Category Archives: People

Four Questions for David Lusterman

What music are you playing these days for your own enjoyment and what made you choose it?

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote “6 Suites for Violoncello Solo senza basso” which are now among the most recognizable solo pieces in classical string literature, especially the Prelude to the first Suite in the key of G major. The sixth of these Suites in D major is an outlier, because it was composed for a five-stringed instrument called the violoncello piccolo or viola pomposa which was rare even in Bach’s time.

Professional performers seem comfortable playing the sixth Suite on a regular four-stringed cello, but I’ve always steered clear of attempting it, though I’ve studied and played the other five Suites. Recently I decided to transpose the piece from the original key of D down to G, which changes its sonority but makes it vastly more accessible on my instrument. I’m having a great time. Each of the six suites has a different character. This one projects a feeling of joy and confidence, which I find particularly uplifting right now.

Who were your biggest musical influences and what did you learn from them?

My father loved to sing and he expected me and my two sisters to sing with him. We sang in the car on any trip that lasted more than five minutes. Folk tunes, show tunes, old ballads, rounds. I’m forever grateful. Thanks to New York State’s rational public education priorities, my grade school music teachers, Arlene Fisk and Ira Krupenye, got me started with choral and instrumental music. My early inspirations were Pablo Casals, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, and Ali Akbar Khan. From each I took away a realization there is really no boundary around any kind of music and that character and culture are always in foment.

What’s your advice for busy adult students who can’t always practice regularly?

Schedule a 15-minute daily practice time on your calendar, as early in the day as possible. Even if you can’t get to it every day, you’ve demonstrated a positive intention!

Start your 15 minutes with something very basic, like a slow scale or a simple rhythmic pattern or even just long tones. If you do nothing else in that session, you’ll enjoy the resonance of your instrument or your voice and derive a sense of satisfaction.

Never beat yourself up about missing a practice time or cutting one short. In fact, don’t ever beat yourself up about anything.

Sing to yourself in the car or the shower or anywhere else you find yourself alone. If you can sing something you’re learning on your instrument, so much the better. If not, just sing!

How has your approach to teaching evolved over time?

I’m wrestling with the tension between the two primary ways of teaching music – the aural tradition and the written tradition. Learning by ear is laborious yet ultimately liberating, because it forces us to rely on not just our senses but our thoughts and feelings as well. Learning by eye is efficient but can be terribly misleading, because so much musical information is missing from the page. I have been asking my students to take the songs they can sing by ear and play them from the page in hopes of wedding these two fundamental methods. It’s too soon to say how it’s working.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Four Questions for Sean Nelson, Drum Instructor, Marin Community Music School

What’s gotten you excited about music recently and how has that impacted your teaching?  

Two things. 

One is going back to the fundamentals of snare drumming and working on the techniques I first studied as a freshman at Berklee [College of Music] in Boston back in 1990 with books like Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Snare Drum Studies by classical percussionist Mitchell Peters, The All American Drummer and Modern Rudimental Swing Solos by Charles Wilcoxon, and Accents and Rebounds by G. L. Stone. Stone describes the four primary ways you strike a drum with a stick. They are the Full, Down, Tap, and Up Strokes. Working on these techniques and exercises can seem tedious and sometimes feel awkward but it trains you to play more efficiently over time. When you minimize extra motion you create a smooth relaxed flow while playing.

The other exciting thing is a giant book of jazz transcriptions that I found online by Vinnie Ruggiero called simply Vinnie’s Book.

It’s basically a book on bebop drumming transcribed from actual recordings. The author was close with some of the biggest legends of jazz drumming. The language they created and the way that they developed the instrument was picked up on and copied by many of the rock drummers of the 60’s, who then influenced everyone after them.

I love the history of the instrument almost as much as I love playing it. I’ve been using these phrases and techniques together to teach students of all levels of ability the language of drum set while working on coordination and playing efficiently.

Where and when can members of the MCMS community hear you in action?

I play a lot of gigs in all kinds of settings. I’m a freelance drummer. I play in a couple of local Bay Area groups that are doing original songs and actively making records. One is Go By Ocean and can be found on Spotify or other streaming services. The other is the Alex Jordan Band who is doing a North West Tour in the fall. I met Alex at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael where I was one of the house drummers for 9 years. There were a lot of talented people around that scene and a lot of great music to play. It really was a gig factory, as guitarist Scott Law used to say. I was sad to see it close but through those connections I still play a good amount of Grateful Dead and other cover band music. I’m also drumming on an album by Canadian songwriter Gord Downie (Tragically Hip) and music producer Bob Rock. It’s called Lustre Parfait and was released in April 2023. I play on the title track and three other songs on the album.

How can students practice more effectively and enjoyably?

Practicing is what we should teach, primarily. That is what I think in-person lessons are mostly about. You’re not going to learn how to practice from a YouTube channel. They might tell you what, but almost never how to practice. Showing students how to manage their practice time in a creative and thorough way is so important. Far more than just what part to play for the song. A student needs a plan! I am always coaching my students to make sure they cover three parts of a good practice routine:

WARM UP.

