Category Archives: Faculty

Board, Faculty

Sean Nelson Joins MCMS Board of Trustees

A faculty member at Marin Community Music School since 2018, drummer Sean Nelson became the school’s fifth currently serving Trustee in May  2024.

Nelson earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Boston’s Berklee School of Music and moved to the Bay Area in 1996, where he established himself as a sought-after instructor at the Community Music Center of SF, Marin Country Day School, and New Village Music. He is also an active performer in jazz, rock, and pop settings in Northern California and beyond.

“I’m excited to play a role in Marin Community Music School’s governance and planning new and better ways to serve our community. There is so much more we can be doing to encourage music making among Marin County residents of all ages and interests.”

Faculty, News

Upcoming Events with Piano Faculty Member John Mackay

John Mackay’s jazz trio is performing at Hotel Healdsburg on Saturday, October 12, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The show includes selections from their forthcoming album.

On October 30 at Sonoma State University’s Schroeder Hall saxophonist Andrew Harrison will give the world premiere of Continuum for saxophone(s) and piano, a work in seven movements composed by John Mackay. Dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach, listeners will hear hints of the High Baroque master along with jazz inflections from Mackay’s own playing.  Click here for more information and tickets.

Faculty, News

Violin Faculty Member Tara Flandreau Performs at Napa’s di Rosa Center 

Saturday, September 21, at noon at the Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, violin faculty member Tara Flandreau will be one of fourteen musicians performing in Hawks and Doves, a piece of improvised instrumental music to accompany a site-specific sculpture of the same name by artist Philip Krohn recently installed at the art preserve. Built from salvaged wood offcuts intricately woven together suggesting the traces of the flights of birds, the sculpture is installed suspended in the air outside through a grove of olive trees, spread over an area 450 feet in length.

The artist’s creation is designed so that it can accommodate additional collaborative input from other artistic mediums – in this particular instance, music. The musicians will be spread out and moving around in and through that large space while playing, performing five approximately 10 minute improvisations, each of a different character.  The visitors to the di Rosa preserve to see the work will also move through this outdoor sonic space, so that each viewer will experience a different version of the music as they pass through the installation.

The di Rosa preserve is a large exhibition space and museum of contemporary art, with works displayed both inside and outside on the many acres of grounds. There is much to see in this surprising collection of work, located a beautiful rural environment amongst hilly acres of vineyards.

Although the sculpture will be installed there until the end of the year, the additional musical collaboration is only happening on Saturday the 21st of September starting at noon.

musicians:

  • Scott Amendola – drums/percussion
  • Mark Clifford – vibes, marimba
  • Tara Flandreau – violin/viola
  • Fred Frith – guitar
  • Ben Goldberg – clarinet
  • Aurora Josephson – voice
  • Robert Lopez – percussion
  • Lisa Mezzacappa – acoustic bass
  • Larry Ochs – sopranino/tenor saxophone
  • Crystal Pascucci – cello
  • Karen Stackpole – gongs/tam tams/percussion
  • Willie Wynant – percussion/glockenspiel
  • Philip Krohn – creative direction

Click here for more information and tickets.

Faculty, People, Piano

John Mackay, pianist

John Mackay wrote his first song at 3 years old, and began piano studies at age 6. He began his professional career at age 18, playing the Hammond B-3 organ in a number of venues, including television and radio. He studied composition and arranging throughout the 70’s with various well-known teachers in Toronto, where he grew up, but fundamentally considers himself a self-taught musician, through years of listening and playing experience.

As a composer John is active in a number of different fields, including jazz, contemporary classical, theatre, pop and electronic music. He is presently working on a new musical theatre piece with well-known Canadian artist/writer Oliver Girling, based on the James Joyce novel, ‘Finnegan’s Wake’. And alongside that project he has created a 7 movement piece (short movements) around the famous Molly Bloom soliloquy at the end of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Visit John’s website to hear some of his music.

Board, chamber music, chamber music, Chamber Music, Faculty, People, Piano, Theory and Composition, Viola, Violin

Tara Flandreau ——– violinist and violist

Fourth-generation San Francisco native and long-time Marin resident Tara Flandreau is a violinist, violist, composer/improviser, and conductor.  She graduated from College of Marin and Dominican College, earning Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, and did doctoral work at Columbia University.  Tara has an extensive career as music educator and performing musician. She was chair of the Music and Performing Arts Departments at the College of Marin for many years, where she taught music theory and composition, ear training, strings, computer music notation software,  chamber music, and conducted the COM Symphony Orchestra.  Currently, Tara teaches string lessons and chamber music classes at MCMS, and plays in the ECHO Chamber Orchestra and the Marin Symphony.

Besides classical repertoire, Tara enjoys playing a wide variety of music, from performing at the Monterey Pops Festival recreation of the entire Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper Album, to a SF concert series celebrating the 100th birthday of composer John Cage.  She has performed and recorded with many improvising orchestras and free-jazz musicians.  Among her compositions is a short opera about SF eccentric Grimes Pozikov, the “Human Jukebox” who performed songs on his trumpet in a phone-booth sized box at Fisherman’s Wharf during the 1960’s – 1980’s..  

Tara has also created an extensive music theory resource website called  www.musictheoryteacher.com which has helped music students from around the world to better understand music theory.

