive list of jazz greats such as pianist Kenny Werner, legendary vibraphone/clarinet duo Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco, George Garzone, Joseph Jarmon and Ralph Alessi. David has toured and recorded with many groups that he is an integral part of including George Schuller's Circle Wide, the Matt Renzi Trio, Eri Yamamoto Trio, Vinnie Sperrazza Trio, Grupo Los Santos, Deanna Witkowski Quartet, Eric Rasmussen's School of Tristano, Adriano Santos Quintet, Rob Garcia's Sangha, the Schumacher/Sanford Sound Assembly and the BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra led by Jim McNeely and Michael Abene. In 2001, while on tour in Cuba with Grupo Los Santos and Max Pollack's Rumbatap, David had the opportunity to work with Afro/Cuban folkloric music and dance ensembles. During that experience his interest and study of Afro/Cuban folkloric music, culture and Bata drumming began and, consequently, has become quite active in NYC's Latin music scene. As an educator Mr. Ambrosio has had much experience over the years. Since 1997 David has been on faculty at the Queens College Center for Preparatory Studies in Music where he teaches young developing artists in both Jazz and Classical genres. David was also among the first clinicians to work for the Colden Center's City High School Jazz Residency Program, now known as the Kupferberg Performance Center, where he continues to share his music in NYC public schools where students have very little opportunity to explore Jazz music. On numerous occasions David has toured in Central and South East Asia on behalf of the US State Department as a performer and clinician. David has a Bachelor degree in Classical Composition from Manhattan School of Music and Master's degree in Jazz Performance from Queens College. For more about David, visit www.myspace.com/davidambrosio.

Adam Bernstein - Bass

Listen to Adam:
"Perk Up (for Walter Perkins)"
Neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: guitar
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Adam Bernstein.

"..regardless of format, Adam Bernstein is a brilliant tunesmith whose colorful vibes blind the shady music industry." - Home News

An accomplished composer, arranger and educator as well as bassist, Adam Bernstein led the successful folk/rock/klezmer/funk 14-piece big band All God's Children for six years. The Aquarian Weekly (NJ) named Adam "Best Bassist" and the band "Best Band" in 1993. He later performed and/or recorded with a wide range of talented musicians and dancers, including Levon Helm, Sahib Shihab, Perry Robinson, Walter Perkins, Ethel (string quartet), Teocinte (from El Salvador), Jack Hardy, Claire Daly, The Angstones, Solar, David Driver, Sean Altman and Jennifer Muller/The Works. In 1990 Adam toured Japan with Hilario Soto's Higher Culture, and in 1993 studied percussion at the Escuela Nacional De Danzaq Moderna Y Folklorica in Havana, Cuba. As a composer and arranger, Adam co-arranged the score for a television program on Groucho Marx that aired on the A&E network's popular series "Biography." He has composed many scores for dance, performed at Columbia and Rutgers universities as well as other performances spaces. In 1998, while continuing to perform and record, Adam turned his attention toward jazz education. He recently ended his tenure as jazz director at the Berkeley-Carroll School in Brooklyn, NY and worked on the faculty at Jazz at Lincoln Center. He received a proclamation for his outstanding work in jazz education from Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz on June 3, 2005. Adam Bernstein will be performing as part of The Laurie Berkner Band on the new season of NOGGIN's "Jack's Big Music Show." Adam played bass on Laurie Berkner's first three award-winning and critically acclaimed releases, 1997's 'Whaddaya Think Of That?', 1998's 'Buzz Buzz,' 1999's 'Victor Vito,' and 2008's 'Rocketship Run'. For more about Adam, visit www.Adam-Bernstein.com.

Howard Britz - Bass

Listen to Howard: "Yaakology"
Neighborhood: Flatbush/Ditmas Park, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: piano (from age 5)
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Howard.

