Instructors

Isaac Peña – Program Manager/Instructor

For the past 25 years, Isaac Peña has been composer, arranger, director and/or instrumentalist in many musical groups and presentations ranging in ensemble size from 2 to 35, and representing a wide variety of genres including Latin, Classical, Jazz, Rock, Indie and R&B/Soul. He has recorded and produced several Austin musical artists, and also recently worked with another producer to help provide material for the music library of cable sports channel ESPN. Isaac Peña has been teaching for the past 10 years, and recently joined the Beyond the Grade team and program manager and instructor.

Troy Millward – Instructor/Operations specialist

Troy is from Dallas, Texas and has been playing music since he was 14. He plays multiple instruments including guitar, bass, and drums, and washboard. Troy loves teaching music. He has been working with children for many years, with experience as a volunteer mentor.  Troy is renowned for being able to motivate, coach, and reengage students in their education.

Rebecca Huntley – Classroom Quality Control/Instructor

Mother of 6 grown children and 8 grandchildren, Rebecca has taught private/group piano for over 40 years. In addition to public school teaching, she owned and operated her own Fine Arts Studio for over 15 years, where she taught private/group piano and Music & Movement Classes for children and their Mommies. She expanded the program into Day Care Centers in Longview and Austin, having completed all of Musikgarten’s Certifications. An experienced composer as well as music educator, she has also done creative work in community literacy, arts, and cultural events and activities. She enjoys sharing her love of music and the arts with students of all ages.

Alberto Chapa – Ableton Consultant

Alberto Chapa is a musician, producer, audio consultant and Ableton Certified Trainer with a passion for helping artists and organizations turn their ideas into reality. Alberto is a natural teacher with a relaxed and upbeat approach to sharing his experience using Ableton Live, Push and Max to create in the studio and perform on stage.

Check him out here: https://www.musicalguest.net/

Keli Marks – Beats instructor/trainer

Keli Marks is a multi-instrumentalist, touring professional, electronic music teacher, and music producer who has been working with artists of diverse genres and styles for nearly a decade. He started Septima Studios, a cooperative record label in Mexico, training under several audio engineers, and music producers, before moving to Austin, TX. He is theproduct manager for Gravitas Create, produces tutorials for the youtube channel, tours with his band Bassline Drift. He’s released music on Gravitas Recordings, Heroic Recordings, and Outtalectuals. He enjoys traveling the world, collecting sounds and samples, and re-interpreting those into his own creations. Listen to his music here: https://soundcloud.com/basslinedrift

Travis Turk – Guitar/Rock Band/Preschool Music instructor

His enthusiasm for music mixed with his inner child makes for a very high energy, educational atmosphere. Playing off of the children’s interest, he makes sure to create an experience that children will not only enjoy, but be genuinely interested in.

Jonathan Neumann – All classes instructor

Jonathan Neumann hails from south Texas and has been playing music for 16 years. Playing trumpet in the school band sparked an interest which led to learning guitar, bass and drums on his own.
After teaching guitar at the local mom and pop music store in his home town, he moved to Austin to continue his pursuit and love of music. Working with children comes naturally from years of participating in youth groups at his local church to educating preschoolers in the Austin area. He is constantly seeking to inspire and be inspired.

James Junius – Guitar/Voice/Beats instructor

James Junius is a singer songwriter here in Austin via Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended Snow College and majored in Commercial Music. Currently he is being mentored by the producer of Austin City Limits, Terry Lickona, and was an official SXSW 2017 artist. His main area of teaching is guitar, voice, and production.  Listen to James here: http://www.jamesjunius.com/

Adrian Croom – Keys/Beats instructor

After achieving success as a composer with credits ranging from the From Dusk Till Dawn TV show to ESPN and UFC, Croom set out to make an album, Belladonna, showcasing his skills as a producer with a taste for darkwave and minimalist electro. Featuring the vocal talents of an international roster of artists. He is also composing the score for The Initiation, starring American Horror Story’s Naomi Grossman.

