Christopher Nifong
Bass
Guitar
Ukulele
Chris loves to help young people (and the young at heart) find the joy and freedom he has found through music!
Mr. Nifong is a guitarist, composer, and educator from Sudbury Massachusetts. He completed his Bachelors Degree in Guitar Performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston and is currently well on his way to completing his Masters in Music Education and Autism at Boston Conservatory.
From an early age Chris learned important lessons about music and the roles of different instruments . His father was assistant chair of the Ensemble Department at Berklee and a professor there at the college for 35 years. He fondly remembers his dad frequently bringing him into rehearsals at the college throughout his childhood.
Chris has studied guitar with Raja Kassis, Tim Miller, Jack Pezzanelli, Scott Tarulli, Jon Damian, Kevin Barry, Norm Zocher, Larry Baione, Jim Kelly, Joe Musella, Curtis Shumate, Guy Van Duser and a session with Mike Stern.
For more about Chris visit www.chrisnifong.com
Chris N. teaches
Friday
Stan Schertzer
Piano
Playing piano is his passion. Composition is his love. Teaching is a way to pass both of these joys on to his students.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music with a BM in Composition, Stan has 33 years of piano teaching experience in all mediums from pop and jazz to the classics. His strength is in the jazz idiom and improvisation.
Stan instills in his students the importance of creativeness and self-expression through their instrument.
He is currently playing keyboards and arranging for the SMS Jazz Project with his son Adam, performing in varied venues throughout the New England area. Stan was musical director and arranger from 1992 - 2016 for the late Cantor Jodi Schechtman of Temple Beth Am in Framingham - where he orchestrated and conducted numerous services and performances of an original Shabbat service entitled Shabbat Unplugged.
Stan teaches
Monday - Thursday
Becky Lightcap
Piano
Becky is thrilled to join the KAM team. A lifelong musician, experienced educator, and native of the Midwest, Becky has made her home in New England for the past 25 years. With a professional background in the fields of music and education, Becky now teaches piano full-time to beginners and intermediates of all ages.
For many people, the arts provide an avenue to continued learning and growth in all settings. Through the exploration of the enjoyable medium of music, skill building gives students an opportunity to refine their ability to listen, enhancing their development in all social and cognitive areas. The process involved in gaining skills is dynamic and flexible, and Becky enjoys tailoring each student’s lessons to their individual needs. By combining her dual passions of music and mentoring, Becky’s goal is to foster an ongoing love of music for personal enjoyment and to enhance learning through listening.
Becky teaches
Thursday & Friday
Miss Karen teaches
Tuesday - Friday 2 - 9 PM
&
Saturday 9 AM - 4 PM
Karen Amlaw
(a.k.a. Miss Karen)
Piano
Ms. Amlaw’s education includes a BA in psychology / music from the University of Rochester/Eastman School of Music where her principal instrument was violin. She has studied voice with Karen Lykes (currently professor of voice at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music), Maria Ferrante, world renowned soprano Maria Spacagna, and veteran MET dramatic mezzo soprano Sondra Kelly. Her coaches have included Brian Moll, Olga Rogach and Bradley Pennington, founder of Boston Bel Canto Opera. She is currently under the tutelage of for MET conductor Maestro Steven Crawford. Ms. Amlaw also has done graduate work in Elementary Education at the University of Rochester.
Ms. Amlaw has taught in after school and summer school music programs in both Worcester, MA and Rochester, NY. In addition to directing the Kids on Keys Program. she has been the traveling music teacher for the YWCA in Worcester and Westborough, MA and a regular guest artist / music educator at Noodle, Noggin' and Bean, a parent/child interactive educational learning center in Northborough, MA. She has owned and operated Karen Amlaw Music since 2005.
Mauri Tetreault
Voice
Mauri has been teaching voice to students of all ages and abilities across the New England area for over two decades. Her pedagogical approach is not only rooted in a foundation of excellent vocal technique, but also in the creation of well-rounded musicians prepared for all aspects of the profession including diction of singing languages, dramatic interpretation, music theory, recital curation, and audition preparation.
Dedicated to helping students find repertoire that excites them and is appropriate for their voice, Mauri works with her thriving private vocal studio on a variety of repertoire ranging from pop and musical theater to art song and opera. Mauri has found particular success with high school students and has greatly enjoyed being part of their musical and personal development at such a transformational time in their lives.
Besides maintaining a private studio, she has also held positions at Marlborough High School, King Philip Regional High School, Joanne Warren Dance Academy, Ailey Dance Camp and the Jeanne Drumm Music Academy.
She has helped several students apply and audition for competitive undergraduate voice programs, worked with them to create successful ongoing practice regimens, and instilled in them a high degree of interpretive skill and musicality.
Mauri’s active performing career allows her to engage with students in a direct and practical way about the ways in which studio work translates to performance. Her roles have included Stepmother and the Witch (cover) / Into the Woods with Boston Festival Orchestra, Alma March / Little Women with MassOpera, Miss Todd / Old Maid and the Thief with Hartford Opera Theater, and Mercedes / Carmen with New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. Mauri also appears regularly in the professional ensemble of Boston’s Grammy winning Odyssey Opera.
Mauri recently performed and recorded Awakenings and Lord of Cries, both with Odyssey Opera and BMOP. On the concert platform, she has appeared as a soloist with organizations around New England, recently performing a solo recital of Spanish and American folk songs. She can be heard weekly at Wellesley Village Church.
Mauri earned her Bachelor of Music from the University of UMASS Lowell, and her Master of
Music from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
As an educator, Mauri believes the art of
teaching voice is ever evolving and keeps up with her schooling by attending Vocal Pedagogy
classes at The Boston Conservatory.
Mauri teaches
Wednesday
Chris K. teaches
Saturday 1 - 5 PM
&
Wednesday 6:30 - 9 PM
Chris Kapitz
Percussion
Guitar
Bass
Piano
Chris Kapitz is a Berklee College of Music graduate and has been teaching and playing drums professionally for more than 20 years. He has played live music in the Berklee Percussion ensemble under the direction of Boston Pops esplanade orchestra principal percussionist Dean Anderson, jazz and pop performances with Lynn Jolicoeur and The Pulse, the Travis Kapitz Goodspeed trio, and for years has been the pit band drummer for the Westborough Community Chorus and Southborough Singers. He has recorded and played with rock bands Ely's Gin and Magnara, as well as playing for numerous wedding parties and musical stage productions in Central Mass and Boston. His host of teachers include Gary Chaffee (author of the Patterns book series and teacher of Vinnie Colaiuta of Sting, Steve Smith of Journey, and Joey Kramer of Aerosmith), Richard Flanagan (percussionist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Rod Morgenstein (Winger, Dixie Dregs), and master Latin drummer Bobby Sanabria.
His students have gone on to great accomplishments such as playing in school and district bands, collegiate marching bands, the Brandeis University jazz band, and playing live onstage with Shania Twain at the Boston Garden.
He is experienced in orchestral percussion and various styles on drum set, Kapitz teaches students with many diverse interests, and those of all ages.
New String Instructors Coming Soon
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