Faculty, Guitar, People

Joe Marquez, Guitarist and Recording Engineer

Joe Marquez has been teaching guitar for 15 years, specializing in rock, pop and country. “I like to make lessons fun first, and I enjoy helping beginners gain the skills and confidence they need to experience the thrill of performing and composition.” 

As an artist Joe has placed songs with major label recording artists Cher and Wasp, earning gold and platinum records. His credits also include winning the John Lennon song writing contest for “Hang up Your Halo Tonight.” 

Joe worked as a recording engineer at Prairie Sun Recording in Cotati, where he recorded, mixed and played banjo on the 1992 Grammy winning Tom Waits album “Bone Machine.” He has engineered projects for Greg Allman, The Doobie Brothers, Dick Dale, Guy Clark, Ted Nugent, and the Melvins among others.

He specializes in teaching beginning and intermediate guitar and welcomes players of all ages. He is a father of two and shares his love of music with his family. When his daughter Madeline was 3 years old they recorded their first song together called “Bluebird of Happiness.” Joe also screens songs for the West Coast Songwriters Association and produces music for TV, commercials and film.

Board, Drums, Faculty, People

Sean Nelson, Drums/Percussion

Sean Nelson

Sean Nelson attended the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music Jazz Studies Program under Bob Brookmeyer in Holland, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Berklee School of Music. Since moving to SF in Fall 1996, Sean has had 24 years of professional teaching experience in the greater SF Bay Area, at the Community Music Center of SF, Marin Country Day School, and New Village Music. He joined the faculty of the Marin Community Music School in 2018.

In addition to being a teacher, Sean is also a professional musician performing in many different musical settings with a wide variety of musicians and groups. During his professional drumming career, he has shared the stage with many fine players and composers over more than 30 years playing drums professionally. 

In his lessons, students will get a well-rounded approach to drumming and drum set playing. They will learn the four fundamental drum strokes and the 26+ standard rudiments which make up a great deal of the language of drumming. They will study stick control exercises and snare drum reading fundamentals. They will also study drumset coordination using the rhythm concept of CLAVE (the rhythmic “key”) present in almost all music that has drumming and dancing.  Students will learn about the different rhythmic characteristics of style in music like Jazz, Rock, Funk, Afro-Cuban, Blues, New Orleans 2nd Line, Reggae, etc., and how to make beats and play songs. And we will also practice how to improvise, confidently creating rhythm in the moment and expressing our ideas on the drums.

chamber music, Chamber Music, Classes, Faculty, Lessons

Carol Adee, flutist & chamber coach

Flutist Carol Adee was surrounded by music growing up.  Holding a M.M. from Yale School of Music and a Waldorf Teaching Certificate, she has taught flute and chamber music at Stanford and Dominican Universities as well as Music and Musical Pedagogy for the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training.  

Her many years as Music Director at Marin Waldorf School have contributed to her collaborative spirit and interest in integrating music, story, art and movement into other subjects.  She is currently Music Director at Heartwood Charter School and a Teaching Artist for Enriching Lives through Music, an El Sistema program in Marin County working primarily with the vibrant multilingual children of the immigrant community.
As a performing musician, Carol has worked in a wide variety of new music, chamber and orchestral environments, having played with San Francisco Symphony, Ballet and Opera Orchestras along with other Bay Area orchestras, including touring and recording as principal flute with Women’s Philharmonic for 15 years.  Her solo CD Bach to Nature Three Suites in the Wilderness, has been distributed on several continents and on Spotify.  As a founding member of ECHO Chamber Orchestra, Carol is working to create more collaborative orchestral experiences for musicians and audiences.

Faculty, Guitar, People, Piano

Tommy O’Mahony

Tommy O’Mahony is a professional musician and educator with 15+ years of experience in playing and teaching. A Marin native and graduate of the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley with a Bachelors Degree in music, Tommy has experience teaching music theory and ear training as well as several instruments. In his instrumental lessons, he can teach specific playing techniques or just help you learn songs – on bass, guitar, piano or ukulele. Tommy welcomes students of all levels and ages.

Tommy O’Mahony

Chamber Music, chamber music, Faculty, Viola, Violin

Violist Meg Eldridge

Violist Meg Eldridge grew up in Marin County, and is an active orchestral and chamber musician, and string teacher.

Meg studied at the University of Michigan, the Manhattan School of Music, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She performs with the Marin Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, Carmel Bach Festival, and Philharmonia Healdsburg. She also plays violin with the Archangeli Baroque Strings, Marin Baroque of the Marin String Quartet, which gives concerts throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Meg plays on a viola that was made by Bronek Cison in Chicago in 2007, as well as on a French viola made in Mirecourt in the late 1800’s. She also teaches violin and viola at the Marin Waldorf School and at the Branson School.

Cello, Faculty, Guitar, People, Piano

David A. Lusterman, Founder

David Lusterman

David A. Lusterman is the president of Stringletter, which he founded in 1986, the media company that publishes Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar,  Strings, and Ukulele magazines.  He founded the Marin Community Music School in 2009.   David earned his B.A. in Comparative Literature at Columbia University and held staff positions at The New York Review of Books, democracy, The Nation, and [more].  He teaches beginning cello, guitar and piano.