Teacher Biographies
(------This is an Old Listing!------)
| Shawna
Miller - Voice (back) |
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Shawna Miller is a singer and songwriter from Northern California. At age fourteen, Shawna began her first five years of private vocal coaching, followed by her
enrollment in the Jazz department at Sonoma State University in 1998. As a jazz major, she studied Jazz theory and improvisation, and then went on to study with a professional opera singer and a Classical Indian singer. After earning her
BA in Music with a concentration on voice, Shawna began teaching private vocal lessons at
Stanroy Music Center in Santa Rosa, CA. From 1998 to 2004, Shawna invested her time and energy into singing backup for the local Roots Reggae band, Groundation. In those six years of singing with Groundation, Shawna had the opportunity to perform with artists such as
Gregory Isaacs, Marcia Higgs, Pato Banton, Don Carlos of Black Uhuru, and Apple Gabriel of Israel
Vibrations.
During her nine years of performing on stage professionally, Shawna has explored the genres of Jazz, Blues, R&B, Funk, Motown, Reggae, Pop, Bluegrass, Classical, and Chamber music. Her outlook on singing involves the voice as an equal instrument for improvisation, which stems from her jazz background. She is currently involved in three projects, including a Motown/Funk cover band called Cloud Nine, a Jazz Big Band called the Moonlighters, and most importantly, her wild and improvisational original group,
Plum Crazy. It is with Plum Crazy that Shawna has had the opportunity to open for the Mother Hips and sit in with the members of
Garaj Mahal. Shawna's passion for composing music takes her beyond just singing. Her love for R&B, Drum n' Bass, Reggae, Hip-Hop, and Jazz inevitably finds its way into her writing style.
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| Carrie Crandall
- Flute, Saxophone and Recorder
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Carrie Crandall has been teaching at Stanroy Music Center for seventeen years and has a lot of patience with beginners. She has been playing the saxophone and the recorder for twenty years and the flute for thirty. She received a
BA in Music with a jazz emphasis from Sonoma State
University. She has been in many bands such as Moonlighters (jazz),
Biocentries (reggae rock), and Peace Warrior (rock).
When asked about why she got into music her response was, “When I was eight, I saw an older friend play with the school band. I knew then that I wanted to be a musician. Music has always been a big part of my life”.
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| Bill Decker - Guitar
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Bill Decker has been teaching professionally since 1984 and has taught
90 to 100 students per week at Stanroy Music Center since 1988. He has given well over
75,000 individual guitar lessons, making him one of the most experienced teachers in northern California.
Bill Decker has been playing guitar since 1968, started performing in 1972, and has opened for national acts such as
Metallica, performing with Stone Crow, to Johnny Otis performing with the
Decker Brother Blues Band. Also performed live for Al and Jamie Hendrix (Jimi Hendrix’s father and sister) in the Hendrix Fender Guitar competition, and has recorded numerous jingles for local advertising commercials.
His influences include Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Johnson, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Al Dimeola, Allen Holdsworth and everything else he hears.
Bill Decker is the author of the guitar book Scales & Modes For Guitar published in 1999. He currently performs in the band “Ratpack” playing Classic Rock Songs from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.
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| Mike Emerson - Piano
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Mike Emerson has performed extensively throughout
the United States, Europe and Canada with a wide range of musicians---James Armstrong, Christine Lakeland, Zigaboo
Modeliste , The Gluey Brothers,
Johnny Dyer, Daniel Castro, Thad Beckman and Will Ray, to name but a few. His Hammond
B3 and piano stylings can be heard on many independent recordings (Jessica Will, Brigitte Demeyer and on James
Armstrong's latest release on Hightone
Records, "Got it Goin' On".
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| Pete
Estabrook - Trumpet
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Pete has been playing the trumpet for thirty-two years. He has teaching for twenty-four years and has been here at
Stanroy Music Center
since 1996. His teaching expertise lies in working on the
"process" of playing with intermediate and advanced
students. Pete has a Degree in Professional Music from Berklee College
of Music and a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Jazz Studies from
California Institute for the Arts. He has been an Adjunct Jazz Instructor at
Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University
for 10 years.
Pete teaches the Fundamentals of Trumpet, Jazz Improvisation,
and Orchestral Literature.
