director, supporter/facilitator
Maria
loves kids, and is thrilled by the opportunity to create, for Beyond
Rockers, the kind of empowering, memorable, and fun-filled musical experience
that she would have loved as a kid! She sees Beyond Rock as a place to
not only develop young musicians, but a supportive community where kids
can find their voice, go past their fears, and experience self esteem
that they will carry throughout their lives.
Maria
brings a diverse background from the fields of business and administration
as well as the fields of arts and education. After graduating cum laude
in Computer Engineering, working as a design engineer, and, eventually,
as a technology consultant and project manager at Anderson Consulting,
Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank, she left the corporate world to found
a charter school serving over 200 Bronx children. She was involved in
all aspects of school design and implementation. In the "after hours"
of her corporate life, she participated in over 80 classes, conferences,
and workshops, developing herself in areas of singing, music, acting,
dance, personal growth, leadership, facilitation and more. She has performed
in numerous theatrical productions, sung with bands and at many public
events, and facilitated workshops in schools and at conferences.
guitar, keyboards, songwriting, drums, vocals, midi, computer-based musical software and equipment
Michael
Russo has been an outstanding music teacher at Garden City Middle and
High Schools for the past 17 years. Over this time, he has transformed
the General Music class into an innovative and exciting Electronic Music
program featuring fun and educational music software with midi keyboards,
guitars, and electronic drums. In his classes, students have found laughter,
learning, encouragement, and love for music as they've played and performed
in bands.
Prior
to coming to the Garden City Schools, Michael toured for three years as
a guitarist, vocalist and keyboard player in his own rock band, The Eccentrix.
Michael holds a BA in music from Brooklyn College, majoring in classical
guitar, and a MS in Music Education from the Aaron Copeland School of
Music at Queens College. Michael brings a true passion for music, a gift
for teaching, and a compelling playful personality that kids love.
guitar guru, jamming, workshops
With a rare level of skill and talent that ranks with the top guitar players in the music industry, we are lucky to have Mike Ainbinder at Beyond Rock. In over 20 years of experience as a working guitarist and gifted teacher, he’s played with several highly accomplished Long Island bands spanning the musical styles of rock, pop, jazz, blues, and country.
Inspired by the playing of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Steve Howe, Eddie van Halen, and Pat Metheny, Mike picked up a guitar at a yard sale at age twelve and never looked back. Practicing up to twelve (yes, twelve) hours every day, Mike has developed his own unique style incorporating rock, blues, jazz, and country. Students come from all over the tri-state area to study with him and have great things to say about his lessons. With a fun, encouraging style, he teaches them reading, theory, ear training, improvisation, technique, songwriting, and more.
Currently, Mike plays with a variety of musical projects and has over 35 students on his private roster.
vocals, guitar, keyboards, rock band, workshops
Having sung with the New York Philharmonic, played/recorded/toured with several bands in several genres, and spent the better part of his adult life teaching music to youth, Chris Murphy brings a wealth of experience to Beyond Rock.
Chris earned his B.M. in Music Education from Westminster Choir College and, as a certified music teacher, has taught music and directed choirs at in NYC public schools Brooklyn for the past four years. There he developed an innovative music program where students learn about and sing songs by artists as diverse Charles Ives, Stevie Wonder, Green Day, John Denver, Saint-Saens, Talib Kweli, Stravinsky, and Frank Zappa.
In addition to his teaching, Chris still finds the time to maintain an active life as a composer, performer, songwriter, arranger, and studio musician. With both his folk group, The Whistlin' Wolves, his “country-fried soul carnival”, The Randy Bandits, and any other number of musical projcts, "Murph" spends most of his “spare” time playing guitar, bass (electric and upright), keys, drums, and singing on stages and in studios throughout the New York metropolitan area.
guitar, bass, keyboards, rock band, workshops
Spiff Wiegand performs on over 15 instruments, though not all at once. Besides having a degree in Classical Guitar, he plays many fretted and bowed strings (banjo, fiddle, ukulele...), a handful of wind instruments (trumpet, saxophone, recorders...), percussion (drumset, frame drums, hambone...), as well as a few random axes (accordion, didgeridoo, jew's harp...). His songs are performed around New York City by 3 different groups in 3 different syles. In order to satisfy his Kentucky roots, he writes for American folk devotees Whistling Rufus (www.myspace.com/whistlingrufus).
He pens high-energy and high volume firecrackers with power trio The New (www.myspace.com/thenewmusic), and does a bit of genre-hopping with an ear towards pop through his solo project. He is also a multi-instrumentalist Brooklyn favorites The Randy Bandits.
