- Clara@CharmCityMusicSchool.com
- 410-205-4921
- 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.
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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.
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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
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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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American bassist, composer and educator Sean Oliver grew up in the Northeast United States dedicating his life to music studies from the age of twelve. His influences stem from his exposure to rock, hip hop and eventually jazz through the bass style of Jaco Pastorius in the legendary group Weather Report.
Sean Oliver graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music where he received a degree in Performance and Education. While at Berklee Sean studied with renowned bassists Whit Browne, Ron Mahdi, Victor Wooten, and John Patitucci. During his time in Boston, Sean became an in-demand bassist playing with many renowned jazz, funk and pop musicians up and down the East Coast.
Sean’s compositional style blends elements of electro-funk, Jazz, hip hop, disco and r&b in a blend that sounds like The Robert Glasper Experiment collided with Little Dragon and Roy Ayers.
In addition to his busy schedule as a performer producing his own music and touring, Sean is an avid music educator and brings his experience and love of music to students who share his passion.
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