WORK OUT. 

PLAY! 

Ideally in that order. You choose something from each category each time you sit down to practice, taking a little break between each category. This keeps things from getting boring or overly frustrating. My students warm up first (5-10 minutes) with sticking patterns and rudiments (think scales for drums) as well as other technique-based fundamentals. 

Once they are warmed up (both physically and mentally) they’re ready to start working on what they can’t yet do well. After 20 minutes or so of real focus on challenging work they are encouraged to take another short break. Then they PLAY. Always find time to be playful with what you have previously practiced

I very much encourage students to improvise and be creative and to try and make the thing they are working on their own. Once they have done that, it’s much harder to forget. I could go on and on about practicing. When someone says practicing is boring they aren’t doing it right. 

What have you learned lately from one of your students?

I have an adult student who is a beginner drummer and an avid swimmer. When I was demonstrating the wave-like motion of the arm and wrist while playing a pattern on the ride cymbal he told me how his swimming coach discussed a similar motion with the arm starting at the side  of the body and reaching outward and extending fully over head before releasing and pulling back to the side. It’s called the serape effect, where the rotation of a large body is transferred to a smaller body, causing acceleration. He noticed that it was a macro move very similar to what I was doing (micro) with my forearm, wrist and fulcrum, where I hold the stick between the thumb and finger. It’s all about the efficiency of the motion of the body and waves are powerful both big and small.

Thanks, Sean, great to speak with you!

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.

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.

Astrid Cifuentes, Piano & Voice

Astrid Cifuentes attended San Francisco State University and received her Bachelors in Art with a focus in voice, taking voice classes and private voice lessons in vocal technique and interpretation.  She fell in love with classical music, particularly the music of Franz Schubert, as it helped her find her true voice.

However, Astrid’s musical journey truly began when she was much younger. She was seven years old when she started singing in her father’s band, playing and performing Cumbia, Duranguense, Norteño, Quebraditas and other latin styles in Guatemala. She continued singing and playing with the band after her family moved to the United States, as well as singing in her school choir and participating in talent shows with her older sister.

Astrid has been teaching piano and voice for several years and enjoys watching her students grow musically. Her goal in teaching is to help each of her students embrace their given gift and enjoy their musical journey, and to share her knowledge with those who aspire to develop their musical talent.

Teach at MCMS

From time to time the Marin Community Music School has the need for additional teachers.  Students at the school vary from beginner to advanced, and from ages 6 to 80.  Styles taught are varied, from classical to rock, blues, and folk. MCMS receives requests for lessons from students and/or parents, and teachers arrange their own schedules at the school.  There are five teaching studios.  Lessons can be scheduled during the day or evening on weekdays, or on weekends (except during scheduled group class times).

If you are interested in teaching at MCMS, please consider sending us your resume. We require previous teaching experience and formal music training, preferably with a Bachelors degree in music, and/or equivalent professional performing experience.  Currently we are looking for qualified teachers for flute and voice.

You can email any inquiries, questions or resumes here

or send your resume to Marin Community Music School, 55 San Anselmo Avenue, San Anselmo, CA 94960

Janet Lewis

Janet Lewis’ expertise in financial management makes her a valuable addition to the MCMS board.   She received her MBA from the University of California at Berkeley, and has worked in local non-profit financial management for many years.  Janet’s children were among the first students to study at the Marin Community Music School when it opened in 2009.  Janet plays the cello and enjoys playing chamber music – especially playing in a trio with her fellow board members, violinist Lois Lane and pianist Adrienne Roth.

Lois Lane

Lois Lane is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a longstanding psychotherapy practice in San Anselmo where she sees individuals and couples. She was also supervisor of Children’s Services for Marin County Community Mental Health. Her other longstanding avocation has been playing music. She was fortunate enough to study violin from a young age at Third Street Music Settlement School in Manhattan. In a public high school in New Jersey she participated in a regular orchestra, a string orchestra and played in a string quartet. This early enrichment led to a life long love of playing the violin, taking lessons and making music with others.   She is very grateful to participate in the Chamber Music Program at MCMS. Her goal as a Board Member is to strengthen the music programs at MCMS so other children can have the opportunity to discover the joys of making music.

In her spare time she is an avid gardener, with a large organic vegetable garden.

Adrienne Roth

Long-time San Anselmo resident Adrienne Roth has had two careers, one in education and another in real estate, as well as a life-long passion for music. As an educator, she aided in the development of the California legislation that enabled the California Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program and subsequently administered the GATE program for the San Anselmo schools. She moved into real estate sales with Merrill Lynch, and has been a broker with Frank Howard Allen, now Coldwell Banker, since 1985.

Adrienne earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Brandeis University, majoring in psychology and minoring in music, and her Master of Education degree at Harvard University. She plays the piano.