Bassist and composer Howard Britz grew up in London, England. He has performed and recorded with a many influential musicians including; bebop vocal legends Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross, Latin Jazz greats Danilo Perez & Paquito de Rivera, important Jazz artist such as Sam Rivers, Julius Hemphill, Kenny Werner, Uri Caine, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Kenny Wheeler and Tim Garland. The breadths of his musical influences in the Jazz, Latin, R&B and Gospel fields can be heard in his playing and compositions. Arriving in America in 1991 on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, one of his first gigs was with Billy Pierce, the ex-Art Blakey tenor man. He received a Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1995. In 1995 he overshot New York and moved to Philadelphia, PA for, as he puts it, "romantic reasons." "I learned so much playing with the wonderful Philly musicians of the older and younger generations such as Mickey Roker, Sid Simmons, Uri Caine and John Swana, and the many soulful jazz/Blues vocalists--it was a great scene." Residing in New York since 1998, Howard has continued to play, record and teach. As a leader he has 3 CDs out under his own name 'The Future, The Past,' 'Made in Brooklyn,' and most recently, 'Here I Stand.' In 2008 he took his band on tour to England to great audiences and excellent reviews. He received a BFA in Music & Education, summa cum laude from The City College in 2005. "My goal is to be a contemporary player conversant with what's going on now but always in touch with the roots of jazz and Latin music, i.e. it's really important to groove and for things to feel good." For more about Howard, visit www.HowardBritz.com.

Bennett Huxley Miller - Bass

Listen to Bennett: "I Can't Help It"
Neighborhood: Bushwick, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Bennett.

Bassist Bennett Huxley Miller began his professional career as a bassist twelve years ago at the age of 16 in his native Cincinnati, Ohio. Having studied a diverse range of instruments including the bodhran (an Irish drum), the marimba, and the saxophone, he began studying the electric bass at the age of twelve. Bennett quickly found a deep love for the instrument and its role in varying musical styles. After studying upright bass for less than two years, he was given a merit scholarship to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Here, he earned both his Bachelors and MasterÕs degree in jazz bass performance. During this time from 1999 to 2006, Bennett studied closely with many great jazz musicians including Dave Holland, Danilo Perez, Cecil McBee, John Lockwood, Billy Hart, Herb Pomeroy, and Bob Moses. In 2004, he began composing an all-original repertoire for his project, the Bennett Miller Band. This group played frequently in venues around the New England and New York areas. In 2006, the BMB was selected to participate in the third annual Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Sessions, which provided the opportunity to perform and work closely with a team of world-renowned musicians including bassist Christian McBride and his band. Despite gaining a reputation as a top call bassist and teacher in the Boston area, in October of 2006 Bennett moved to Brooklyn, NY. During this time, he continued touring nationally as founding bassist of two-time Boston Music Award winning Afro-Pop group, The Superpowers, and began touring nationally and internationally with EMI artist Julian Velard. 2007 was a significant year; Bennett and two colleagues started the production company Glass Eye Music. Since its inception, Bennett has co-scored and produced the music soundtrack for a full length documentary, co-produced and released four albums, and worked as a bassist, audio engineer, and producer on many others. Also in 2007 Bennett joined the faculty of the Urban Assembly School of Music and Art, an inner city charter high school in downtown Brooklyn. Since then he has been teaching band class as well as instruction on guitar, bass, and drums to full classes of high school students. In 2008 he joined the faculty of the AbronÕs Art Center as private bass instructor. Bennett can currently be seen performing regularly in the NYC area with diverse array of bands covering musical genres including jazz, R&B, afrobeat, pop, and rock. For more about Bennett, visit www.myspace.com/bennettmillerband.

Reid Taylor - Bass

Listen to Reid: "I Love France"

Neighborhood: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Reid.

