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Brian has divided his time in music between performance and teaching. From the early age of 15, Brian has taught music at music stores in Chicago. As a performer, Brian has shared the stage with legendary jazz greats like Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis, Blue Lou Merini, Karyn Allison, Maynard Ferguson, and many others. One of his High School highlights was performing at Lincoln Center in NY with his High School Jazz Ensemble where he soloed on guitar in front of an audience of thousands including Wynton Marsalis.
His studies under John Scofield(Miles Davis,Medeski Martin & Wood), Bobby Broome (Dr. John, Sonny Rollins) and Fareed Haque (Sting, Paquito D’Rivera, Garaj Mahal) helped him to achieve top honors at numerous competitions as well as a full Performing Arts Scholarship to Northern Illinois University outside Chicago, ranked in the top five music schools in the world by US News and World Report.
As a high school student, Brian performed as the top guitar chair in the Elgin Community College jazz orchestra from his Sophomore through Senior years. Brian was ranked #1 All-State High School Jazz Guitarist in the State of Illinois both his junior and senior year. Competing against hundreds of other High School Jazz Guitarists Brian won 1st in site reading & jazz improvisation which earned him the top spot in the elite jazz ensemble each year.
Upon arriving in Dallas, Brian quickly became involved with singer-songwriter, James Dumaine. This opened the door to the Dallas Sound Labs (known for recording greats such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Destiny’s Child, Erica Badu & many more) where Brian received a Degree in Sound Engineering and Music Business.
The Degree he received from The Dallas Sound Labs has allowed him to monitor not only his own recordings but to record local bands in his home studio. One of these bands, KINGFISH, has been stirring up the indie/rock scene in the DFW area winning local Battle of The Bands and finishing in the top 10 out of 300 bands in the Dallas Music Fest.
Now he is turning the page and joining the Austin music scene. His love of music ranges from Jazz, Rock, Blues, Reggae, Electronic, Metal, Country, and Classical, has allowed him for 12 years, to pass on his knowledge to students ranging from 6 to 60 years old. Brian still finds time to perform on a weekly basis at local events, including performing for the ambassador of Ethiopia. You can also hear him perform every Saturday night at the Blue Dahlia Bistro on East 11th street.
Brian Broderick -
Senior Instructor for guitar and bass
Matt studied guitar and received a B.S. in Worship Arts from Corban College in 2007. Matt has played guitar 8 years and bass guitar for 6 years. Matt's musical endeavors have include giving private lessons, playing in several bands, working in studios as a producer, engineer and session player, as well as leading church music programs.
Currently Matt lives in Round Rock with his wife Joanie. Their first child is very special to them and will turn 1 in October.
Jesse has been teaching rock, folk and classical guitar at various schools and studios in California and Texas for the past 3 years.
In addition to his years of self-study and performing with working rock, metal, punk, reggae and bluegrass bands, Jesse also has a master's degree in music composition from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received a bachelors degree from the same school, also in music, with a focus on classical guitar performance. At UCSC, he studied under Mesut Ozgen, a renowned classical performer, and while there he taught classical guitar as well several undergraduate theory courses.
Jesse has also studied world music, and has traveled to Asia and performed with local folk musicians there. A piece he composed for guitar and gayageum (a Korean string instument) had it's premiere performance at a national folk festival in Seoul, South Korea.
…dedicated to guiding students to succeed while inspiring a passion for music…
As a rising young performer, teacher, and recording artist with an original sound, and style, Thomas uses his unique talent on the violin to excel in everything from traditional fiddle tunes, classical arrangements, and pure originals. He has four solo records to his name, as well as countless collaboration's with the likes of: Gabe Nieto(County/Latin), Allen Cote & Tomato Junction(Folk), Myriam Di Maio(Italy,EU/Film Scoring), Cullin Lane(Country), Mychael John Thomas (RCA Records, Nashville, TN and Thomastone Records, Nashville, TN), The Sieker Band(Bluegrass), Moonlight Society(Jazz), Alice Joy Lewis(Classical).
When Thomas is not teaching, he loves the joys of performing or recording on a regular basis. Thomas structures the lessons to meet the goals of the student while at the same time focusing on sound fundamentals of the instrument and musicianship.
Drew has been drumming since 1995 and has been involved in all aspects of music ranging from formal training to garage band. Public school music education included concert in middle school, marching and jazz band in high school and jazz performance at University of Texas. Work experience includes giving private drum instruction since 2003. Employed by rock music camp-Day Jams Drew was instrumental in getting young musicians or students with no musical ability to write music and perform as a group within a 5 day period. Drew has a natural ability to tap into a young persons creative and musical side. Drew is actively performing as a drummer at local venues in the Austin area with various artists. Drew is experienced in teaching all styles of music.
Susanna Silvestro has studied piano since the age of 5, and has been fortunate to study with the late Professor Danielle Martin at the University of Texas. Susanna has her Bachelor’s Degree in music for the University of Texas and has taught piano and voice for 7 years. She enjoys working with people and uses her patience and perceptiveness to communicate music to others. Susanna is a church musician and was a member of the University of Texas Longhorn Singers and also attended Berklee College of Music studying jazz and popular music. Susanna hopes to be a recording artist in the future.
