Robel is WBSM’s longest tenured young student. In addition to piano with Tasha Baron, he now takes violin lessons with Kale Baglyos-Reed. Robel sets very high standards for himself and is a fine example for other young students. He always participates in our student recitals and often composes and plays his own music for those occasions. He is inevitably the best dressed student young or old in the recital. He currently plays violin at South High School in the high school orchestra.
How long have you been a student at WBSM?
I have been a musical student of West Bank School of Music for over 11 years.
What’s something fun you’re doing with music now?
Something enjoyable that I’m doing with music is that I’m composing my own music!
What’s your musical goal?
My musical goal is to be as great as all the classical composers of history!
What do you like best about the West Bank School of Music?
What I like best about West Bank School of Music is their effort into teaching their students!
Student Spotlight – Robel
Meet Karen Mueller
We caught up with Karen Mueller, who shares her thoughts on the school, and about how to be an aspiring musician. Karen teaches many styles of music on many different instruments including guitar, mandolin, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, and the ukulele. She is currently accepting new students!
How long have you taught at WBSM?
Since August of 1989, shortly after I moved to the Twin Cities from Lawrence, Kansas. I had been teaching on and off since high school before that, about ten years.
What is it about WBSM that has kept you teaching here all these years?
The school really respects its teachers, on many levels. It allows the teachers to teach in the way that they know best in order to reach their students. Students have unique goals and interests, and rather than having a “one curriculum fits all” approach, the school lets teachers address each student’s needs. For instance, an adult learner who wants to learn a few guitar chords for fun will be taught differently than a high schooler preparing for a classical piano contest.
I also like my studio room, on the second floor with two big windows.
What do you like most about teaching?
I’ve always loved teaching, breaking things down so others can understand. I enjoy the challenge of finding the point of connection with a student where they will learn best because they are motivated by the music. I use repertoire to teach theory, and make sure that students like the music they’re learning, whatever the style. Then we see lots of those “ah-ha” moments. It also constantly introduces me to great new music that they bring in.
What is the biggest challenge about being a performing musician?
One big challenge is also one of its highlights: the constant multi-tasking and diverse activities involved in having a music career. At any given time, I might be rehearsing with two different bands for upcoming performances, working on a new a solo recording project, planning lessons for elementary music classes, booking next year’s gigs, mailing out my CDs sold online, buying plane tickets, and teaching 30 private lessons in a week.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring students who would like to be performing artists?
Get as good as you can possibly get at your craft. Take classes and workshops in your art form and also in business topics, like those offered at Springboard for the Arts. Network with others in your field. Start with small gigs- be confident but realistic. Don’t quit your day job, especially if it provides insurance. If you do quit, buy your own insurance.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give aspiring students who would like to teach?
I would encourage them to examine why they want to teach. Is it for extra income only, or is there a real interest in people and communicating a love of music? Do they have a solid musical foundation to draw from? They will be most successful at it if there is a desire to share and the skill to back it up. And lots of patience! It can also be helpful to observe other teachers in action.
Help me finish this sentence: Most people don’t know I love…
I keep backyard chickens, breeds like the Barred Rock and Buff Orpington. They are very sweet-tempered birds, each with a distinct personality. They are pets who get to live long and happy lives.
What bands/collaborations are you in?
Since 2000 I’ve worked with singer Katie McMahon, original lead singer from Riverdance. Our main performances feature a band, singers and Irish dancers, and take place primarily at Christmas, St. Patrick’s, and Irish Fair. Coming up this spring I have shows with singer-songwriter Rachel Nelson and drummer Michael Kiley, as well as with fiddler Zack Kline and his group Orange Mighty Trio. One of my favorite school residency projects is making dulcimers and then teaching students to play them, and I often collaborate with Ross Sutter on these. I do solo performances nationwide, where I also play with other musicians in their sets at festivals. A trio has grown from that consisting of two wonderful multi-instrumentalists, one from Missouri and one from Maryland, and myself. We’ll be playing together next month on Florida and again this summer in Kentucky. How’s that for geography?
To find out more:
To get info on Karen’s recordings and touring schedule visit her website at: www.karenmueller.com . She has four solo CDs, including a new one due out this spring, and has written three autoharp and dulcimer books. To sign up for lessons or to find out more, you have many options. Stop by or call our front office at 612-333-6651, email us at info@wbsm.org, or sign up for lessons online on our registration page.