Pete's Websites
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| Dale Gutridge - Trumpet, Saxophone, Clarinet, Trombone, French Horn
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Dale Gutridge has been teaching for about thirty-five years and has been a teacher here at
Stanroy Music since 1998. He has been playing music for about forty-five years and received a
Bachelor of Music from Central State University. He has played professionally since age fourteen. His experience includes, dance bands, show bands, pit orchestras, recording studios, circus bands, jazz combos, television, and concert bands. He has performed with
Bluemoon and Pickle Family Circus. Dale’s influences include Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley.
When asked what makes him different from the other teachers, he said, "I try to address the needs and interests of each individual student, whether it’s learning to read music, improvise jazz, or interpret a given piece."
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| David Hill - Violin and Viola
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David Hill has been teaching since 1990 and has been here with us at
Stanroy Music Center for a year. He received a degree in music performance on viola from
Arizona State University. His influences are from the known composers of the Baroque Era, to the twentieth century masters of today. David has been playing since he was eleven. When he was asked what makes him different from the other teachers he said, “I have a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of string pedagogy, a goal-oriented approach, and an easy going personality.
David Hill has a lot of experience performing. He has freelanced on the viola in Chicago and New York City. He performed five seasons with the
Sarasota Opera during winters between 1986-1991 and during the summers of that time played at the Spoleto Festival (in Charleston, SC and Spoleto, Italy). He has also played with the
Illinois Symphony, Rockford Symphony, Greenwich Symphony, Absolute
Ensemble, and Manhattan Virtuosi and played at Carnegie Hall and
Lincoln Center. Locally he has performed with the Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Berkeley, Solano, Lake County Symphonies, the Cotati
Philharmonic, and the Cinnabar Theatre Opera Orchestra. Currently David is a member of the
Del Mar Chamber Music Players and violist in the Allegro String
Trio.
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| Steve Hoffman - Contrabass and Electric Bass
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Steve Hoffman has spent all twelve years of his teaching life here at
Stanroy Music Center. He specializes in groove, advanced techniques, music reading, charts, soloing and song study. Steve has been playing the bass for twenty years and has received a
BA in Music Composition from UC Berkeley. He has also attended
Berklee College of Music. He currently performs with numerous Symphonies and Opera Companies throughout the Bay Area, as well as various rock bands such as
Sweetleaf (Black
Sabbath/ Ozzy tribute band) and The Esseness Project (electric instrumental rock). His influences are widely varied.
Steve started music when he was five years old with piano and singing. He started the electric bass when he was twelve and the contra bass at twenty-five. He is still active with all instruments.
When asked what makes him different from the other teachers he stated, “I have loads of patience, I try to give the student ample chances to play in the lesson and I’m sensitive to the students needs.”
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| Alastair
Ingram - Sax, Flute, and Clarinet
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Alastair has lived in the Russian River area of
Northern California for over 25 years. Born in Dundee, Scotland,
he came to this country in 1955 at the age of six.
It was after serving, from 1967 to 1971, in
the United States Air Force that he decided to learn to play the
Saxophone. Starting at Solano Junior College in Fairfield, Ca.,
Alastair studied with two professors who he still considers his
mentors, John Kolarik and David Froehlich. David Froehlich is a
pianist extraordinaire. John Kolarik was a low brass man, but is
now playing stand up bass. After two years under their tutelage,
he received his Associate in Arts degree there in 1973. After a
year at San Francisco State University, studying privately with
Danny Patiris, Alastair transferred to Cal State Hayward. At CSUH
Alastair spent two years studying with classical Saxophone
player William Trimble. After an additional year studying jazz
with Jeff Neighbors and Marv Nelson, a series of master classes
with William Trimble, and numerous recitals, he received his BA
in Music with a concentration in Saxophone Performance.
In Sonoma County, some of the bands Alastair
has played with include The Russian River All Stars, Bob Simmons
New Exchange,The Dave Brady Octet, The Gray Cats, True Slack,
Grand Slam and The Sonoma Swamp Dogs. He has played hundreds of
casual gigs with various local musicians. Among Sonoma County's
vast variety of bands, Alastair has filled in many times for Gator
Beat, Blue
Moon, two well known local groups. Alastair's
main group, Metro,
is a six piece band that plays many styles, including swing,
jazz standards, R & B, and top forty.
Alastair currently maintains a schedule of 30
students in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.
