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Kenny Luu General Manager Kenny joined the School of Rock as a student in 2002, and shortly after their all star program, where he was a member of their first touring team. Since then he has played nationally and internationally, performed at music festivals including Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and Namm, and shared the stage with industry legends - including Peter Frampton, Perry Farrel, and Jon Anderson.
After graduating high school, he attended the New School and Oxford University, where he remained an active member of their music communities (both performing and teaching). He currently resides in Philadelphia where he is a music teacher and a member of the local band the Parachuting Apostles. They've released one full-length album and one ep, for which they received numerous local music awards, and airtime on several radio stations in the area. They are WMMR's January Band of the month! Teaching at the School of Rock is a homecoming for Kenny, and he couldn't be happier to be part its community.
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JP Kuyper Drum Instructor JP has been playing drums in bands for over 20 years and also has a background in recording engineering. He started teaching at School of Rock 5 years ago, helping longtime friend Mike Morpurgo open the Princeton School of Rock. After teaching for a little over a year, JP's band, Illinois, went on nationwide tours and earned great local fame on Radio WXPN, Philadelphia. JP continues to perform with Illinois and teaches drum lessons in Doylestown and Princeton.
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Sean Kelly Guitar, Vocal Instructor When Sean was a young child, he saw a teenager playing an electric guitar and thought to himself, "Hey, I think I could do that." At the time, he already loved to sing, but now had an added passion. Finally when he was ten, he began playing guitar and hasn't put it down since. Throughout middle school and high school he played in several bands. He studied Voice and Music Education at Temple University and has continuously composed, recorded, and toured in a band called The Revere since 2006. He leads vocal and instrumental ensembles for teens as well as adults. One of the most important things revealed to him during his studies in Music Education is how musically, emotionally, and socially valuable playing in a rock band truly is. He loves to hear new music, whether it's new to him or brand new to everyone.
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Chris Radwanski Guitar/Keyboard Instructor Chris has been playing guitar for 16 years. He began performing in touring bands at the age of 14, until he was 21. Chris attended Drexel University, and earned a Bachelors Of Science in Music Industry. Currently, Chris works on the business end of music, managing three bands: Drink Up Buttercup, Peasant, American Babies. Chris also manages a producer, who is best know for his work with Man Man and Dr Dog. Chris also own a studio that he works out of as a freelance engineer and Producer. He does a lot of session work, getting paid to play guitar, piano, and write songs. Chris is now playing in the band White Birds as a touring multi-instrumentalist (guitar, piano, bass, percussion).
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Chris Rickert Keyboard/Guitar Instructor
Chris started taking private piano lessons at the age of 4, coming from a family of professional musicians. At the age of 9, he began studying jazz theory and improvisation. Chris also began studying classical guitar at age 9. At age 14, Chris decided to sharpen his virtuostic skills by studying classical piano with Robert Dennison, an assistant principal pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. That summer, Chris started on a 4 year performance program at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts; he continued 5 days a week throughout summers until he was 18.
At that point, Chris took the many diverse skills he obtained and started looking to form a serious all original band. After leaving his band, the Image in 1984, Chris formed his first band Stratos, a 3 piece ELP style band. Four years later, with a new bass player, Chris formed Trilogy, and recorded 2 CDs at Goldfinger Studios in Doylestown PA and Signal Sound Studios in Quakertown PA.
In the summer of 1989, while touring with Trilogy, all the members of Yes were rehearsing at Tait Towers in Lititz, PA. Chris attended all the rehearsals and for 3 days, when Rick Wakeman became ill, he filled in for him! This was a shining fulfillment of a dream to play for Rick and with Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Bill Bruford, and Tony Levin. Since that time, Chris formed a new band Myriad, which performed for 7 years, before moving to Atlanta to work with Tramnel Starks, a record producer in Roswell, GA, who mixed and produced the Kansas Symphonic album “Always Never the Same.”