Faculty Recital – Feb 12th
Mark your calendars for our faculty recital
Meet Paul Renz
Paul Renz is the Director of Jazz Studies at WBSM (since 1996) and graduated summa cum laude from both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory. Paul shares his thoughts with us today on the school, and the joys of being a teacher and a professional musician. If you’re interested in taking lessons with Paul or joining a jazz ensemble, please contact our front office or register online.
I was hired at the West Bank School of Music in 1993, shortly after moving here from Norfolk, Virginia. So I’ve been teaching at the school for 18 years. When I started with the school there were no formal jazz classes being offered, so I proposed to develop a jazz studies program that would include jazz theory, improvisation, jazz composition, and arranging classes, as well as jazz ensembles. In the span of 18 years, I have met, recruited, taught, and befriended many wonderfully unique and talented people. The jazz program has continued to grow and is now an integral part of the school curriculum. The ensembles in particular have flourished. I have been teaching 4 adult jazz ensembles, essentially uninterrupted, for the last 12 years. Performing in the community – clubs, restaurants, churches, recitals, and in-home concerts – is a major component of the jazz ensemble program. There is nothing like impending gigs to motivate students to hone their skills and hunker down with the repertoire. I think that providing students with opportunities to perform, and the process of preparing and practicing for gigs, as professionals would, is one of the most unique and defining aspects of the ensembles I direct. As all musicians know, it is extremely hard to meet on a regular basis with other players, much less having an educator and professional musician to coordinate the rehearsals, guide and mentor. (students invariably blossom in this environment and crucially, learn to listen to other players and function as a jazz ensemble – supporting and responding to one another) There is a significant, untapped market for this kind of “guided” ensemble playing and the WBSM is striving to meet that need.
I perform frequently in the region, as a solo guitarist, and with my own larger groups – trio, quartet, and quintet. Booking gigs is one of the most challenging aspects of being a professional musician. It requires a whole different skill set that has nothing to do with music ability, building and maintaining your chops etc…You have to be a good “people-person,” amiable, articulate, organized, and altogether buttoned up. You have to know the business, and know how to gauge what you can ask for (money) given the wide array of venues you’ll be approaching. This single impediment – the required business acumen, persistence, and personality needed to get gigs – is largely responsible for the drop-out syndrome that plagues so many musicians. I address many of these issues at my Jazz Insights Blog, and hope you’ll take some time to check it out. http://paulrenz.com/blog
I feel good about my own evolution as a guitarist and composer. I continue to practice 2 or 3 hours a day, in addition to my normal teaching schedule which puts the guitar in my hands for another 4 to 6 hours. I never tire of it. I am constantly surprised and delighted by the complexity of the guitar, and to realize that even after 30 years of arduous study and disciplined exploration, I make fresh discoveries and forge new music connections daily. I find this mind-boggling and truly inspirational.
I love helping students make discoveries of their own, and to see the satisfaction and joy they derive from recognizing their own development and progress. And I love helping students make music with others. This is not easy, but it is damn fun. I always advise students to be happy with incremental progress, and not to measure it day by day. Learning to be a good musician and fine player is an incredibly slow process, often frustrating and demoralizing, and the most important step toward proficiency, ongoing advancement, and eventual mastery is to understand and accept how long it will take. Set goals, mark your progress every 6 months or year to year. Commit and savor the journey. It is not for the faint of heart, or weak of will.
I have always loved the blues. I love jazz standards and also modern interpretations of the same. I also love Bach and music from the Baroque and Classical periods in particular. When I studied jazz at Berklee College of Music in the early 80’s I easily listened to as much Bach, Beethoven & Mozart.
I am influenced by so many jazz musicians, I can scarcely begin the list. Here are some of my favorite guitar players:
Traditionalists-Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Jimmy & Doug Raney, Lenny Breau, Ted Greene, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlowe, Cal Collins, Jimmy Bruno, Frank Vignola, Howard Alden.
Modernists-Mike Stern, John Scofield, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Pat Metheny.
Blues, Fusion-BB King, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford.
I love Miles, Hubert Laws, Freddie Hubbard, Warren Vache, Paul Desmond, Stan Getz, Richie Cole, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Benny Green, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, Jaco Pastorious, on & on & on.
