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ANNIE
JACOBO
Violin
Annie is a student at IUSB pursing a degree in the Bachelor Of Arts, with a focus in violin, studying under violinist Jameson Cooper.
Annie has been playing the violin since the age of 12 and currently plays in the IUSB Philharmonic Orchestra. In her free time she enjoys spending time with family and friends, and being at home with her cat.
Annie says, “I enjoy inspiring others with music and teaching. I look forward to meeting and working with you!”
DON LERMAN
Saxophone
Josh is a cellist, symphonic conductor, and arts administrator. He has performed throughout the US and abroad as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Josh can be heard on numerous recordings, is a founding member of the Sylvan Trio and the Gichigami Piano Trio, and has premiered a variety of new works as both conductor and cellist.
Josh is Music Director with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Columbus, Indiana, Director of the Woodland Chamber Music Workshop, and Executive Director of The Music Village.
Josh received a Master of Music degree in Cello Performance from the University of Colorado, and completed his undergraduate work at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Oberlin College.
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VINCENZO
CARRASCO
Drums
Kami began her career at the age of five, before she could read, by taking lessons at Gene Van’s Conservatory of Music. Mr. Van believed that the ability to recite the alphabet and count was a solid enough foundation, despite her young age.
During that time, she was a member of the award winning all-accordion orchestra. They have reunited over the years to participate in fundraisers and concerts. Throughout the course of her 50+ year accordion career, she has also competed independently in, and won, many state and national contests.
She has experience teaching children, teenagers, and adults.
JOSH AERIE
Cello
WENDELYN DALY
Children's Music Specialist
KAMI GUNNOE
Accordion
OUR INSTRUCTORS
Dave is an award-winning graduate of the McNally Smith College of Music. He has over twenty years of guitar instruction experience in a variety of styles including rock, jazz, heavy metal, pop, etc. He has almost thirty years of experience with ensemble playing as a professional in the local area. Additional teaching skills include music transcription and theory.
DAVE DENLINGER
Guitar and Music Theory
South Bend native Don Lerman is a jazz saxophonist who would like to pass on musical knowledge that he has been fortunate to gain to others. He has taught both private lessons (on saxophone and clarinet) and in classrooms at jazz camps (University of Wisconsin Green Bay), and most recently taught lessons at Quinlan and Fabish in Mishawaka. His experience as a professional arranger and performer in groups in both the Washington, DC, and South Bend areas is helpful in his efforts to provide practical and in depth musical information to students.
Wendelyn has been singing since she was two, and music has always played a huge role in her life. She used music in her early childhood classrooms to teach, comfort, support, and bring more joy to the day. With an Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education, over 20 years of experience teaching, and experience presenting music workshops to local childcare facilities, as well as State and University level Early Childhood Conferences, she is always looking for ways to add music to the community.
Vincenzo has more than 10 years of teaching experience and has been a professional
drummer for almost 30 years. He was the lead drummer for UZIMA! Drum and Dance
for many years, has performed with countless local bands, and is currently the drummer
for a popular cover band called Mr. Z.
Bruce Morrow brings to The Music Village a lifetime of experience teaching and performing on the violin. Bruce was born and raised in South Bend where he began his violin studies at the age of 8. In 1980 he received a Master of Music in Violin Performance from Indiana University – Bloomington where he studied with Franco Gulli and Henryk Kolwalski. After graduating he was appointed concertmaster of the New York Harlem Opera Ensemble orchestra, with whom he toured Europe, performing nearly 200 performances of the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. He then spent four years playing opera in Austria as a member of the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra.
After returning to South Bend, Bruce performed with a number of regional orchestras, maintained a small teaching studio, and eventually found himself managing the String Instrument division of The Woodwind and the Brasswind. For the past seventeen years Bruce worked for the violin workshop of William Harris Lee & Co., while he continued teaching and performing in the South Bend area. Bruce has recently retired from William Harris Lee & Co. to devote all of his time and energy teaching violin and viola.
BRUCE MORROW
Violin and Viola
Buddy offers private, and group class instruction for beginning or advanced electric and upright bass. Playing and teaching lessons for over 20 years, Buddy offers a wealth of “know how” in terms of technique, reading music, playing with others, playing various music styles, and much more.
DENNIS "BUDDY" PEARSON
Guitar, Bass, Double Bass and Ukulele
Rebekah is a classically trained pianist with a passion for teaching. She loves music because it is such a great way to express creativity as well as technicality and skill! Rebekah is thrilled to be teaching at TMV because she wants to share her passion with others and help them achieve their musical goals. Some of Rebekah's favorite composers are Beethoven and Chopin. Outside of piano Rebekah loves to paint and play with her two dogs.
REBEKAH SCOTT
Piano
Lyric tenor Michael Snyder graduated from the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree, with a concentration in vocal performance.
After graduating from CUA, he studied English repertoire, in the United Kingdom, with Robert Tear, Eric Crozier, and Nancy Evans. He sings most everything from Bach to Broadway.
Michael also serves on the administrative team at TMV as Program Coordinator.
MICHAEL SNYDER
Voice
Melinda is a certified Musik Garten Instructor and Piano instructor.
MELINDA
WESOLOWSKI
Piano
Quin Wezeman is a tenor, actor, and music educator from Mishawaka, Indiana. In 2020 he received a B.A. in Music with a focus in Vocal Performance, from Indiana University South Bend, and is currently pursuing a M.M in Vocal Performance at Indiana University South Bend, studying under acclaimed international tenor, Emanuel Caraman.