In October of 2000, Chris moved back to Bucks County to pursue a teaching and performing career, in addition to being the assistant Music Director at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Buckingham. Chris is EXTREMELY pleased and honored to offer his keyboard and guitar teaching and love of prog rock and music in general. Chris will also soon be rejoining the band Drive Time with old music buddy Bernie Capodicci and newcomer Justin Guarini.
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Lamont Caldwell Vocal, Saxophone Instructor Multi-instrumentalist Lamont Caldwell is a star on the watch having toured with some of today’s most recognized artists such as The Roots, Dave Mathews Band, Kirk Franklin, and Jay-Z. His vocals and songwriting as demonstrated in his dynamic rock band MACH22 has gotten the attention and respect of may including world renowned DJ and Producer King Britt, Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson of The Roots and many others in the music industry.
Lamont Caldwell started his music training in the city of Camden, NJ at the age of 6 when he finally decided on the saxophone as the instrument to begin to musically express himself. Lamont played in the band programs adding guitar, bass and drums in high school at Camden High when he got the opportunity to go to London, England and perform with the Marching band and the Jazz band. Graduating and continuing his study of music, he entered the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
After 2 years he got the calling to go to New York City to splash the Jazz Scene and studied at Manhattan School of Music and City College of New York. In 2001, through some musical peers, he got the call to join the band of soul singer Bilal Oliver.
Continuing to learn while being in the band, Lamont started to sing more as he added backing vocals to his role as saxophonist in the band's horn section. Touring with the likes of Erykah Badu, Common, Kirk Franklin, Dave Matthews Band, the Roots (where he has gained more musical knowledge adding guitar, vocals and keyboards to his stage show) and most currently Jay-Z it added to his arsenal.
His band MACH22 is where as front man he gets to spread his wings as a vocalist and stage performer . This rock band with the sound coined as "Zeppelin meets Kravitz"catches many off guard and has gotten the attention of bands like Steel Panther as an opening band and the Legendary "Slash" of Gun n Roses and Velvet Revolver fame. There is always more of the unexpected to expect from Lamont Caldwell.
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Thomas Elefante Drum Instructor Thomas Elefante has been playing drums for over fifteen years. From 2002 until 2006 he studied jazz and rock drumming with Steve Obrien. At Binghamton University, Thomas went through a rigorous tri-disciplinary program where he learned jazz, classical and african drumming and performed with university ensembles in all three styles. After college, Thomas toured with a New York City Based band called Swear and Shake. Swear and Shake achieved success internationally with their first EP, which was downloaded over 250,000 times across the globe. After the huge LP release of Album Maple Ridge, they went on to tour the country several times and provided direct support for acts: The Lumineers and G. Love and the Special Sauce. Thomas has also shared the stage with Snoop Dogg, Weezer, Edward Sharpe among many others.
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Dan Beaver Guitar Instructor Dan Beaver began his musical experience when he picked up the Bagpipes in elementary school. After getting heavily into guitar music in high school, he began playing the guitar with the intent of creating his own sounds. In order to broaden his musical vocabulary as much as possible, Dan took private lessons, attended jazz and bluegrass camps, participated in master classes with world renowned touring guitarists and immersed himself in all kinds of music spanning the globe. Since then, he has picked up a variety of other instruments both conventional and oddball. Dan will take any musical opportunity that presents itself, believing that the best education comes from experience.
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Marissa Lesnick Vocals and Guitar Teacher Marissa has been singing and performing in shows and select ensembles for over 15 years. She joined School of Rock just this past year when her friend and bandmate Chris Radwanski, a guitar instructor at the school, encouraged her to apply for a position. Her passion for singing and songwriting keeps her quite busy and she is currently in two bands, The Interest Group and Night Panther. Besides singing and playing guitar, Marissa also enjoys filmmaking. She graduated from Temple University last May with a Bachelor's Degree in Film and Media Arts.
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