castofcharacters

Josh began playing the guitar at the age of 12. By 17 he had formed his own band, and was playing jazz, rock, and blues music in local clubs. With a scholarship to Northern Illinois University he studied jazz, guitar, and music theory. After two years he transfered to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to study fingerstyle guitar. In Milwaukee Josh taught lessons and played with various musical groups touring through the midwest. In 2006 Josh moved to Austin and began playing locally with The Receivers. After playing the 2008 South By Southwest festival Josh recorded an album with The Receivers and toured the east coast. Josh continues to perform regularly in Austin and plans to do more recording in the future. Josh has been teaching guitar for over eight years and is very happy to share his skills and knowledge to students of all levels.

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.

Sabrina was raised in a musical home and, influenced by her guitarist father and very musical mother, began to play guitar at a very young age. By the time she was 11 she was hooked and had begun to teach herself a variety of songs. When she was 16 she enrolled in an elementary guitar class at Modesto Junior College in Modesto, California, under the instruction of David Chapman. Although she knew how to play guitar and how to read music, Dr. Chapman helped her bring those elements together in a classical guitar format and inspired her to pursue classical guitar training.

Sabrina began teaching guitar during her late teens and has had students ranging in age from 3 to 83. She has played for a variety of audiences and venues including school functions and community events; her most nerve-wracking performance was during a master class for David Tannenbaum, whose excellent concert she had just attended the previous evening.

Her professional training includes guitar theory and technique/pedagogy training with Dr. Chapman, and a two-week Suzuki teacher-training workship with Frank Longay, of the Longay Guitar Conservatory in Santa Clara, California.

Sabrina graduated summa cum laude in 2008 with a dual degree in Music (emphasis guitar) and Bible & Theology from William Jessup University in Rocklin, California under the supervision of Tom Ruscica and Liz Stanley. Her musical interests include classical and worship music, and an ecclectic mix of oldies, jazz and rock, and she is fascinated by the intersection of music and culture, and the role that music plays in human interaction.

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.