- Clara@CharmCityMusicSchool.com
- 410-205-4921
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- 410-205-4921
At Charm City Music School we, the instructors, strive to create an immersive experience in music for the whole community. In our role guiding developing musicians, we seek to promote and protect the love of music in our students while we help them navigate the challenging and exciting journey of studying this beautiful art form. In our time with our students, we aim to connect with them as their mentors and friends, and introduce them to concepts and habits that can be truly life-changing, as we help them to learn, grow, and gain in confidence and maturity. Through private and group lessons, band rehearsals, master classes, performances, and other training in all aspects of music-making, our students are able to participate in a supportive and nurturing community designed to mimic that of a university music program, but available to all ages and experience levels. We are privileged to be able to watch our students flourish as they work side by side with classmates and instructors to discover the best that music has to offer them, and hope that you will join us on this wonderful adventure.
Owner/director
The founder of Charm City Music School, Jake Marinari also serves on the faculty of Goucher College as a drum set instructor. A lifelong student of music, Jake earned a Bachelor of Music as a scholarship student at Goucher College, where he was awarded the Robert Hall Louis Prize for extraordinary achievement in music. He has recorded multiple award-winning albums and performed throughout North America and Europe with the soul musician, Bosley, and the contemporary jazz quartet, Otherworld. He has studied frame drum and darbuka with the world-renowned percussionist Yshai Afterman in Israel, guitar with Pete Smyer and Jake Kohlhas, saxophone with Richard Orr and Lamont Caldwell, piano with Jeffrey Chappell, and drumset with Ed Nardi, Nick Wight, Wes Crawford, Dr. N. Scott Robinson, Mark Moshayev, Daniel Glass, and Frank Russo.
Director of Operations/Instructor
Clara Kelly is a versatile vocalist, classically trained lyric soprano, writer, and music teacher. She teaches voice (pop, classical, and musical theater styles), piano, ukulele/guitar, drums, drama, music theory, and songwriting, and directs several Baltimore-area children’s choirs. Performance credits include repertoire as diverse as Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians with Ted Atkatz Percussion Seminar in Los Angeles and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino) at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music Opera Institute. She has premiered vocal works by composers including Michael Mills; William Cowie; and Aria Gittelson-Zicarelli, with whom she has also collaborated as a lyricist.
Clara holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the Peabody Institute, and a Bachelor of Music in Performance from California State University, Long Beach. At Peabody, Clara worked as an InterPlay Teaching Artist, teaching undergraduate voice majors at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Instructor
Jake Kohlhas is a Baltimore-based guitarist, composer, and educator. He graduated from Goucher College, where he currently teaches, with a B.A. in Jazz Studies. His professional projects include the hip-hop/jazz/fusion collective J. Pope and the HearNow and contemporary jazz quartet Otherworld. In 2019 he led various jazz trios as part of the “Emerging Artist Series” at The Bar Next Door in NYC. With J. Pope and the HearNow, he has performed on the main stage at Baltimore’s Artscape, the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and at the BSO in Baltimore. With Otherworld, he recorded/released two award-winning albums: “Otherworld” and “The Realm.” While he spends most of his time playing and thinking about the guitar, he also enjoys cooking and is a passionate basketball fan.
Instructor
Katie was lucky enough to learn to play violin in one of the first Suzuki violin programs in the United States. Inspired by her parents’ love of music and, more specifically, her mother’s violin playing, she started lessons at 5 years old and has not stopped playing since. Since college, she has continued playing through participation in various quartets, community symphonies, Baroque chamber orchestras and community theater pit orchestras. Though trained as an attorney and currently working as a Director at the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, she has also received certification as a Suzuki violin instructor and has been teaching privately for almost 20 years. Katie currently offers private and group lessons for children and adults.
Katie teaches a modified Suzuki method, which emphasizes learning by ear but also introduces music theory and reading skills at a young age. She brings her love of music and fun to each class and gets great pleasure from working with children to help them foster their love of the same.
Instructor
Violinist, guitarist, pianist, and music theorist Coyote Erfourth is a musical jack-of-all-trades, practicing jazz, classical, folk and popular styles. He values helping people develop the skills to explore music that excites them, so that they can be part of a beat and a harmony. He attended Goucher College from 2014 to 2018, and since then has performed with Musical Encounters and taught with the Bridges Program before coming to Charm City Music School.
Instructor
Throughout his early childhood, Oliver Dyer was always moved by music wherever he experienced it; movies, the radio, CDs, in school, and by what his parents exposed him to at home. Growing up in southwest England, his initial influences were classic and English rock, indie, grunge, and the pop music of the early 2000s. Just before his teen years, Oliver Dyer discovered the Beatles, which accelerated his passion for music. Shortly thereafter, Oliver Dyer began studying guitar with Victor Crisen, a tremendously capable and eclectic guitarist. Oliver continued lessons with Victor through high school while also pursuing many opportunities to perform and engage with his peers in a variety of musical projects. His musical interests expanded to cover many styles of popular music including rock, funk, and jazz. Oliver went on to study Jazz/Commercial performance on guitar at Towson University. Since then, Oliver has maintained an active performance schedule in the Baltimore and DC areas.
