Music Academy faculty members are selected from the finest area music teachers and performers. All of our faculty members hold advanced degrees in their field of study, have decades of teaching and performing experience, and teach all styles of music. In addition to their teaching credentials, our faculty members have warm personalities, are extremely friendly, and dedicated to teaching you the style of music that you want to learn in your music lesson.
We would like to welcome Joshua Dunn to our drum and percussion faculty. Joshua teaches drum set (all styles) and percussion. He holds a Master’s of Music degree in percussion performance from Southeastern Louisiana University. Check out his bio from the link below. Please give us a call at 828-693-3726 if you are interested drum set or percussion lessons.
We would like to welcome Mari Hashimoto to our strings faculty. Mari will be teaching violin as well as beginning strings classes at the Music Academy. She holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s of Music degree in Violin Performance from Converse College. Please give us a call at 828-693-3726 to schedule your violin lessons with Mari today!
Come Grow With Us! The Music Academy of Western North Carolina, located at 1411 Asheville Highway in Hendersonville, North Carolina, has an opening for an additional violin instructor. Applicants must have a minimum of a Bachelor’s of Music degree or equivalent in related field of study (Masters of Music degree is preferred), three years of teaching experience, and multiple years of active performing experience. The violin teacher’s main responsibility will be to teach private students ranging from preschool to senor adult ages. Lesson time lengths range from 30, 45, and 60 minutes each. The Music Academy has over 150 string students participating in our private lesson, ensemble, and music class offerings. Other ensemble and class teaching opportunities may arise as our strings program grows within the Music Academy and the public and private school systems of Henderson County. This is a contract position. Please email resume, cover letter, and any past performance links (if available) for consideration to [email protected]. Please visit our website at https://wncmusicacademy.com for more information about the Music Academy of Western North Carolina and our music programs.
We would like to welcome Gwendolyn Pollock to our faculty. Gwendolyn will be teaching piano as well as launching our new Kindermusik program for the 2017 Fall semester. She holds a Bachelor Arts degree in Music and is finishing up her Master’s of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy. To register for private piano lesson with Gwendolyn, please give us a call at 828-693-3726 and see why we are the #1 Choice, Best Value, and LARGEST Music School in Hendersonville, NC
Kevin Lampson’s passion for music and history is motivating him to create original courses for students at Lake Lure Classical Academy.
Relying on flexibility for curriculum that the public charter school offers, Lampson is innovating courses, like the history of jazz, that are unlike anything else at schools in the state.
“Where arts education fails students is that they don’t tell the why, when or who,” said Lampson, who is in his second year of teaching at Lake Lure Classical Academy. “I try to fill in the gaps that students don’t get in other subjects.”
With original courses like The North Carolina African American Experience, and in a class instantly popular with students on the history of Rock n’ Roll, Lampson is creating many “aha” moments in students with the mostly high school students he teaches.
Lampson, 34, acknowledges that he’s really teaching sociology, but especially to give context for music appreciation, to give young musicians the cultural background to impart the full picture of the styles they’re taught to play.
“First and foremost you have to give relevancy to a student, and if you don’t do that, students aren’t going to care as much,” he said, adding the example that without context as to why Billie Holliday sang the way she did, it’s hard to fully appreciate the music.
That’s important, Lampson believes, if students continue to play music beyond school — to learn cultural context as well as the ability to improvise proficiently, which happens to be another class he’s planning to teach, in the next academic year: music improvisation.
“Students will learn more about any instrument they’re playing if they can improvise,” said Lampson, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Jazz and Studio Music from Morehead State University.
“His enthusiasm and passion translates into everything he does,” said Thomas Keever, executive director of LLCA. “He’s a very bright young man; we’re proud to have him here.”
Curriculum director Jessica Boland agreed, adding that Lampson’s courses provide LLCA’s students with “exposure to unique topics.”
Lampson believes the well-rounded music course offerings he’s providing are a factor in retaining students — parents are liking what they see, and students are taking note, too.
“The reason I really like Mr. Lampson is that he’s gone into actual music theory,” said William Witherspoon, an 11th-grade Hendersonville resident who has taken Lampson’s guitar classes and his Music I class. “Sometime it does get a little complicated, but then he’ll explain it. I’d definitely take another class next semester.”