When Spiff is not performing, he is an educator, producer, recording engineer, actor, all-around helpful guy, and anything else he needs to be to stay in the black. He is also an avid reader, traveller, and cyclist.
guitar, workshops
Matt Klein began his guitar studies when he was fourteen years old. Some of his teachers over the years have included Paul Marino, Mark Marino, Lynn McGrath, Harris Becker, and Richie Iacona. He graduated from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education. During those four years he developed a hunger for playing and teaching music. He spent countless hours shedding in the practice rooms and he jumped on every playing opportunity that he could get his hands on.
Matt is a graduate student at C.W. Post majoring in theory and composition. This year he was awarded Outstanding Performance in Guitar Studies. He is currently working as the Graduate Assistant for Professor T.K. Blue; the Director of Jazz Studies, and Professor Harris Becker; the Director of Guitar Studies. At Post, he directs his own jazz combo (The M.K. 6ix) and performs frequently as a solo classical and jazz guitarist. He is also a member of the jazz ensemble, guitar ensemble, chorus, Madrigal Singers, and the Symphonic Band (on clarinet).
guitar, recording studio, workshops
Mike, is a musician and educator who has performed and taught around the country and the world. He is currently teaching electronic music, composition and theory as well as music history in the Freeport Public School System on Long Island, New York. It was there he founded the Freeport Guitar Club and the Freeport Electronic Music Ensemble. Mike can also be heard performing in various pit orchestras, wedding bands, the R&B band “Shaken not Stirred”, as well as various duos and open jam sessions.
An accomplished photographer, videographer and diehard proponent and user of all things Apple, Mike has also taught Video Editing and 3D Animation to students in the college arena. He tries to instill in all his students a love of all things digital but still love the purity of all things acoustic.
Any free time he manages to find is spent writing music and poetry and making his wife and Sushi, the Yorkshire terrier, happy!
bass guitar, rock band, workshops
C.J. DeAngelus, Jr. - originally from Massachusetts, C.J. DeAngelus graduated cum laude from Boston's Berklee College of Music in 2000. He moved to California in 2001 and currently teaches middle and high school music at Marshall Fundamental School in Pasadena, CA. In addition to conducting 2 bands and 3 orchestras, he has developed a comprehensive jazz program as well as an AP Music Theory program. He also teaches musicianship at the Los Angeles Children's Chorus and is assistant director of the Pasadena Unified All-Star Band, which has performed in the Tournament of Roses Parade twice and the London New Year's Day Parade in 2008.
In his "spare" time, C.J. performs with the Donald Brinegar Singers and the Pasadena City College Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He is also arranging and recording music for the upcoming rock opera and motion picture "Repo! The Genetic Opera".
C.J. is currently finishing his Master's Degree in Conducting at California State University, Los Angeles.
drums, percussion, rock band, workshops
Sean G. Dolan is a Juilliard Trained Percussionist and Master's Graduate that is continually mistaken for a Juilliard trained vocalist. His Sting-like vocal style and wide baritone to high-tenor range constantly seem to overshadow his percussive abilities. This may seem like a problem. Quite the contrary; Singing drummers are not a dime-a-dozen.
Since starting his musical career at the age of 13 with his family band Shannon Breeze, Sean has recorded vocal jingles for the likes of P.C. Richard, Lighthouse Insurance, Wise Eyes, Ace Tool and Dreamland Amusements, among others. He has performed and recorded, both vocally and percussively, with enumerable artists including: Mark Wood (Trans-Siberian Orchestra String Leader), Laura Kaye, Ellie Lawson, Lauren Kennedy, and members of the Tony Award Winning Broadway Show RENT. Sean's show experience also includes subbing the drum chair at RENT and playing drums and percussion for the premier run and original cast recording of I Love You Because, The Musical.
Sean is currently an active Local 802 AFM Union Member and performs regularly with the Kenny Ford Band under Hank Lane Productions in NYC
(www.hanklane.com) and his own cover band Rockjunky (
www.rockjunky.com). Currenly, Sean leads bands and teaches drums, percussion and vocals at a music and art school on Long Island.
keyboards, rock band, workshops
Classically trained songwriter, composer, and keyboardist Andrew Parsegian lives in Brooklyn, NY. Recently, Andrew co-wrote music with composer Menon Dwarka for Michel Gondry's internationally-distributed 2008 Microsoft campaign. Andrew also recently scored the soundtrack for a nationally-distributed documentary "Strike Dice: Betting on my Father." In March, he toured the U.S. with Custard singer/songwriter Ben Jelen. Currently he's been arranging and performing on producer/Gwen Stefani guitarist Kiyanu Kim's various projects, including Chris Grace's new record, Chris Grace, and Emily Brooke's Debut EP Nobody But Me. He's also been performing with various other artists in New York and recording his own compositions, most recently at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Land Studios.
