Teachers and Staff

Guitar :: Mandolin :: Violin :: Banjo :: Voice :: Piano and Keys
Bass :: Drums :: Sax and Clarinet :: Songwriting and Music Tech
Band Workshops :: Seminars :: Blue Bear Staff

Guitar

• Lindsey Boullt received his music degree at the University of Texas-Arlington and graduated with honors from the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood. His experience has ranged from NYC's late '80s hardcore-metal scene to Texas guitar cultures, jazz-world fusion, and the musical avant-garde theater of San Francisco. More...
  
  
• Kent Brown was a professional actor, singer and guitarist in Atlanta and the Southeast for 11 years. He now performs originals and covers as a solo artist and with his band Suite Love Express. More...
  
  
• Randy Clark has been playing and teaching in the Bay Area since 1992 after completing a Jazz Studies degree at Ithaca College in New York. His band Crowsong has put out two CDs to great reviews, and continues to perform at local venues. Learn more at crowsong.com.
  
  
• Brian Gire has been teaching and playing music for over thirty years. Initially inspired by watching the late John Hartford on television, he has delevoped an eclectic approach that ranges from Bartok to hard rock to Doc Watson.
  
  
• Alexi Glickman has taught guitar lessons in the Bay Area since 1999. He has a B.A. in Music from UC Santa Cruz and has written songs and played in bands for most of his life, most recently with The Botticellis. He enjoys teaching rock, pop, and folk guitar as well as improvisation, songwriting, and musicianship skills.
  
  
• Chris Haugen is the founder, lead guitarist and songwriter for the critically acclaimed touring band Jambay. After music theory study at UC San Diego, he began touring full-time at age twenty-one. He specializes in American roots music and improvisation, and also teaches lap steel guitar. Chris played lap-steel on the musical score for Into the Wild, Sean Penn's award-winning film. More on chrishaugen.net
  
  
• Steve Kirk is a composer, arranger, guitarist, singer and sound designer. His work encompasses everything from multimedia to modern chamber music. He's played in and written for progressive rock, jazz, alternative, and swing bands. He is a long standing member of the Club Foot Orchestra and has composed music for video games, TV, film and radio. stevekirkpop.com
  
  
• Berklee grad Sean Leahy has toured the States and Europe with Kofy Brown, Red Archibald, Marginal Prophets, Boomshanka, Four Year Bender, Guitarmageddon and London Street. An experienced guitar teacher, Sean will be releasing his first solo project in 2008.
  
  
• Matthew Montfort is leader of world music group Ancient Future and author of Ancient Traditions - Future Possibilities, a training manual on the rhythms of Africa, Bali, and India. He holds an M.A. in World Music and a B.A. in Music Composition. ancient-future.com/matt.html. More...
  
  
• Johnny Nitro, bandleader, guitarist, singer and showman, is a regular in SF clubs. He's played with Charlie Musselwhite and written songs for Albert Collins. sfblues.net/JohnnyNitro.html
  
  
• Mike Powell has taught guitar and bass in the Bay Area for nearly 10 years. With a B.M. from Berklee College of Music, he's performed and recorded with Meat Beat Manifesto, played with members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, worked on remixes from Pete Townsend to the Butthole Surfers, and co-produced five of the popular Tino's Breaks series. His own project Bo Square is on the Tino Corp label.
  
  
• Janak Ramachandran teaches voice, guitar, bass, vocal styling, and acting principles for the stage musician. His acoustic, electric, and bass guitar instruction is designed to concretely guide your progress from one level to the next with an emphasis on playing songs today and a goal of making music forever. A graduate of SFSU's Music and Recording Industry Program, Janak regularly works on original material and is currently fronting the classic and hard rock cover band Bottoms Up! More...
  
  
• Mike Rao, a graduate of GIT, studied solo jazz guitar with Ted Green. He loves blues and classic rock and has more than a decade of teaching experience.
  
  
• Dwight Roberts began playing guitar in his mid-twenties. Inspired by Dylan, he started performing at coffee shops and developed as a solid blues, folk and slide guitarist. Most recently he was part of a 20-piece guitar orchestra, playing Latin-inspired rhythms and cheesy pop.
  
  
• Mark Schuh, a Blue Bear alum, has also studied music at the University of Wisconsin, City College of San Francisco, and the Berkeley Jazz School. He is the front man for his own original band, The Shim Sham Rebellion, and also plays in Kent Brown's Suite Love Express. When not busy recording, touring or teaching, Mark maintains a rigorous sleeping schedule.
  
  
• Bill Spooner, Bammy-Award-winning singer and guitarist, was founder and principal songwriter of the legendary Tubes and actively performs in the Bay Area's best dives and bars. His current group, The Folk-Ups, is a must-see.  More at billspooner.com.