As a performing musician, Quin’s flexibility in genre and style has given him the opportunities of performing with regional opera and musical theater companies, Indie Music Festivals, and even Carnegie Hall. Quin’s recent staged performances include the South Bend Lyric Opera’s productions of Don Giovanni (Don Ottavio Cover/Chorus), La Traviata (Flora’s Servant), and Cavalleria Rusticana (Chorus), as well as Art 4’s production of Songs for a New World (Man 1 Understudy). Some festival performance highlights include Performing Media Fest, Michigan City Pride Music Festival, Rebel Arts Fest, and River Lights Music Festival.
QUIN WEZEMAN
Voice
Sean Conlon is an educator, bassist, DJ, and music producer from Milwaukee, WI. He has lived his passion for music and taught for 3 decades. His music has sold internationaly and been featured on television. As both a bassist and DJ'ing as the Funky Professor he has performed from Seattle to New Orleans with appearances at Seattle's Bumbershoot, Milwaukee's Summerfest, the BurningMan Festival, Chicago's Cabaret Metro, South Bend's Reggae Festival, Venice Beach, the Traverse City Film Festival, Kalamazoo's Black Arts Festival, Three
Oak's Acorn Theater, LangLab, Martha's, Vegetable Buddie's, and Czar's 505.
Sean currently teaches the BeatLab, where students explore the creative world of modern music making with Apple's Garageband. He developed the BeatLab at Nuner and Perley Fine Arts Academies where he worked for over a decade. He also worked as a bass instructor at Hoosier Dad's Music and as a Pro Audio Manager at Guitar Center helping customers with computer recording, DJ rigs, and PA systems. He has taught an African American music history class at Portland Community College and worked at Seattle's Experience Music Project. In addition to the BeatLab he teaches bass lessons, Ableton Live, DJ'ing, GarageBand, and audio production/recording.
Sean Conlon
Beat Lab & Recording Arts
Krysta Hawkley
Piano
Krysta studied piano pedagogy & performance at Goshen College (BA in Music, 2003) and Westminster Choir College (MM in Piano Pedagogy & Performance, 2006). Throughout her education, Krysta had the opportunity to learn from a variety of well-respected pedagogues, many of whom were colleagues or students of Frances Clark - widely considered the mother of modern American piano pedagogy. Krysta's teaching is driven by the belief that every person deserves the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. Whether a student comes from a long line of musicians or they're the first in their family to play a musical instrument, she works hard to create a safe environment in which they can explore music and the piano.
Jay Kolin
Piano
Jay is a piano faculty member at the School of American Music in Three Oaks Michigan and the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, in addition to the Music Village. He has studied with Vladimir Leyetchkiss, Darryl Rosenberg, Leena Crothers, and Sara Kohane, among others. He is also trained and certified to teach Suzuki piano.
His other interests include raising 3 dogs, gardening, and landscaping. He was worked with the Peace Corps in Togo, with WorldTeach Kenya through Harvard University, and with Kisumu International School, also in Kenya. He is a graduate of Hampshire College and Boston University, both in Massachusetts.
Julius Miller
Voice
Julius Cruse Miller, III is a lyric baritone from Detroit, MI. During the summer of 2015, Mr. Miller took part in the OperaMaya Young Artist program in Mexico and attending the program again in the summer of 2018 on a full scholarship. In the summer of 2016, Mr. Miller performed the role of Count Almaviva in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy. Mr. Miller has performed as a soloist with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, was a featured soloist at the Detroit Spiritual Festival, played the role of the Father in the South Bend Lyric Opera’s production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s, “Hansel and Gretel” Marullo in “Rigoletto”. Mr. Miller has also music directed a few shows with the United Youth Theatre in South Bend, and is a member of the Gamma Eta chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon International Professional Music Fraternity, Inc.
Austin Carlson, is a drummer and multi-instrumentalist, who has been playing drums for over 20 years. He studied music for 2 years at Southwestern Michigan College, and is currently working on his latest album for his solo project, in which he writes and records all of the music.
Austin Carlson
Drums
Kevin Joiner
Guitar/Bass/Ukulele
Kevin Joiner is a musician, composer, and performer with over 20 years' experience on stage and in studio. With a focus on guitar and vocal-based musical composition in multiple genres, he has spent the last decade honing his skills as a musician and songwriter on a variety of projects throughout the United States and abroad. In that time, he has had the opportunity to instruct burgeoning musical talents of all ages and skill levels, in both individual and group settings.
Through that experience, he has learned the benefits of determining the specific needs and particular learning styles of each student, and tailoring his instructional approach accordingly. While stressing the idea that music appreciation and participation are natural to everyone, he also provides his students with the tools and encouragement necessary to translate recreational musicianship into public performance. As such, he’s had the honor of seeing many of his students become professional songwriters and performers.
Kevin’s creative work has been featured in award-winning and critically-acclaimed indie films and web series, as well as in opening sets for national and international acts including Destiny's Child. His compositions have also been performed at world-famous events such as Walt Disney World's Magic Music Days and the Florida Strawberry Festival.
Kevin is available as an instructor for beginner through advanced guitar (acoustic or electric) and songwriting, as well as for beginner through intermediate bass and ukulele.