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Chris McKenney
Hailing from New Hampshire originally, Chris McKenney somehow obtained an English degree despite playing guitar non-stop for four years. He continued this practice after college by becoming a guitar instructor and member of several local bands which have garnered various levels of success. Chris stresses the importance of 'musicianship' over'guitar playing' and strives to impart a love for honest rock and roll to his students. His current musical project is a four piece rock band called the Gadget Green. Based in Boston, the Green incorporates all of their musical loves into one ridiculous melting pot. |
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Joshua Prensky
MMC is glad to announce the addition of a new teacher to our ranks. Joshua Prensky, a Lexington native, has been playing drums since the age of five.
An award-winning musician, Berklee grad and apprentice of the late, great Alan Dawson, Joshua is fluent in many styles. Rock, Reggae, Latin, Jazz, Funk/Fusion are few of the styles that inhabit his trick bag. We feel lucky to have him with us.
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Lou Ulrich
Lou first picked up a plastic banjo at age two and has been playing music ever since, professionally for over twenty years. From big band swing to bluegrass, reggae to rock, country to jazz, if it has bass, he's probably played it. He grew up in St. Louis, MO, and at the age of sixteen began playing his first professional gigs at local clubs and riverboats around the area. He graduated high school in '86 a member of the Missouri All State Jazz Band, as well as the bass player for the University of Missouri at St. Louis Jazz Band. Berklee College of Music brought him to Boston, where he graduated in 1991 with a BA in music. He has since made Boston his home and most any night of the week you can catch him playing around New England, backing up some of the area's finest singer-song writers and blues musicians.
A founding member of the band Groovasaurus, two-time winner of the Boston Music Awards Best Local Rock Band 95'-96', Lou has also toured throughout the US and Europe with veteran blues acts such as the Radio Kings, Susan Tedeschi, Toni Lynn Washington and Sherman Robertson.
He has appeared on numerous recordings, most notably, Chris Smither, Peter Mulvey, Rose Polenzani, Anita Suhanin and Tim Gearan.
Emphasizing ear training, theory and harmony, he welcomes students of all ages and abilities.
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Richard Stillman
Richard Stillman has been playing bluegrass banjo for over thirty years. He has founded or been involved in a number of influential Northeast bluegrass bands, including the Jersey Travelers (1979-1984), WayStation (1992-2000), The Bogus Family (1995-2001) and his current bands, Adam Dewey and Crazy Creek (1995-97 and 2002-present) and Southern Rail (1985-1989 and 2005-present). He has additional studio recording credits with other New England folk and rock artists. Mr. Stillman was New Jersey banjo champion in 1983 and the 2002 and 2003 New England banjo champion. He is a six-time winner of the annual banjo contest held at Lowell, Massachusetts (1985-1995), where he has given the bluegrass banjo workshop every year since 1996. WayStation, a band he founded, was a member of the Massachusetts Arts Council Touring Roster and winner of the 1994 Northeast Regional championship of the Pizza Hut International Bluegrass Showdown. Mr. Stillman has performed with bluegrass bands on stages including the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival and Boston’s First Night.
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Tim Rowell
Tim Rowell has been playing banjo for more than 30 years. Having been heavily influenced as a young lad by Pete Seeger and a whole bunch of wonderful musicians from the Hudson River Valley, Tim eventually discovered a deep affection for southern Appalachian string band music.
During college Tim was taken under the wing of a fine banjo player from the Ozarks by the name of Steve Mote. In addition to playing, Tim developed a love of teaching. Winner of several awards from the Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Contest, Tim also has a bachelor's degree in music composition as well as having survived a bunch of theory classes from the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles.
You can catch Tim playing around town with his old-time string band, Jubilee Mule.
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Marc Boggs
Marc Boggs is Parisian Born, New York bred, Boston raised, Lexington resident who decided at the age of 11 that he wanted to do nothing more than play guitar. After witnessing Eddie Van Halen on MTV, he pleaded to his parents to get him an electric guitar and much to his and their surprise, they did.
Having played for over 22 years, Marc Boggs is capable of much more than just burning lines or fretboard gymnastics. His broad knowledge of musical styles has helped him bring the joys of guitar into the lives of others. ?I tend to mold myself to the student rather than the other way around, because each person learns at their own pace and desires certain results. I try to make each lesson a rewarding experience both musically and personally, because sometimes it?s the things outside the music that shape music the most. |
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Jeanne Ciampa
Jeanne Ciampa was the recipient of the Sarah Vaughan Vocal Scholorship for four consecutive years at the Berklee School of Music. Her awards are too many to list here. She teaches voice and piano and is particularly gifted in working with young children. Jeanne has sung on numerous films, national and international, including the title track for the FoxTV film "The End of Summer" starring Jaqueline Bisset. Currently Jeanne is performing in the Boston area opening for national acts and teaching voice and piano at the Minuteman Music center. She welcomes students of all ages and abilities. |
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About Us
Cathy Mason
Cathy received her Masters Degree from the Child Study Department at Tufts University, where she also minored in music. She has worked for years as a teacher, tutor and clinician and in recent years, has melded her teaching skills with her musical interests and has been teaching fiddle students and conducting workshops, including Culture for Kids at Passim and The New England Folk Festival.
Cathy performs at dances and other events all over the East coast and South with her bands, The Rhythm Method String Band, Grand Bois Cajun Band and The Dead Sea Squirrels, as well as with other musicians. She has won at the Lowell Fiddle and Banjo contest, and been on the staff at several dance/music camps.
For the past 13 years, she has been studying and playing southern fiddle styles, including Appalachian and the Cajun and Creole music of Southwest Louisiana. She has studied Cajun and Appalachian fiddle with a number of traditional and revival master musicians from both areas.
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Rick Moore is a saxophonist originally from Northern California, where he studied with Mike McMullen and David Allured. He came to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music in 2004 to become a Music Production and Engineering major, but still played his horn avidly, playing on many of his own production projects, and other Berklee projects.
At Berklee, he studied tenor sax with Fred Lipsius, Jeff Harrington, Shannon LeClair, and Paul Wagner, and graduated in three years. He plays in many up and coming Boston bands including The Jump Off, The Renegade Botanist, Insufficient Funds, and Melodeego. Rick has a unique style that focuses on the application of methodologies in musicality and appropriateness, and the ability to internalize music, instead of the endless memorization of scalar exercises and drills that beginning students generally face.
He hopes to pass on the changes he found in his own playing at Berklee to the next generation, and keep the spirit and love for the instrument, and for music, alive and well. Stylistically, Rick specializes in Soul, R&B, Rock, Pop, Blues, Jazz and Funk, and always keeps his production ideals close to him whenever he's teaching or playing, though it's important to him that a student always be working on something they enjoy, and want to do. The quality of the music and the ability to express yourself with an instrument is Rick's ultimate goal, and he teaches and plays with this in mind at all times.
Ryan is a fusion-based guitarist from Ashland, MA. He attended Berklee for a year and left to pursue aspirations with a band. He has been teaching private guitar lessons for 7 years and has honed a method that is easy to understand, fun to learn, and practical to use.
His approach is geared toward the individual as he caters to taste and objectives. Whether learning hot blues licks or learning a song directly off of an album, each lesson is open to one’s desired direction.
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