Bassist Reid Taylor has been active on the New York jazz scene for the past ten years. After studying with legendary bassist Butch Warren in Washington D.C. during his formative years, Reid moved to New York and subsequently received a BFA in Music Performance from the New School for Social Research. During this time he studied with Dennis Irwin and played extensively around New York City. He has played in The Flail (jazz quintet based in New York) for the past nine years appearing at Carnegie Hall, Blues Alley, Smalls, Sweet Rhythm, Marseille Jazz Festival, and the Vienne Jazz Festival. Several of his compositions have also been recorded by The Flail and are featured on the past two albums. In addition to The Flail, Reid has performed with Cecil Payne, Grant and Phil Stewart, Sacha Perry, Spike Wilner, George Garzone, and Charles Gayle among others. He appears weekly at the Fat Cat with tenor saxophonist Ned Goold.For more about Reid, visit www.TheFlail.com.

Other bass players who can teach in your home:
Michael Feinberg

Drums/Percussion

Richie Barshay - Drums/Percussion

Listen to Richie:
"Solo"
Neighborhood: Flatbush/Ditmas Park, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 8-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Richie.

Drummer and percussionist Richie Barshay, most noted as a member of the Herbie Hancock Quartet since 2003, has established himself as a prominent musical voice of his generation. Regarded as "a player to watch" by JazzTimes magazine, he maintains a busy international schedule with some of today's top artists including Hancock, The Klezmatics, Kenny Werner and Chick Corea among others. In September of 2004 he was named an American Musical Envoy by the U.S. State Department, along with the renowned Latin-Jazz ensemble Insight. Now based in New York City after 5 years on the Boston music scene, Richie began playing Jazz and Afro-Latin music during his youth and has expanded his focus to Indian rhythmic concepts and tabla, inspiring his 2005 recording debut "Homework" and the launching of his new band, The Richie Barshay Project. For more about Richie, visit www.RichieBarshay.com.

Kim Garey - Drums

Listen to Kim:
"Sugar"
NNeighborhood: Flatbush/Ditmas Park, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 5-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Secondary instruments taught: piano (from age 4)
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Kim.

Drummer Kim Garey has been has been studying, teaching, and performing on the instrument since age 10. She began to study music privately, then in her middle school and high school band and jazz band program, and then went on to study percussion and composition at Wichita State University. Kim graduated Summa Cum Laude with a double Bachelor's in Percussion Performance and Music Composition, and her Master's in Music Composition. She has studied with such drum greats as John Riley, Joe Morello, Michael Spiro, Matt Wilson, Steve Houghton, and Allison Miller. A native of Kansas, she moved to the New York City Metro Area in March of 2006 and has been busy performing since she arrived. Since moving to NYC, she has performed with legendary jazz masters such as Don Braden, Junior Mance, and Tim Price. She is performing regularly with the Tim Price/Ryan Anselmi Tenor Maddness Ensemble, the Gina Fox Band, Paprika, and the Ryan Anselmi Quartet. As well as performing, Kim has been teaching professionally for the past 10 years. She has taught private piano and drum lessons as well as group study. Her students have ranged from beginning to advanced with a large age range of 5-70 years! Kim is passionate about spreading music education and awareness and enjoys watching students' music appreciation and understanding grow through her lessons. For more about Kim, visit www.myspace.com/kimgarey.

Other drum/percussion players who can teach in your home:
Pete Zimmer

Voice

Other vocalists who can teach in your home:
Sofia Rei Koutsovitis

Other

Darcy James Argue - Composition/Arranging

Listen to Darcy: "Transit"
Neighborhood: Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (will travel)
View interactive map.
Ages taught: ages 10-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Darcy.

Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based composer Darcy James Argue leads Secret Society, a "powerful and well-stocked ensemble" (New York Times) featuring his "ambitious, sprawling, mesmerizing" music (Montreal Gazette). Secret Society is an 18-piece steampunk bigband that evokes an alternate musical history, one in which the dance orchestras that ruled the Swing Era never went extinct, but continued to evolve with the times, remaining a vital part of the musical landscape straight through the present day. Argue's compositions bring together "a big, broad musical vocabulary" (New York Times), one which invokes "Duke Ellington and minimalism and Tortoise and Funkadelic and Elliott Carter and much else besides melding into one floating, shifting, dodging music" (Carl Wilson, zoilus.com). Secret Society's debut recording, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam Records), was released in May 2009 to near-universal acclaim. Newsweek praised it as "a wholly original take on big band's past, present and future," Time Out New York awarded it five stars and proclaimed it "a seven-track marvel of imagination," and the BBC called it "[a] nearly perfect creative synthesis between tradition and innovation." For more about Darcy, visit www.SecretSociety.typepad.com.