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Mandolin

• Brian Gire (guitar), Chris Haugen (guitar) and Steve Gardner (violin) teach mandolin.

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Violin

• Steve Gardner studied music at San Francisco State University and The Aaron Copeland School of Music in New York, and toured America and Europe with his band Culann's Hounds and Sony recording artist Danni Leigh. Steve has been a guest artist with Grammy award winners Blues Traveler and with The Popper Project, and he's been invited by the San Francisco Giants to play the National Anthem three times.

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Banjo

• Brian Gire (guitar and mandolin) teaches beginning banjo.

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Voice

• Robert Blake is a classically trained singer and actor. Growing up in the Southeast, he was active in a variety of musical styles from gospel to classical and many between. He studied theatre at the North Carolina School of the Arts and received vocal training at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has been active as a professional singer and teacher in the music community of Brazil for the past six years. More...
  
  
• Masha Campagne has extensive experience performing in a variety of styles including jazz, blues, Broadway, Brazilian and improvisation. She has studied vocals with Kitty Margolis, Jane Sharp and David Stroud, and is a certified Speech Level Singing instructor.
  
  
• Sharman Duran, vocalist and keyboardist, has been performing jazz standards, Top 40, Soul, Rock, Pop, and Latin jazz in bands since 1976. She also specializes in teaching music to pre-school children. sharmanduran.com
  
  
• Raz Kennedy's credits include vocal coaching for Adam Duritz and members of Counting Crows, Davey Havoc of AFI, members of Metallica, Rancid, Stroke 9, Narada Michael Walden and Los Tigres Del Norte. Recording/Performance credits include Bobby McFerrin, Todd Rundgren, Mickey Hart, Kenny Loggins and Al Jarreau, as well as radio, film and television projects.
  
  
• Janak Ramachandran teaches voice, guitar, bass, vocal styling, and acting principles for the stage musician. His acoustic, electric, and bass guitar instruction is designed to concretely guide your progress from one level to the next with an emphasis on playing songs today and a goal of making music forever. A graduate of SFSU's Music and Recording Industry Program, Janak regularly works on original material and is currently fronting the classic and hard rock cover band Bottoms Up! More...

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Piano and Keys

• Walter Alexander, an expat from the Big Apple, has extensive recording, gigging, touring and composing experience as a keyboardist. More...
  
  
• Caroline Dahl plays boogie-woogie, blues and rock piano in bands and solo at many Bay Area clubs where she is often underpaid. She is frequently seen wearing sequins. carolinedahl.com  

• Brent Goodbar teaches piano, guitar and concepts of jazz, rock and classical music theory. He holds a Master's Degree in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and received First Place in the Billboard Magazine Songwriting Contest. mrgoodbarmusic.com More...

• Rabbit Motaei teaches piano to students of all ages in a broad range of styles from pop to blues to classical. She enjoys inspiring her students to appreciate classical as well as contemporary music. (She says that Bach would have been a metal guitarist if he were born today.) Rabbit holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Theory/Composition with an emphasis in piano performance from the University of California Davis, and has been writing, recording and performing professionally for more than 10 years. She released The Red Rabbit EP last fall and is currently recording her first full-length album, as well as playing regularly with her band. You can check out her music at myspace.com/rabbitmotaei

• John Turner eventually settled on the keys, touring with national recording groups and working as a session player. He has also accompanied cabaret acts and played for Top 40 and show bands, upscale restaurants, 5-star hotels, corporate events, and private parties.

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Bass

• Ben Bernstein has been active in the San Francisco music scene as a freelance bassist, teacher, producer and engineer since 2002. He toured with New Monsoon for two years throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and is now focused on solo work, music production, and freelance performance and session work. Ben plays locally and nationally with the Drew Emmitt Band, Culann's Hounds, The Smokedaddies, and his own Petting Zoo Band.  benbernsteinmusic.com  more...
  
  
• Kai Chu graduated from Berklee College of Music studying guitar, voice and music business. He subsequently realized that if he wanted to get to the bottom of things, he'd have to switch to bass, now his primary instrument. Kai covers blues, rock, folk and pop styles.
  
  
• The following guitar instructors also teach bass: Kent Brown, Brian Gire, Steve Kirk, Mike Powell, Janak Ramachandran, Mark Schuh,
  Bill Spooner

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Drums

• Shaun McGonegal is a professional drummer with over 20 years teaching experience. Well-versed in all musical styles and all aspects of drum set performance, his training includes intensive work with Tony Williams. Shaun performs locally with the Funk Monsters. More...
  