Instructor
Naomi is a Baltimore-based composer, singer, pianist, and music teacher. She is passionate about helping students explore music that speaks to them, watching them grow as musicians, and guiding them towards their musical goals. She graduated from Peabody Institute with a double major in Vocal Performance and Composition for Film and Games.
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Megan is a musician, vocalist, and songwriter from the Washington D.C./Baltimore Area. A lifelong musician starting in private lessons at age 7 and finishing off studying Music Therapy at Howard University in DC, she specializes in music of most any popular genre. Her talents include vocals, piano/keyboard, guitar, ukulele, drums, recording and songwriting. She is a veteran live performer- playing in various events bands up and down the east coast including special venues like the National Press Club, Hard Rock Cafe and the Spy Museum, to festivals/events including Big Night DC New Year’s Eve, Shamrock Fest in Virginia, and ProgDay in North Carolina. One of her bands was featured in the documentary “Romantic Warriors” which played nationwide on PBS and around the world. She also specializes in studio work as a vocalist and musician, working on both her own original content, and client projects such as Deluge Grander, Birds and Buildings, and All Over Everywhere, among many more. She is currently a leader at Church of the Nativity in Timonium every weekend as a vocalist. She is also the director of Nativity’s student rock band. She loves teaching and passing on her knowledge and believes in
Instructor
Chris Taylor is a Baltimore-based electric bassist whose passion for music is driven by performance and composition. With a BA in Psychology from Goucher College, Chris has served as a volunteer music mentor and private instructor for youth and adults both locally and abroad, including with organizations such as the Yo Academy of Baltimore, MD, the ArtSi initiative in Riverdale, MD, the Park School of Baltimore, and the Open Music School (OMS) in Berlin, Germany. Furthermore, he has performed, recorded, and toured with musical groups in North America from 2012 to 2019, most notably with the American singer-songwriter Bosley, funk and soul artist Joe Keyes and The Late Bloomer Band, and the
contemporary jazz quartet Otherworld. With Otherworld, Chris helped compose and record two award-winning albums titled, “Otherworld” and “The Realm.”
In 2019, Chris decided to take a hiatus from playing and teaching music professionally and instead traveled to Berlin, Germany, completing a Master of Social Work as a Human Rights Profession. Chris combined his passion for music with his educational background and volunteered with the non-profit Give Something Back to Berlin (GSBTB) as not only a bass instructor but also as a committee member. Chris facilitated group “social” classes and performance nights while teaching electric bass to help promote community connection through music. He also helped organize a community feedback night to allow community members the space to give feedback and co-create a future vision for the organization itself.
Chris is currently back in the States teaching electric bass, guitar, and ukulele to both youth and adults with a desire to enhance his students’ inner creative voice.
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Elisheva Pront aims to cultivate a compassionate understanding of our humanity through teaching, performing, and directing by creating relatable, and impactful art in collaborative environments. Elisheva teaches yoga classes and voice lessons, and directs opera and musical theatre. As a teacher, Elisheva values connection and discovery. Leading with curiosity and playfulness, she encourages students to bring their own, as well.
As a performer, she particularly enjoys devising new music and collaborating with composers. She most recently premiered a new piece at the 2023 Source Song Festival MN, and will premiere a new piece for SongSLAM NYC in 2024. She co-directed the premiere of the Peabody LAUNCH Grant supported musical Senior Year is Gonna Kill Me, written by Ashna Pathan, as well as the musical Ordinary Days at the Peabody Institute.
Elisheva completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training with Yoga Farm Ithaca. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
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“When I was six years old, someone bought my father a guitar. He was kind enough to let me start playing around with it. It was magical!” This is how jazz guitarist Michael Raitzyk got his start. By the time he reached high school he knew a lot. His time spent at the Thomas Jefferson Performing Arts High School in Portland, Oregon solidified his decision to pursue a career in music.
After a stint at Mt. Hood College, Michael moved back to his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, where he immediately met pianist Rashid Yahya , a protégé of McCoy Tyner. Mr. Yahya taught Michael the finer points of improvisation and ensemble playing as well as giving him the opportunity to perform with jazz greats Bill Hardman, Junior Cook and Pepper Adams.
Through the late 80’s & 90’s, Michael was involved in many music projects, both as a sideman and as a leader. Some highlights include his exploration of Klezmer music, resulting in a Top Ten CD Pick 1999 (Baltimore City Paper) from his debut recording, Charm City Klezmer. This CD led to gigs at the now defunct NYC club: Tonic.
Michael has recorded four CD’s as a leader and seven as a sideman and has worked with almost everyone in the Baltimore jazz scene. His latest CD, Michael Raitzyk’s Organic Trio, explores the organ trio format, a long-time Baltimore tradition. Organ player Greg Hatza (has worked with Sonny Stitt, Eric Gale, Dave Liebman) and drummer Mike Kuhl (has worked with Gary Thomas, Claudio Roditi, Michael Formanek) make a fantastic rhythm section for guitarist Michael Raitzyk to create with. As the Baltimore Jazz Alliance’s September 2011 CD review says, “Raitzyk is no stranger to the Baltimore Jazz scene….his diverse musical background on guitar shines through on this recording…” and “ …a very relaxed presentation of three master musicians playing a club date.”
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