Teachers & Staff

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

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.
  
  
• Matt Driscoll has been teaching guitar since he was 17. He received a B.A. in Music Education in 2009 from Sonoma State University, and covers a variety of guitar styles, including most forms of rock, blues and jazz. Matt also teaches ukulele, trumpet, mandolin and beginning banjo and piano. He can be found playing in the city with The Interchangeable Hearts on keyboard, guitar and trumpet.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Philadelphia native Ryan Hickey has been practicing music for more than 20 years, studying piano, French horn, bassoon, saxophone and guitar in orchestras, symphonies and marching bands. As a professional, he has toured the U.S. with funk, reggae, bluegrass, jazz, world, hip hop and rock bands, and continues to have his work featured in international publications. Ryan prides himself as a Hammond B-3 player and enjoys other classic keyboard equipment. His primary inspirations start with Ravi Shankar, Jimmy Smith, Jerry Garcia and John Coltrane. Learn more at ryanhickeylivemusic.com.
  
  
• With a degree in music from UC Berkeley, singer/songwriter Lani Kilgariff plays guitar, piano and drums, and gigs throughout the Bay Area. She teaches both adults and children starting from age four.
  
  
• 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. Learn more on stevekirkpop.com and gearwire.com/steve-kirk-blog.html.
  
  
• 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 released his first solo project in 2008.
  
  
• Blue Bear lost a much-loved member of our community: long-time teacher, and San Francisco blues institution, Johnny Nitro. More...
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Mark Schuh sings and plays guitar with Crackerjack Highway. He has toured the West Coast and Midwest as both a guitarist and bassist, and he has written music for cable television and industrial films. Mark studied music at the University of Wisconsin, the Berkeley Jazzschool, City College of San Francisco, and good old Blue Bear School of Music. In his offtime, Mark is an avid sleeper.
  
  

Back to Top

Mandolin

• Matt Driscoll and Brian Gire teach mandolin.

Back to Top

Banjo

• Matt Driscoll and Brian Gire teach beginning banjo.

Back to Top

Ukulele

• Matt Driscoll teaches ukulele.

Back to Top

Voice

• Lynn Asher is a singer/songwriter, vocal coach/producer who has performed and/or recorded with a veritable Who's Who in the Bay Area, including Janis Joplin's original band Big Brother and The Holding Company, hit producer and drummer Narada Michael Walden, Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), Mickey Hart & Bob Weir and Raz Kennedy. lynnasher.com
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• 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. More...
  
  
• Claire Plumb received her B.A. from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, with additional study at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Oregon. She has worked in musical theater, opera, film and voiceovers, and brings an infectious love of music and singing to her classroom teaching.
  
  
• 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...

Back to Top

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  

• Philadelphia native Ryan Hickey has been practicing music for more than 20 years, studying piano, French horn, bassoon, saxophone and guitar in orchestras, symphonies and marching bands. As a professional, he has toured the U.S. with funk, reggae, bluegrass, jazz, world, hip hop and rock bands, and continues to have his work featured in international publications. Ryan prides himself as a Hammond B-3 player and enjoys other classic keyboard equipment. His primary inspirations start with Ravi Shankar, Jimmy Smith, Jerry Garcia and John Coltrane.

• With a degree in music from UC Berkeley, singer/songwriter Lani Kilgariff plays guitar, piano and drums, and gigs throughout the Bay Area. She teaches both adults and children starting from age four.

• 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

• With an early background in trumpet, piano and voice in concert bands, marching bands, community symphony orchestras and barbershop quartets, 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, five-star hotels, corporate events, and private parties.

• The following guitar teachers also teach beginning piano: Matt Driscoll, Mark Schuh.

Back to Top

Bass

• 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, Janak Ramachandran, Mark Schuh

Back to Top

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...
  

Back to Top

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...
  
  

Back to Top

Songwriting and Music Technology

• Bonnie Hayes is a platinum-selling songwriter, with songs on records by Bonnie Raitt, Bette Midler, Robert Cray, Huey Lewis, Robben Ford, David Crosby, Cher and Booker T. and the MGs. She plays guitar and keyboards, and has released five CDs of her own music on various record labels. She also has produced seven records, one of which was nominated for a Grammy. More...
  
  
• Cole Odin Berggren is Blue Bear's Community Programs Director, as well as a drum instructor. He is a true patron of all things ART and good times. A trained glassblower, Cole is also a prominent local DJ who spins vinyl and the occasional CD in locations, city and country wide. In the realm of writing and performing music, he plays drums for the electronic dance-rock band, TIGERcat, and is the songwriter/singer/multi-instrumentalist for his own band, a pulsing, psychedelic, electronic rock band aptly called OWNERSHIP. Sling him a smile, and he'll sling it back...
  
  

Back to Top

Band Workshops

• Randy Clark, Brian Gire, Colin Hayes, Steve Kirk, Sean Leahy, Jim Peterson and Mark Schuh teach Band Workshops.
  

Back to Top

Seminars

• Nicco Tyson graduated from the University of the Pacific in 2009, combining courses from the School of International Studies, the Conservatory of Music, and study abroad in Mali and Brazil to receive a BA in international relations with a concentration in world music. From 2009 to 2010, he spent nine months in Mali, West Africa performing with the Mande Afrobeat group Malikan and starting Studio Nanou, a project to record underground music in Bamako. He has been performing and teaching guitar and harmonica for seven years, playing an eclectic mix of folk, samba, blues, funk, jazz, classical, reggae, rock and African styles.
  
  
• Shaun McGonegal also teaches Short Seminars.
  

Back to Top

Blue Bear Staff and Board

Directors

• Executive Director David Roche returns to the Bay Area to head Blue Bear after a decade spent in Chicago, including six years as Executive Director of the Old Town School of Folk Music, one of the nation's oldest and largest community music centers. David has a lifetime of experience in arts administration and music education.
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• Cole Odin Berggren is Blue Bear's Community Programs Director, as well as a drum instructor. He is a true patron of all things ART and good times. A trained glassblower, Cole is also a prominent local DJ who spins vinyl and the occasional CD in locations, city and country wide. In the realm of writing and performing music, he plays drums for the electronic dance-rock band, TIGERcat, and is the songwriter/singer/multi-instrumentalist for his own band, a pulsing, psychedelic, electronic rock band aptly called OWNERSHIP. Sling him a smile, and he'll sling it back...
  
  
• Financial Director Carol Snow, erstwhile songwriter and NEA recipient, has worked at Blue Bear since 1971. Her fourth book of poetry, Placed: Karesansui Poems, was published Counterpath Press. Snow has also collaborated with choreographer Alex Ketley and Oakland's exciting AXIS Dance on a text-dance piece.
  
  
• Development Director Marcus Yelton joined the Blue Bear family in 2006 as the catalyst for creating the Blue Bear Live benefit concert. Following a very successful inaugural event, he joined the Blue Bear Board of Trustees, focusing on fundraising and partnerships while co-producing three more wildly successful Blue Bear Live benefits. Marcus is also the brainchild, or some say the madman, behind the inaugural Blue Bear Mustache-A-Thon. Raised in North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at Chapel Hill, he loves music of all genres, especially live music, and makes an annual pilgrimage to the most diverse and best music festival in the world, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
  
  
• 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 is the flautist with San Francisco indie psych rock band The New Up. Their latest album Gold was released in September 2010.
  
  
• 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.

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.