Stephen Clair started playing the guitar when he was 11, and has been teaching the instrument for 25 years. He has taught music at the Randolph School where he continues to oversee the music lessons program, and for many years led weekly sing-alongs for kids under the name Singalong Slim.
He is the music teacher at the Mill Street Loft's Summer Arts Camp, and he's taught songwriting to kids at Little Red Schoolhouse in NYC. A critically acclaimed songwriter, Clair has released four solo albums and toured the U.S. as both a solo artist and as bandleader. He's the founder of Local 845, a live-music concert producer, that has presented a wide variety of top-notch artists in the region. He runs Beacon Riverfest, an annual rock music festival on Beacon's waterfront. Inspired by his experience teaching at the Gowanus Music Club in Brooklyn, he started his own school of rock called Rock Band Boot Camp, and its home is now here at the Beacon Music Factory. He was honored in October 2011 with a County Executive Arts Award for being an inspiring teacher and dedicated organizer of live music.
Josh Stark is a musician and artist living in Wappingers Falls NY. Originally from Portland OR, Josh spent many years living in Brooklyn working in experimental theatre and film, with the likes of artists such as Richard Foreman, The Wooster Group, Hal Hartley, DJ Mendel, Big Dance Theater, Accinosco, and GAle Gates et. al., to name a few. In the 2000's he was a fixture in Brooklyn's roots-country scene, playing upright bass with Gloria Deluxe, Matty Charles and the Valentines, and others. He has travelled the United States and the world as a musician and performer. Josh currently plays electric bass with The Octomen, and Bill Speers Project. He also plays drums with Brooklyn's The Totallys and Beacon's Im Better Now. Josh is the Music Tech at SUNY New Paltz.
Michael Farkas is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, actor, clown and teacher best known for his work as the front man of the popular performance band THE WIYOS, which specializes in 'oldturnative music', that draws inspiration from vaudeville, ragtime, jugband, blues, hillbilly, swing and the American songbook spanning from the early teens through the 1940's. Michael has toured extensively, most recently as the opening act for Bob Dylan, WIllie Nelson & John Melloncamp, and was a featured act in the BBC Documentary Folk America. He has performed for several seasons in the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Series, at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and literally hundreds of festivals, clubs, and theaters across the U.S. and Europe.
Sarah Terrell currently teaches piano to young students ages 4-9 from her home studio in Beacon. With a background as a professional singer/dancer/actress, Sarah has sung and danced everywhere from Hawaii to Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Now in the field of Arts Education, she was most recently the Director of Education at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill, where she programmed the School-Time series of live theater, music and dance for area school districts. Sarah has worked as a teaching artist with the Wolftrap Early Learning Through the Arts (ELTA) program in Pre-K classes throughout NYC, and was a teacher at Gymboree, specializing in classes for infants to age 3.
Tina McVey-Cody, lyric soprano, is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music. She has performed as a soloist with Boston Pro Musica, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and with the Boston Symphony & Boston Pops. In the New York area, she has continued her vocal career as a soloist with Cappella Festiva, Tri-County Opera, the Bardavon Opera, Taconic Opera, Opera Drammatica, the NY Opera Forum and The Light Opera Company of Salisbury. She has appeared in various roles including Barbarina in the Marriage of Figaro, Mercedes in Carmen, Papagena in the Magic Flute, Berta in Barber of Seville, Musetta in La Boheme and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. When not singing, Mrs. Cody teaches voice and piano lessons and early childhood music in several private schools and institutions in the area.
Kathleen Patrick is a freelance violinist, violist, and teaching artist who has performed extensively in the greater Boston and New York City metro areas, performing with a wide range of various orchestras, opera, and chamber ensembles, from the Boston Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Boston, Central Park Summerstage, to Broadway shows and many Carnegie Hall productions. She has worked with such worldclass musicians and conductors as Seiji Ozawa, John Williams,Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Christopher O’Riley, and Malcolm Lowe, among many others. Her primary teachers were Dana Mazurkevich, Mary-Lou Speaker Churchill, and Roman Totenburg on violin, and Michael Zaretsky, Eugene Lehner, and Stephanie Baer on viola. Ms. Patrick teaches part-time in several private schools in the greater New York area, as well as teaching out of her home studio in Beacon, NY. She continues to perform and teach, bringing music to people of all ages and backgrounds.
Al Hemberger has enjoyed plenty of variety in his musical development. He plays and teaches electric bass, acoustic upright bass, guitars and keyboards. He owns and operates The Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, NY where he has recorded artists from Rihanna to Rod Stewart to Christina Aguilera to The Jonas Brothers and hundreds more. He is an accomplished music producer and songwriter having scored twenty plays during the Loft's earlier incarnation as The Loft Film and Theater Center. Al taught music at The Bronxville Nursery School, The Bronxville Day Camp and ran Loft Band at The Loft long before Rock School was invented. He has written and co-written hundreds of songs and has had songs placed in TV shows, movies, and video games. He plays in as many bands and with as many artists as he possibly can, including The Renovators, Tiki Daddy, Uncle Wade, The Foundry All Stars, The Storm Kings, Stephen Clair, Kathleen Pemble, Local 845 All Stars to name a few. He has played with John Oates, Richard Shindell, John Denver, Marvin Hamlish, Don Henley, Dianne Sawyer, Dave Mason, Charles Kuralt, and Stephen Schwartz.
Evan Schwartz started playing guitar at the age of 11 and has never looked back. After years in high school garage bands, Evan studied music and audio engineering at NYU. Over the last 20 years he’s performed with a number of rock and blues bands including Paul Byrne & The Bleeders, The Challengers and Play-doh’s Republic. A bluesman at heart, Evan has been a regular of the tri-state ‘Blues Jam’ scene for two decades. When he’s not playing, he’s busy teaching guitar. Evan has instructed dozens of students both privately and at the C-Note Music School, where he started the Rock Band Workshop project. A self-proclaimed ‘Tone Junkie’, he has devoted years to perfecting his electric guitar sound. From classic guitars, to vintage tube amps, to building his very own effects pedals, he’s uncovered the many factors that contribute to the sound of an electric guitar. He’s excited to share this knowledge with you.
Press Release December 2011