Art Bailey - Accordian

Listen to Art: "Octopants"
Neighborhood: Kensington/Ditmas Park, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 12-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Art.

Accordionist and composer Art Bailey is active in the improvised and world music scenes, and has appeared with such diverse musical performers as jazz saxophonist Steve Lacy, classical violinist Itzhak Perlman, and renowned bluegrass musician Del McCoury. Art was the pianist with the Klezmer Conservatory Band for 10 years, contributing new arrangements to the band's repertoire and making stage and television appearances worldwide. Since moving to New York in 2003, Art has performed with many of the major participants of the downtown klezmer scene including David Krakauer, Frank London, and Alicia Svigals. Recent sideman duties include singer/songwriter Avi Fox-RosenÕs new cd, "Welcome to the Show," and trumpeter Steve Gluzband's celebrated release "Hot House--A Cuban Tribute to Charlie Parker." Also, look for an album soon to be released by klezmer rising star and polyglot violinist Jake Shulman-Ment. In addition to his activities as a pianist and accordionist in jazz, rock, world and latin music, Art is the leader of Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar, an exciting quintet that explores the Romanian side of Jewish music, and the recently formed piano trio Riboflavin, featuring bassist Michael Bates and drummer Owen Howard. For more about Art, visit www.ArtBailey.org.

Miles Okazaki - Improv/Theory-Composition

Listen to Miles: "Momentum"
Neighborhood: Prospect Park, Brooklyn (will travel)
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Ages taught: ages 12-adult
Levels taught: beg-adv
Send us an email letting us know that you want to study with Miles.

Guitarist, theorist, and composer Miles Okazaki grew up in the Pacific Northwest, in the small waterfront town of Port Townsend, Washington. The son of a painter and photographer, he began his studies of the visual arts at a young age. He began to teach himself guitar at age 6, and by the time he was a teenager, he had already won many awards and notoriety as a local jazz guitarist in the Northwest. After graduating from Harvard University, Okazaki moved to New York to attend Manhattan School of Music, where he met his first teacher, Rodney Jones. He began to gain local attention, playing in New York and taking first place at the Fish-Middleton Jazz Competition in Washington, D.C. Working with Jones after graduation, he learned how to arrange and prepare recording sessions, and fundamentals of the music business, working with artists such as Donald Harrison, Ernestine Anderson, Ruth Brown, Jimmy McGriff, and Lena Horne. He also began to pick up sideman work, with Regina Carter, Stanley Turrentine, Lenny Pickett, Allan Harris, and vocalist Jane Monheit, who he toured the world with for four years. During this time, he undertook intensive studies of Brazilian and South Indian musical traditions. In 2005 he entered the Thelonious Monk Guitar Competition, and with the prize money from his finish as a finalist, he recorded his debut album, Mirror, which had taken five years to compose. It was released in 2007 to great critical acclaim, called "a work of sustained collectivity as well as deep intricacy" in a New York Times "Critics Pick." The writing on this record won Okazaki a prestigious "New Works" grant from Chamber Music America, which funded his second extended work as a leader, Generations, released by Sunnyside records in the Spring of 2009. This album is received similar praise; Downbeat Magazine wrote: "Rarely does even a minute elapse on Generations where the emphatic first impression that the composer has a rare acuity for form, rhythm and harmonic movement is not reinforced. Ditto that for Okazaki's skills as a guitarist." Currently Okazaki is working on several grants and commissions, and performs with his own ensembles, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Dan Weiss, Jen Shyu, and a variety of projects. For more about Miles, visit www.MilesOkazaki.com.

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