Check out Adrian at www.croombeats.com

James Mooney – Guitar/Beats instructor

James Mooney is a first year music instructor at Beyond the Grade and A/V technician. His experience and work history is in live production, working for local charities, fundraisers, bands, SXSW, etc.  Jame’s goal is to teach students the fundamentals of rhythm, tempo, and to inspire confidence, creativity and fun! I was a drummer in elementary school band, picked up guitar around age 13, and went into Digital Audio Production during my college years.    Check out Jame’s music here:  https://soundcloud.com/someguy3399

Rachel Fuhrer – Rock Band/Drum instructor

Currently residing in Austin, TX, Rachel Fuhrer is a highly active musician, educator, and writer. She has played drums for artists such as Ume, Corey Glover (Living Colour), Brad Houser (Edie Brickel), and Eric McFadden (P-Funk Allstars) among many others. Over the years, Rachel has shared the stage with hundreds of notable artists including Jane’s Addiction, Blondie, The Toadies, and Franz Ferdinand. She was featured in the May, 2014 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, the January 2012 issue of DRUM! Magazine and is a contributing writer for TomTom magazine in the Tips and Techniques column. Last year, Fuhrer was also featured in the book Woman Drummers, A History by Angela Smith (Rowman & Littlefield). While in Ume, the band appeared on Travel Channel’s No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain and NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly. Rachel graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied privately with Rod Morgenstein (Winger, Dixie Dregs) and Jackie Santos Jr. (Tavares, Beaver Brown Band). Teaching is a great source of joy for Rachel, as she teaches pre-school music classes, coaches after-school rock band progr

ams and has enjoyed a full roster of private drum students for the past 6 years.

Chris Turvill – Guitar/Preschool Music instructor

Chris grew up taking lessons on bass, guitar and piano in Houston.  While his piano lessons were more formal, his guitar and bass lessons with Dave Carey were an improvisational expedition in rock and jazz classics, leading into high school jazz band and a trip to Jamey Aebersold’s summer workshop.  During his college years in Austin, he gained live experience playing around town, while also writing and recording his own experimental rock compositions.  After college, he began to teach private/group guitar lessons and rock band classes through Boys and Girls Club and Instrumental Music for Children in California.  His musical excursions led to gigs at a variety of venues from wineries to art collectives in Napa to a week-long course with Robert Fripp’s Guitar Circle to learn how physical disciplines like Tai Chi and Alexander Technique benefit performance.

Zach Yanez – Drum instructor

Zach recently graduated from DePaul University with a degree in Jazz Studies. Zach received his jazz training from drummer Dana Hall, and the great faculty at DePaul. He also has training in classical percussion having studied with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Lyric Opera among other professional orchestral organizations. He currently teaches percussion students through the Austin Independent School District as well as maintaining a private drum set studio. Zach is an active performer in the Austin music scene with Interrobang Brass and ZACH Theatre.

Justin McLemore – Guitar/Rock band instructor

Austin native Justin McLemore is a highly active touring musician, educator, and composer.  A self-taught musician who has been playing various instruments since the age of 5.  He received a degree from ACC in commercial music management and attended Concordia University and the Art institute of Houston.  Justin plays guitar and bass, but is also proficient in electronic music programming and drums. He has played Bass for  several national and local acts and shared the stage with Roger Creager, Sam Riggs, Wolfmother, She wants Revenge, Kenny Rogers, Gary Allan, Scorpion Child, Girl in a Coma and Ok Go. He has played on 15+ albums with 7 having global releases. He has played venues across the US from the famed “Whiskey a go-go” in Hollywood, “The Wormy Dog Saloon” in Oklahoma City, “Emos” in Austin, Hard Rock Casinos across the US to the Cowboy Western Club in Mexia, Tx.  He also has spent several years working in studios and has worked on/engineered four releases with local artists as well.

Ryan Fimreite – guitar/keyboard instructor

Ryan is a super cool guy.  Amazing at everything he touches.  Best known for the creation of “Tangerine” a multi-conceptual show about love and loss.  Ryan now spends his time at Layden studios producing and recording artists from all ranges of music and helping them achieve visions for less money.  He spends his free time dreaming and skeeming to dream.  Music and creativity are his passion and purpose.  He has a puppy named Haley and they take walks in the park and mess with other puppies and their owners for fun.