Andrew studied piano with Juilliard Music Professor Edna Golansky & Indiana University Professor Clive Swansborne, among others. He has performed at Carnegie Hall. He earned a B.A. in Music Composition from Occidental College. While in L.A. he played with several local L.A. bands, including George Hurley of the Minutemen and Tom Watson of Red Crayola. He's written and performed music for L.A. and NYC theatres Dramatic New Arts Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre, as well as Kunsler House Gallery in Schtutgart Germany. Andrew worked at JSM Music and Rocket Music with top NYC commercial jingle composers. In 2007, Andrew co-wrote music with composer Menon Dwarka for West Virginia's television ad campaign, among others. The summer of '07 found Andrew touring the US as a keyboardist for Ben Jelen, opening for Pete Yorn.
drum set, guitar, computers
Having grown up in Eastern Long Island amidst a tight circle of musicians who all started jamming as soon as their parents would let them, Jonathan's been playing and studying the drums for over 20 years and exploring guitar for over 10 years. Starting in a small basement, on a mish-mosh drum kit, Jonathan's musical path has been a multi-headed and ecclectic education.
His vast performing career spans from garage rock as a kid eagerly playing Metal and Grunge tunes, to Top-40 Hip-Hop and R&B covers in all the major clubs in the Northeast as a young 20 something, to original NYC Hard Rock up and down the East Coast and many dark basement bars in Manhattan, to swingin' jazz and breakin' beats for fine dining and cocktail parties. Currently, he's singing backing vocals as well as drumming for The Divide, a hard-rock duo out of NYC.
Still studying with jazz greats and familiars on the NY jazz scene like Charles Fertal and Berkley professor Alan Dawson, Jonathan's journey continues deeper and deeper into an art that has been his earliest and most powerful form of self-expression, still shaping and re-shaping and re-shaping and re-shaping and re-shaping and......
songwriting, workshops
Kristin Hoffmann is a singer/songwriter based in New York City. She grew up studying classical piano, opera, guitar and composition and attended the Juilliard Pre-College. Along the way, she has performed her own music in countless shows in NYC and has toured with The Wallflowers and Tina Dico and opened for Brandi Carlile, Feist, Howie Day, Dar Williams and Ben Lee as well as been signed by both Capitol Records and Interscope Records. She has become a major "musical spokeswoman" for ocean awareness, with her "
Song for the Ocean," and has recently released a new music video for the song, created with videographer, environmentalist, and founder of "Global Classroom," Colin Garland. Beyond the realm of mainstream music, Kristin has created over 140 fully recorded songs for health-challenged children as a writer/producer for the non-profit organization, "Songs of Love." In 2006, she began working alongside acupuncturist, Dar Gadol, at Chelsea Healing in NYC, leading patients on live, ethereal musical journeys during sessions. Seeing how powerful these experiences were, she was soon inspired to create a successful bi-coastal workshop series, called YogaSong, combining yoga and sound. In 2007, Kristin began studying at The Tama-Do Academy of Sound, Color and Movement, with founder and legendary sound healing pioneer, Fabien Maman. and recently became a certified Tama-Do Practitioner. In addition to her 3 previous CD releases, "Spring Comes," "Divided Heart," and "Real," Kristin has recently released her first CD of healing music, which she calls "SOL~AUM"(Songs of Light). Her newest mainstream CD, "The Waking," came out in June and is just beginning to make it's way into the world!
"My main goal is to spread love, light, peace and truth into the world through music and energetic frequency." -Kristin
www.kristinhoffmann.com
guitar, rock band, workshops
Brian Billings began studying music at the age of 10 when his mother, who was a fantastic pianist, and father purchased him his first electric guitar. Initially he was only passionate about rock and blues guitar, but soon became obsessed with classical guitar after hearing an album that was brought to him by a family member who’d visited Italy. When it came time for Brian to attend university he decided to attend The Crane School of Music where he studied with Douglas Rubio, an award winning guitarist and former student of Pepe Romero. During this time Brian also participated in master classes with David Tenenbaum, Fredrick Noad, William Kanengiser and Elliot Fisk.
Following music school, Brian received his Masters degree in special and childhood education and currently works as a guitar instructor in New York City. He teaches all styles of guitar and strives to do so in a fun way that is exciting and motivating for his students. He strongly stresses the importance of relaxed playing and who knows…maybe he’ll even blend a bit of yoga with his instruction this summer.