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Sax and Clarinet

• Jim Peterson, local saxophone sideman, recorded and toured with Mumbo Gumbo for more than a decade. He now performs with Mitch Woods, Steve Lucky and others, both Stateside and on extensive European tours of duty. More...
  
  

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Songwriting and Music Technology

• Nick Chen plays guitar, bass and drums and is also active with electronica. An experienced band teacher and producer, Nick also heads Blue Bear's Studio 101 programs. More...
  
  
• Bonnie Hayes is a Bammy-award-winning singer, songwriter, keyboard player and recording artist. She and her band have headlined the premiere West Coast clubs and toured with Huey Lewis and The News; Bonnie has also toured with artists such as Billy Idol and Belinda Carlisle. Her songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Cher, Bette Midler and others. Her latest CD, Love in the Ruins, rocks! More...
  
  
• Bill Spooner, Bammy-Award-winning singer and guitarist, was founder and principal songwriter of the legendary Tubes and actively performs in the Bay Area's best dives and bars. His current group, The Folk-Ups, is a must-see.  More at billspooner.com.
  
  

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Band Workshops

• With a music degree from San Francisco State University and a certificate from the National School of Music in Havana, Bob Menacho has been teaching bass and guitar for more than years, including jazz ensemble instruction at Stanford Jazz Camp and Castilleja Summer Camp. His band, Bayonics, tours nationally and plays Latin, funk, hip hop and fusion regularly in local venues.
  
  
• Lindsey Boullt (guitar), Sean Leahy (guitar), Steve Kirk (guitar), Johnny Nitro (guitar), Mark Schuh (guitar) and Bill Spooner (guitar) also teach Band Workshops.
  

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Seminars

• Lindsey Boullt, Masha Campagne, Brian Gire, Shaun McGonegal, Johnny Nitro and Janak Ramachandran teach Short Seminars.
  

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Blue Bear Staff

Directors

• Executive Director Kevin Marlatt came to Blue Bear in 2005 after many years of experience working with a number of respected Bay Area and East coast nonprofits including Oakland School for the Arts, Stanford Lively Arts, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, San Francisco Performances, San Francisco Opera and the New England Foundation for the Arts, where he served in various production and education roles. More recently, Kevin directed and developed the San Francisco Unified School District's Arts Education Master Plan. Raised in New York and Boulder, Colorado, Kevin is an avid drummer and percussionist who enjoys all types of music, but what he really loves to do is ROCK!
  
  
• Program Director Dennis Criteser has produced albums in folk, rock and jazz styles for a variety of Bay Area artists. He's cut eight albums of original music as Diesel Cats, ranging from the cinematic musico-documentary History Club Minutes to the faux-jazz hip-ocracy of In Search of Blue Treasure. More...
  
  
• Outreach Director Justin Flores has long arms. Formerly a professional dancer with some of San Francisco's premier dance companies such as Smuin Ballet, ODC and The Foundry, he now produces the Blue Bear Showcases in addition to his other outreach duties. You can see him playing bass with his freakishly long limbs in his new electronic band Cloud City Rejects.
  
  
• Barbara Murphy, Little Bears Program Director and instructor, has been singing since she was a young lass slowly making her way from one stage to the next. She studies and plays guitar and piano, and has spent the last 10 years searching for words to match her melodies. She loves her mom as well.
  
  
• Financial Director Carol Snow, erstwhile songwriter and NEA recipient, has worked at Blue Bear since 1971. Snow's fourth book of poetry, Placed: Karesansui Poems, is forthcoming from Counterpath Press late this year; she will also collaborate with choreographer Alex Ketley and Oakland's exciting AXIS Dance on a text-dance piece to premier in November.
  
  
• Steve Savage, a Blue Bear founder, works as a producer and/or engineer for such artists as Robert Cray, the Gospel Hummingbirds, Bonnie Hayes, John Hammond and Mike Levy.

Staff

• Elizabeth Lee (known to all as Lee) has studied classical music since childhood. While living in NYC she fell in love with home recording - even as starving artists her crew could still record an album! Lee and friends currently record funk jams in their garage studio.
  
  
• Hawk West's fall includes a tour with The New Up in support of their latest release Broken Machine. Look out America, the circus is coming to town this September!
  
  
• Tanya Wheeler has just started a vinyl-only record label with her partner in crime. Rocinante Records' first release is The Botticellis' Old Home Movies on limited edition color vinyl. Get your copy at the Blue Bear desk with only a few bucks and a nice smile. (The Botticellis is headed by Blue Bear guitar teacher Alexi Glickman.)

Volunteers

Blue Bear is very grateful for our volunteers who help with event production, fundraising, marketing and more. If you have talents or contacts, and the dedication to volunteer with Blue Bear School of Music, please contact us at 415.673.3600 or at bluebearmusic@earthlink.net.