David Jerome – Guitar/Rock Band/Voice instructor

David has been playing music his entire life.  After graduating high school, David has embarked on several group and solo music projects in the Austin area.  David brings real world experience to enhance his students.

Former Instructors that ROCK!

Rozie Castoe

Rozie is an Austin, Texas native and has been playing music for over a decade.She is able to play multiple instruments including guitar, bass, piano and drums. Rozie has been teaching music to children for the past three years and has been teaching preschool-age music for the past year.

Carlos Ramirez – Rock Band/Guitar instructor

Carlos has been playing guitar and bass for many years and has played in various cover and original projects in Austin with an emphasis on bass guitar and vocals. He has shared stages with The Rossington Collins Band, Chris Layton & Malford Milligan, and Freddy Fender. He graduated from UT – Austin with a Liberal Arts Degree majoring in Literature and minoring in Music where he studied music theory, ethnomusicology, history of western music, and music for radio, television, and film. He also attended The Recording Workshop in Ohio for formal training in audio engineering.

Mike Troianello – Keyboard/Drum instructor

Mike Troianello grew up in the state of Washington. He began playing piano at age 5, and started learning percussion in middle school. While growing up, He played in a local African marimba band “Zuva Marimba”, and became head percussionist in the Yakima Youth Symphony Orchestra as a sophomore in high school. He went to Washington State University, where he majored in Music Performance. Over the years, he has performed in numerous bands, was a member of the Washington-Idaho Symphony Orchestra, and provided backup percussion for the band Kansas in 2012.

Alexander Milovanov – Guitar instructor

Originally from Belarus, Alexander Milovanov received his Bachelor of Music from the Glinka State College of Music, majoring in guitar performance, orchestral conducting and music education.  As a full scholarship and a fellowship recipient, Alexander completed the Artist Diploma at the Yale University School of Music in 2013. Currently, Alexander is pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin.  Alexander is one of the most prominent and exciting classical guitarists of the new generation.

Carl Weathersby – Guitar Instructor

Carl Weathersby was born in 1953, in Jackson, Mississippi and moved to East Chicago, Indiana with his family when he was eight. When he started playing guitar as a teen he said his father always had musician friends stopping by the house. One that used to come by often was this big guy that Carl only knew as Albert, the mechanic. It turned out to be Albert King who proceeded to show an amazed Weathersby just how it was supposed to be played. Weathersby was Albert King’s rhythm guitarist between 1979 and 1982, and then spent  15 years with Billy Branch’s Sons of Blues as lead guitarist before striking out on his own. His debut solo album on Evidence Records, ‘Don’t Lay Your Blues On Me’, was nominated for the W.C. Handy ‘Blues Album of the Year’ award.
Mixing Southern charm, soulful vocals, and fierce guitar-playing, Carl plays the blues, from down-and-dirty to scintillating Albert King influenced chops. This is one powerful blues performer that will leave you amazed and thoroughly entertained.

Sam Green – Guitar/Rock band instructor

Sam Green began his musical career as a drummer in his early teen years, playing in drum line and numerous bands all the way up to studying at The University of North Texas. After college he begun to pick up the guitar and multiple other instruments, it was this interest that ultimately led him to to pursue a career in recording and become a certified engineer. In the 7 years since graduating he has produced, engineered and played on many albums and continues to play in the local music scene as well as work in a recording studio.

Paul Murray – Rock band instructor

Paul was born in Santa Barbara, California and has been playing music for close to twenty years.  Classically trained on piano at the age of 6, and eventually moving to guitar at age 13.  Paul has toured the country for years in a previous band, Holden, and done work as a guitar tech for numerous tours with the Plain White T’s and We the Kings. Paul owns a music production company that handles film/television scoring and commercial jingles as well as songwriting and original compositions.  Paul really enjoys teaching music to others and helping those learn the craft and powerful expression through music.