Lampson started teaching middle and high school band and guitar classes at the public charter school, though he began planning original courses in the summer, just in time for the school’s move to its permanent facility on Island Creek Road.
“It’s something that I haven’t seen anywhere else in education,” said Lampson, who added that he’s had nothing but support from administration and the school board for the courses he’s teaching. “It’s totally different, and it’s really important for me for people from the area to know what is happening here.”
LLCA offers education for students in grades K-12, and many are from Henderson, Buncombe and Rutherford counties, according to Lampson.
He’s pretty sure no other high school in the state offers a course like his North Carolina Music, which covers the historical context as well as the music of the Scots-Irish settlers of the state’s highlands, the history and music of the Cherokee people, North Carolina folk and bluegrass artists, and even the music of the contemporary Asheville music scene.
Tenth-grader Micah Moore, who lives in Flat Rock, decided to take Lampson’s Rock n’ Roll history class after a friend recommended it. Moore, who said he prefers hip-hop music, is appreciating rock music the more he learns from Lampson.
“It’s a lot more than I expected to learn,” said Moore of the class, which is specific enough to zero in on a single day of the 1967 Woodstock Music Festival during one day’s lecture. Whole individual weeks of the 17-week course are dedicated to Woodstock, the Southern rock scene and female icons of the 1970s, to give a few examples.
Informing all Lampson teaches are the tenets of a classical education, with a framework provided for everything students learn; for LLCA’s high school students, the school strives to impart a classical-style education. “The whole point is to get well-rounded thinkers,” Lampson said.
He believes classes like “The North Carolina African American Experience” fill in the gaps in students’ education and provide context for the post-Civil War experience of African-Americans, which in turn gives students a better understanding of current events like the protests in Ferguson, Mo.
To illustrate, Lampson poses the question: How can you learn about the music of the 1960s without learning about the history and culture of the 1960s?
To learn the roots of jazz music, a foundation of learning about the slave trade into the Caribbean, the cultural influence from France to New Orleans and the history of the Harlem Renaissance are all part and parcel of a full understanding.
“You have to put yourself in the perspective of the person who saw it,” he said. “I’m bringing students back to this stuff and they love it.”
To learn more about LLCA, call 828-625-9292 or visit llca.teamcfa.school.
We would like to welcome Tyler Cason to our faculty. Tyler will be teaching folk guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, songwriting, and voice in our Folk Music Program. He holds and Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music Education degree from North Greenville University and is pursuing doctoral studies and the University of Georgia in Athens, Please visit Tyler’s faculty page for his bio and give us a call at 828-693-3726 to register for private lessons.
We would like to welcome Dr. Tania Moldovan to our string faculty. Tania will be teaching violin starting in August. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Florida State University, Please visit Tania’s faculty page for her bio and give us a call at 828-693-3726 to register for private violin lessons.
Our faculty members are simply the BEST of any private music school in Henderson County. They are the backbone of the music education experience we offer to all of our students at the Music Academy of WNC. All of our faculty members hold a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in their field of study (72% hold a Master’s or higher), possess decades of teaching and performing experience, are great with students of all ages, and have warm and inviting personalities. Check out our faculty members HERE and compare them with other area music schools. We believe you will not find a better educated, dedicated, and professional faculty for your music education experience. Give us a call at 828-693-3726 and discover why we are the #1 Choice, Best Value, and Largest Music School in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
Jamie Leigh O’Neil teaches flute, woodwind instruments, and cello at the Music Academy of WNC. She has been on our faculty since 2015. She holds a Master of Music degree in flute performance from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Therapy from the University of Georgia. Click HERE for more information about Jamie Leigh and give us a call at 828-693-3726 to schedule your flute, woodwind, or cello lessons.
The Music Academy of WNC would like to welcome Jamie Leigh O’Neil to our faculty. Jamie Leigh holds a Master’s of Music degree in Flute Performance from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and will be teaching all woodwind students at the Music Academy. Click HERE to view Jamie Leigh’s faculty page.
All new students registering for flute and woodwinds lessons in November and December 2015 will receive 20% off their first month’s lesson tuition. Give us a call at 828-693-3726 to register for lessons with Jamie Leigh O’Neil.