Andy McElhatton
Director
Instructor - Guitar, Bass
Andy McElhatton started out his younger years heavily involved in sports and competition. Though he didn't begin playing guitar until college, he took lessons he learned in athletics and applied them to his study of music. He quickly realized music was more than a hobby; it was his passion. Andy began studying music formally at Portland Community College. Upon receiving his associate's degree in music through PCC he transferred to Portland State University where he continued his musical education and earned his bachelor's degree. Andy has been teaching students of all ages since. He loves sharing his musical knowledge and passing along the joy one can achieve from learning to play music. Andy's long term goal with each of his students is to prepare them for the ability to teach themselves how to analyze and approach a new song or musical style. When he is not playing guitar, Andy enjoys reading, exercise, and visiting with family and friends.
Averey Scoccia
Instructor - Piano, Violin, Guitar, Voice
Averey was born in Buffalo, New York where he grew up learning to play the violin and guitar. He studied Music Composition at SUNY Fredonia’s School of Music with Jamie Leigh Sampson, Andrew Martin Smith, Robert Clay Deemer and Paul Coleman. At SUNY Fredonia there were performances of his string quartet, his art song Mirrors for soprano and piano and his solo electric guitar piece Days Passing By. After receiving his degree, Averey performed with numerous groups in Buffalo, including the Buffalo Tango Orkestra, and he formed a trio to perform his own original music, singing the lead vocals and playing electric guitar under the name “Waverey”.
He moved from Western New York to Portland just this past summer with his wife and brought all of his music with him. As a musician, Averey tries to remain well rounded and has experience working in numerous styles on all his instruments. He mostly loves the blues, but studied classical, jazz, rock and tango as well.
Belinda MacDougal
Instructor - Violin, Piano
Belinda has been teaching the violin and viola since being awarded a Bachelor of Music, Pedagogy from the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia in 2001. In 2000 she was also awarded an Associate of Music with Honors from the Australian Music Examinations Board on the viola. She has previously taught a full studio of young violinists and violists in Australia at Tamworth Regional Conservatorium of Music in group and solo lessons. She has also performed as a violist of many different orchestras and in chamber music recitals. Most recently she is an assistant instructor at Metropolitan Youth Symphony.
Aber Miller
Instructor - Piano, Drums
Aber Miller grew up in Lawrence, Kansas where he studied piano and drums from a young age. He attended college as a music major at Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt) in Arcata, California, earning a BA in music. Many of his compositions were performed by groups at Humboldt, including the Humboldt Jazz Orchestra’s arrangement of his composition “Meditation.” Simultaneously, Aber began performing around Humboldt County in a variety of genres and settings, in time becoming one of the area’s most prominent jazz musicians before moving to Portland in 2018. When not teaching, Aber tours with local notables Shook Twins.
Aber’s teaching approach emphasizes musicianship, theory, and improvisation, in order to set students up for a lifetime of music in a variety of settings.
Bryan Campbell
Instructor - Guitar
Born in Queens and raised in New York City, Bryan Campbell began studying music formally in high school, availing himself to many musical situations. Playing in pit orchestras, various county Jazz bands, attending summer Jazz camps and learning marimba in orchestra. In 2004, he moved back to New York City to attend the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and completed his BFA in Jazz performance in the spring of 2007. He has had the privilege to study privately with Ben Street, Jonathan Kreisberg, Vic Juris, Chris Cheek, Steve Cardenas and Lage Lund, all who shaped his musical direction and ideas. Bryan has performed at the Frick Museum, Gramercy Park Hotel, Rockwood Music Hall,Shapeshifter Lab,The Garage,Club Bonafide and Wolffer Estates. He has had the honor and pleasure of playing with Legendary Vibraphonist Teddy Charles,Randy Brecker, Alex Sipiagin, Martin Bejerano and Morris Goldberg . He finished his masters degree at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in the spring of 2014 , studying under Antonio Hart,Michael Mossman, David Berkman and privately with Paul Bollenback. In the Spring of 2018 he released his debut Jazz record “Places Never Known” He is also a composer and arranger for Signal Sounds which produces and composes music for advertising, podcasts and film check them out at signalsoundsnyc.com. He received his Advanced Certification in Music Education from Brooklyn College in the Spring of 2021 and substitutes for PPS.