After each lesson, he and his younger sister would teach their parents what they had learned. When he was twelve he convinced his family to start playing together as a band. They quickly gained a following, and performed one to three times a week for the next eight years.

As a teenager Jack performed around the Northeast U.S. and appeared as a sideman/special guest with some prominent performers, including his mentor Bill Keith, Peter Rowan, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, the Mammals, Greg Garing, and a number of New York City bluegrass performers. At age 14, he was awarded a scholarship to attend music school at Bard College. He studied classical and jazz music theory for 2 1⁄2 years before moving back out to the West Coast. Later, he was lured into songwriting and eventually completed a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Washington in December 2008.

Jack recently relocated to Portland to pursue new projects. He currently teaches mandolin at Lewis and Clark College, and performs out with “Twin Mandolins!" a world mandolin duo with Tim Connell. Jack can also be found playing with various vocal duos, stringbands, acoustic and electric combos around Portland and the West Coast.


PRIVATE LESSON OFFERINGS:

• mandolin
• acoustic/electric guitar
• voice
• fiddle
• banjo
• bass
• songwriting

PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS:

Please write to:

mandolinjack [at] yahoo [DOT] com


TEACHING RESUME:

• studied classical, jazz, music theory
at Bard College for two years

• B.A. in Writing from UW

• studied music theory and banjo stylings with Bill Keith for 1 1/2 years

• studied for 2 years with jazz guitarist Mike DeMicco, of the Brubeck Brothers Quartet

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

• has performed for 10+ years and taught music professionally for 6+ years

• has experience with many teaching formats: one-on-one private lessons, buddy lessons, group lessons and workshops. Jack maintains a steady clientele of weekly private students, offers frequent public workshops, and works as a faculty instructor at festivals, music camps and workshops.

• guitar instructor at Centrum’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, in Port Townsend, WA.

• has experience teaching children. Many of his private students are elementary school aged. Jack travels up to Anchorage, AK to teach at the Alaska City Folk Arts Camp, a weeklong workshop for children ages 8 – 17.