August, 2019

Our summer teacher spotlight is on New Zealand born singer, composer and musician Tarra Guerra. Tarra is a trained classical guitarist and violinist with a recent Masters in Music from Florida Atlantic University. Tarra was raised in North Carolina, where she studied classical guitar at the North Carolina School of the Arts, becoming the youngest student ever accepted for study by Jesus Silva, a protégé and student of Andres Segovia. In North Carolina, Tarra learned to love mountain folk music, an interest which continued in New Zealand where she played traditional music at folk festivals throughout the country while obtaining degrees in chemistry.

Back in the US after college, Tarra moved to New York City and branched out into other musical styles, studying rock and jazz guitar, voice and songwriting. A published songwriter with several self-produced solo albums, Tarra spent the next twelve years in New York City writing and playing original alternative and folk rock, performing with her band in virtually every club and coffee house in the city, and later in Nashville, Seattle and Miami.

After moving to Florida, Tarra started Guerra Music and became serious about violin, studying to develop a good classical technique, as well as working professionally as a Celtic and country fiddler. Tarra still owns and manages Guerra Music and the Suzuki Strings South Florida teaching studio where she teaches Suzuki violin and guitar, including plenty of fiddling. Tarra is an active and enthusiastic teacher, with a great deal of training in teaching her instruments and chosen method. Tarra's long-time group of rotating students, known as the Suzuki Jamboree, has performed at local Scottish, Irish and Bluegrass festivals, and for various community and benefit concerts.

Tarra is active in the Suzuki Association of South Florida where she serves on the board, organizes workshops, special concerts and other events for students in the greater South Florida area. Additionally, she is a member of the National Federation of Music Teachers, Morning Musicale, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Miami Classical Guitar Society, Miami Guitar Foundation, and Guitar Foundation of America.

In addition to teaching at her studio, Tarra is also Adjunct Professor of Guitar at Nova Southeastern University and still performs extensively in the South Florida area, as well as around the country in international music festivals as a soloist and as a member of several chamber duos and ensembles. Collaborating with other musicians is something she greatly enjoys.

Tarra has taught over 30 MusicLink students in her nearly ten years with us. About teaching with MusicLink, Tarra said, "I found out about MusicLink accidentally, through Nora Martin and one of my scholarship students. I was already giving scholarships to needy students by teaching them for free or for a reduced rate. MusicLink formalized this, and sent me very useful music and a Grass Roots Grant. MusicLink is a great organization and I am glad to be a part of it.

"My grandfather played the cello and became the principal cellist in the first North Carolina Symphony for many years. He grew up in a large immigrant family in Chicago, taking lessons at Hull House from Chicago Orchestra members, and was never charged a penny. Without those lessons, he would never have been able to play. He knew Benny Goodman, Aaron Copland, and others who had the same opportunity through Hull House. In his 80s, he still practiced 3 hours per day, and when I would listen to him practice, he showed me a huge stack of concerti. He said his goal was to memorize them all, and that he did this in thanks to all the wonderful teachers and musicians who taught him for free when he was a child. My grandmother, who also practiced piano 3 hours per day in her 80s, also benefited from a full scholarship opportunity by attending Curtis as a young woman.

"At times in my own life I have not had enough money to learn as much as I wanted to, in lessons or otherwise. I went through a time when I literally didn't always have enough money for food, but I somehow kept my son in violin lessons that whole time. There were many people who helped me in those times, with cheap or free lessons, which I will never forget. Free lessons make a domino effect of good in the world that can never be fully predicted."

October, 2019

We are shining our October teacher spotlight on Julie Wegener, MusicLink's NYC coordinator. Julie has been involved with MusicLink for over 20 years, beginning when MusicLink was part of MTNA. After reading a notice in the MTNA journal, she immediately responded, began teaching MusicLink students and agreed to serve as MusicLink chair on the board of NYSMTA.

Julie began piano study at age 6 with her father, David LeVita, a pianist and teacher who was musicologist at the Brooklyn Museum. She performed with the Symphony of the Air on WNYC radio at age 10. She studied with Zenon Fishbein at the Manhattan School of Music and with Vladimir Feltsman at SUNY New Paltz. Julie also holds an MD degree from SUNY Buffalo.

Over the years Julie has performed numerous solo recitals in New York's Hudson Valley and created "Piano à la cart" (1996-2003), an acoustic piano on a flatbed trailer, performing in park preserves & rail trails, funded by NYSCA and other grants, to introduce classical piano music to audiences who otherwise may have never attended a concert.

In 1999, she founded Arts for Peace, an organization dedicated to raising consciousness about peace and social justice through the arts. Additionally, Julie is currently on the steering committee of Uptown Progressive Action, a grassroots organization devoted to social, economic and racial justice, and she is a board member of Physicians for a National Health Program, NY Metro Chapter. Julie was Director of the Music School at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY from 2003-2014. The MusicLink program she created there continues to thrive.

Julie moved back to her "hometown" of New York City in 2013. She joined the piano faculty of the Diller Quaile School of Music (2014-2017) in addition to establishing an active teaching studio at her home in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Her current students range in age from 8 to 88, including several MusicLink students. In 2014, she became NYC coordinator for MusicLink and resumed her former position, 20 years later, as MusicLink chair on the board of NYSMTA.

Julie has taught piano for over 30 years, some of which were simultaneous with the practice of medicine. In both fields, she has been committed to working with people from lower income communities. Julie said, "I am committed to MusicLink because of a life-long belief in equality. The idea that one might lose out for economic reasons is entirely unacceptable." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

November, 2019

Our November spotlight is shining on Phyllis Calderon from Chicago, IL. Phyllis is a teacher-performer of violin, teacher of piano, viola, and cello, and owner of A Touch of Classical Plus (ATCP), a private music studio and music entertainment provider. Phyllis became a MusicLink teacher when a coordinator called her looking for a teacher. She has now been a MusicLink teacher for about nine years, teaching roughly 30 MusicLink students during that time.

Phyllis said, "I come from generations of educators, musicians, ministers... my mom was my first piano teacher. Her mom taught her and her seven brothers and sisters. My paternal grandmother also played piano as well as spoke 3 languages fluently and was a world traveler. So, I was very much surrounded by music and the arts." In 4th grade, Phyllis started playing the violin and attended a Suzuki group. Shortly after that she started taking private lessons with Prof Marc Zinger of DePaul Univ. Two years later she joined her first orchestra and was hooked. "I loved orchestral playing! My piano skills decreased as it took a backseat to the violin. But I continued playing piano throughout college. Today I teach both instruments but perform on violin. The last time I performed piano in public was in 2007, when I taught at a community music school. They had a special recital for the staff and students where I performed an original piece I wrote when I was in high school."

Located in Chicago, A Touch of Classical Plus offers instruction in Suzuki strings and piano, early childhood music classes, and chamber ensemble. Phyllis has also coached at Apostolic Church of God Youth Music Program and was String Orchestra Director at Wirt-Emerson Visual and Performing Arts High School in Gary, IN. Currently, she conducts the beginner string orchestra at Providence St. Mel High School, and also teaches at Chicago West Community Music Center.

As a performer, she has worked with various artists including Chicago Original AllStar Blues Band, Tina J. Crawley, Kym Franklin, and Barry White, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Classical Symphony Orchestra, and the Whiting Festival Orchestra. She most enjoys playing as a worship violinist with the worship music ministry.