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| Zackary
Miller - Electric Bass, Acoustic Guitar & Didgeridoo (back) |
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Zack has been playing didgeridoo for 13 years,
learning and mastering many approaches to the traditional
techniques used to play this ancient instrument. He has
played bass for 19 years and guitar for 14. He has
made numerous recordings and given hundreds of performances all
over the Western United States. Zack currently plays bass
for singer/songwriter Cat
McLean.
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| Patrick O'Connell - Drum Set and Snare Drum
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Patrick O’Connell has been teaching privately for ten years and joined our teaching staff at
Stanroy Music in 2003. He started playing the drums as a freshman in high school, playing in garage rock bands and in the school marching and concert bands. After moving to the Bay Area, Pat started his professional career playing in Peninsula “Steak House Rock” restaurants and San Francisco night
clubs that featured original material. While in San Francisco Pat started playing with Big Bands and Jazz Octets and developed the reading skills that allow him to “sight read” Big Band and
Show charts. Years of playing “casuals” (Wedding Reception and Society gigs) followed but original rock and jazz combo gigs were never slighted during this period. Pat considers himself a student of the drums and still takes lessons from master drummers in the Bay Area because he believes there is always more to learn about music and drumming.
In Sonoma County Pat can be seen performing with: Tudo Bem, JH Big Band and the
Dan Taft Trio.
Pat’s specialty is reading for Big Band and Polyrhythms. His influences include Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd,
Harvey Mason, and Ansley Dunbar.
When asked what made him different from the other teachers he said, “Real world experience, and 2,000 Gigs, Casuals, Shows, Dances, Concerts, Clubs, Recording, and Original Material ”.
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| Keith
Richman - Guitar (back)
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Keith Richman has been playing the guitar
for 30 years. He has forged a unique style of playing that
builds on the tradition of such players as Blind Blake, Big
Bill Broonzey, Robert Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis.
Keith is a proponent of the theory that the best blues come from
the boogie woogie and barrel house blues pieces adapted from
piano.
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| Stephen Riedel - Piano
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Stephen Riedel is one of our Classical
piano teachers at Stanroy Music Center. He was born and
raised and went to school here in Santa Rosa. Stephen has been
playing the piano since 1994 and has been musical
since elementary school. He played the trumpet for four
years, participating in the junior high marching bands at Santa
Rosa Jr. High and Slater Jr. High. Stephen received an A.A.
from Santa Rosa Jr. College and a B.A. in Music
from Sonoma State University in 2001. He has been
teaching at Stanroy's since 2001. He
occasionally performs with singer Annemarie Rosa. His influences
include former teachers Marilyn
Thompson and Anna Harriette Foshee, as well as composers
such as Chopin, Brahms, Ravel, and Beethoven.
Stephen teaches Classical and Popular styles,
all ages and levels and focuses on developing the music
fundamentals with his students. He uses the Faber
piano series and Keith Snell series as primary teaching
material and uses supplementary material to the student's
liking.
When asked what makes him different from the
other teachers he says: “I have patience, ability, and
flexibility, including a desire to help my students enjoy
the process of learning the piano and the many facets of music!"
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| Melanie
Webster - Violin
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Melanie Webster has developed an extensive violin
studio in Sebastopol and Santa Rosa over the past
20
years. Her studio, currently with more than 30 students,
has built up a widely recognized reputation of excellence.
This is most evident at the three recitals which she presents to
the public each year. All students perform solo works and
participate in large and small ensembles as well. The
repertoire is remarkably varied, and audience response is
enthusiastic.
Melanie holds a Master's Degree in Music and
Psychology. She has been a registered
Suzuki teacher since 1992 and has completed over 15 courses
in teacher training. Her teaching approach draws from a
Suzuki base intertwined with a variety of other methods to
create a successful program responsive to each student's
personal needs and development.
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| Jean Young - Piano
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Jean Young has been teaching for thirty-three years and has been a teacher here at
Stanroy Music since 1986. Jean has also taught in a classroom for twenty years. She specializes in teaching music reading. When she was in high school Jean also played the baritone horn in concert and marching band. She went to
New York State University-Fredonia where she received a
BS in Music Education. Jean has also attended Miami University, Georgia State University and
California State University-Hayward.
When asked what made her different from the other teacher she said, “I love to teach and take every student as a special project. Everyone can learn”.
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