I have a good number of recordings under my name. The most recent releases, In My Own Hands and ReBop, feature Anders Bostrom, a dear friend and extraordinary flute player from NJ. He and I attended Berklee together in the 80’s and reunited for these projects after not seeing each other for twenty years. The other members of the quintet are gifted musicians from the Twin Cities. Another of my CDs, Beyond Blues, garnered the Excellence In Music Award, Best Of Minnesota edition of MN Monthly Magazine. In the classical genre, my “A Symphonic Poem,” was recorded by The Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland, and was released on Robert Black Conducts, MMC Recordings, 1994.
My newest endeavor is offering a summer jazz camp on the Upper Rideau, a beautiful lake in Ontario, Canada. It’s a spectacular setting where for 5 days jazz students, teachers, and professionals alike, convene to study and play jazz while vacationing at the same time. The only distractions are fine food, magnificent lake and woods, (swimming, hiking, canoeing, or just doting upon the beauty of it all) and the occasional mosquito. This year’s dates: August 2nd through the 5th.
The Paul Renz Quartet tours ten cities this November, performing here in Minneapolis and St. Paul on Nov. 9th & 10th, and then on to Chicago and points east. We perform almost exclusively original music that I’ve composed and arranged. Details of upcoming gigs are always posted at my website. http://paulrenz.com
links
Meet Paul Fonfara
Paul Fonfara has been teaching at WBSM since 2006. We sat down with him recently to learn more. If you’d like to take lessons from Paul, please contact our office.
Paul Fonfara
What is it about WBSM that has kept you teaching here all these years?
I appreciate that the faculty are all performing musicians invested in the local musical community and really live the music that they teach. It’s great to be around dedicated musicians with a wealth of experience and knowledge. I try to soak as much up as I can and find myself in conversations with people around here long after we’re done with lessons. I teach at a few other places in town, and find that the culture around this school is like no other.
What do you like most about teaching?
It’s a pretty marvelous thing to witness when somebody gets the spark and you know they really dig what they are doing.
What is the biggest challenge about being a performing musician?
Making the hard decision as to what to focus my time on. There are so many styles and musical ideas that grab my attention, and I’d love to explore them all with full force, but there is only so much time in the day.
What’s the best piece of advice you can giving to aspiring students who would like to be a performing artists?
Do it because you love it and let that be its own reward. Expect to also do a lot of ground work that is not directly music making, but necessary to let music making happen.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring students who would like to teach?
Be patient and look for long term rewards that take years to develop. It takes a long time, and much work to really get good at music, but because of that it feels so good when you do get it. Try to pass that mindset on to your students.
Finish this sentence: Most people don’t know that I really love…
Really bad acting in really bad movies that almost reach the point of being sublime
Bands/collaborations you are playing in:
Painted Saints, The Brass Messengers, Bookhouse, The spaghetti western string company. In the past when I lived in Denver I was with Devotchka, 16 horsepower/woven hand, the Denver gentlemen, Jim White , and have recorded with Bill Frissell and played with a number of Symphony Orchestras.
Meet Jim Ouska
Jim Ouska
Faculty member Jim Ouska is accepting students on electric and acoustic guitar, and electric bass. He is available for lessons at Watershed High School, 46th Street and 4th Avenue South in Minneapolis.
A versatile multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, Jim Ouska has been teaching guitar and electric bass at West Bank School of Music for more than 20 years. His experience playing an eclectic range of styles including acoustic roots, funk, blues, and jazz has made him a valuable teacher as well as an accomplished performing artist. Prior to teaching at WBSM, he studied finger picking here with former faculty member, Dean Carr. Jim takes particular joy watching students learn and helping them progress. We asked him to share his thoughts with us on a variety of topics.
What is it about WBSM that has kept you teaching here all these years?
I enjoy the students who come to WBSM and the school has a unique environment and sense of history you can feel when you walk in the door. The teachers in the beginning were largely devotees of roots based folk music and jazz and were among the best performers anywhere in their styles of music. With all the changes over the years I think you can still feel their spirit permeating the walls. The school still maintains the same level of teachers who are also active performers, locally and nationally and are drawn to what is essential and authentic in music. I studied finger picking styles with Dean Carr before I began teaching there myself. I enjoy the students that come to the west bank school.
What is the biggest challenge about being a performing musician?
I think it can be difficult to maintain what I think of as “equilibrium” where your level of playing is consistent with the level of venues and pay. Also, many of us enjoy playing a variety of styles and many venues tend to build an identity around a single type of music. Having said that, I must also add that Minneapolis is blessed with a wonderfully rich music community.
What’s the best piece of advice you can giving to aspiring students who would like to be a performing artists?
Follow your heart, study, practice and keep company with other players. There are more resources available now than ever. There are many aspects of sustaining a livelihood in music and it can be quite consuming. Be open to advice from others and maintain a balance with other life endeavors.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring students who would like to teach?
Instrumental and vocal instruction has evolved a lot in the past 25 years. Students of folk, rock and jazz can attend a variety of schools that acknowledge those styles in the way that was previously reserved for students of classical music. I think the West Bank School of Music contributed to this evolution. The field is growing, methods are improving and so there’s plenty of room for good teachers. Continue your studies and go for it!
Help us finish this sentence: Most people don’t know that I really love…
Being outdoors, walking, cross country skiing, swimming, reading and spending time with my family and friends.
Bands that Jim is in: Jim and Jane (original folk, funk, and jazz), The Marinators, (Blues and R&B), Jim Ouska and John Iden duo. Read more about Jim at JimOuska.com.
Meet Bill Simenson
Bill Simenson is the WBSM trumpet instructor and currently accepting students.
An active player in multiple ensembles in the Twin Cities jazz, latin-jazz, and big band scenes, WBSM trumpet faculty member, Bill Simenson, shares his passion for performance and education with lucky students. Bill says the community nature of WBSM and his love for the West Bank has kept him on our faculty for 15 years and counting, but he’s enjoyed this neighborhood ever since his days as an Augsburg music student in the 1980s. WBSM caught up with Bill last week to talk about teaching, advice for aspiring musicians, and the bands he plays in.
What do you like most about teaching? I think seeing progress that students make, finding a way to get them to move forward.
What is the biggest challenge about being a performing musician? Finding the gigs with the economy and all the rest that’s going on. Finding venues for all the different kinds of groups I play in is definitely a challenge. And you can practice all you want, but it’s not the same as performing live.
What’s the best piece of advice you can giving to aspiring students who would like to be a performing artists? Listen to as much music as you can, preferable live, but recordings are okay. Fill your head with as much music as you possibly can.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring students who would like to teach? Keep learning yourself, continuing education. Keep working , improving your own craft will help you with your own students; plus it will help you.
Most people dont know that I really love… Photography, black and white photography. I hope to take some pictures this weekend up in Grand Forks where I have a gig. Duck off the freeway and take some shots.
Bands Bill is playing in: Seven Steps to Havana has three horns, piano, bass, percussion and drums playing Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz. Wolverines Big Band is getting busier again and he’s been with them off and on since the 80s. That’s a classic band founded by Ted Unseth and Jendeen Forberg in the 1970s while Ted was teaching at WBSM. Now Jendeen is the leader. Jerry O’Hagan Ballroom Orchestra features foxtrot, tango, rumba, and waltzes. Recently Bill was spotted rehearsing with fellow WBSM faculty member Stefan Kac with the Consortium of Symphonic Transients playing original music by Stefan and other composers. He also is an active freelancer.
Simenson composes big band music and tells us that the trumpet community is looking forward to the May 2011 conference of the International Trumpet Guild at the Minneapolis Hilton.
WBSM Offers Lessons in South Minneapolis at Watershed HS
West Bank School of Music is pleased to offer private lessons in south Minneapolis at Watershed High School, 4544 4th Ave South, just a few blocks east of the 46th Street exit of Highway 35W. Presently we teach voice and piano lessons there on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we hope to expand our offerings to include violin, mandolin, guitar and electric bass.
Whatever the instrument, if you find this location convenient, please contact our office for more information about your options for private instruction.
West Bank Bands 5/12
Roots of the West Bank
Music Festival
Saturday, May 12th
Minneapolis Eagle #34
2507 E 25th Street, Minneapolis
21+ $10 Cover ($1 goes to WBSM)
5:00–6:30 Hye Pockets with RAMM
5:30–7:00 Papa John Kolstad
6:30–8:00 The Swamp Kings
7:00–8:30 Pop Wagner
8:00–9:30 Curtis and the Kicks
8:30–9:45 Phil Heywood
9:15–10:30 Dakota Dave Hull
9:30–11:00 Front Porch Swinging Liquor Pigs
10:30–12:00 Spider John Koerner
Check out the event poster here.