Cory West Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher
Cory West graduated from Berklee College of Music. He teaches drums, guitar and bass, along with some vocals and keys. If you wanna shred on guitar, Cory is your guy! He loves kale and eating at Riyadh's. He plays in a rad band now called Liquid Light. His influences are Genesis, Husker Du and Guided by Voices. He love puns and random stuff on Facebook. They put a smile on his co-workers' faces or maybe even a frown! We love it!
Amanda Sloane Singing Teacher, piano Teacher
Amanda has been teaching and directing shows at School of Rock since 2017. She started playing piano and singing at age eleven and has a BA from Haverford College. Amanda is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, both as a soloist and with the art-rock band Pareidolia. Amanda completed a year long apprenticeship and is a Transformational Voice-trained vocal instructor that teaches students to bring their voice, body, and mind into singing. Amanda offers personalized instruction, creativity, and warmth to both in-person and online lessons. Amanda enjoys spending time with her teenage son, who is also a musician at SOR, and their two kittens.
David Coniglio Drum Teacher
As our Music Director and head drum instructor, David brings a ton of teaching and playing experience to our school. He's a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he worked with some of the world's finest musicians. He currently plays drums in local prog band Humours, psych soul band PigWar and instrumental electro jazz funk band Dove Driver. He also plays drums and vibraphone alongside Jose Medeles in their spacey instrumental trio, 1939 Ensemble. They have been featured on Pitchfork, Spin and Rolling Stone. Besides teaching and playing drums, David enjoys the simple things in life - spending time with his family, grilling and listening to baseball. Dave also makes the best drum faces in the history of drumming!
Eric Hedford Drum Teacher
Best known for his drumming in The Dandy Warhols and DJing as Aquaman at his long running soul night at The Goodfoot, Eric is a multi-faceted musician with a genuine appreciation of many styles of music and a ton of experience working patiently with both creative professionals and kids. He loves teaching, making ice cream and bidding on rare vinyl 45s on eBay.
Jesse Emery Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher
Jesse Emery teaches guitar, bass and drums at School of Rock Portland. He studied music under the late, great studio musician, Tim Ellis. His favorite artists include Tom Petty, Bill Frisell, Robert Fripp, Television and Roy Buchanan. When not playing music, you can find Jesse drinking coffee and reading while camping out in the mountains.
Schuyler Neilson Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Piano Teacher, Drum Teacher
Schuyler Neilson has been teaching guitar, bass, drums and piano since he was 17 years old. Following a few years studying at a jazz school, and going on tour across Germany, he moved down to L.A. for a year and a half to learn the ropes of studio recording and the music business. Coming back to Portland, he's been pushing his students in learning music theory and supplies a well-rounded music education for any age range at School of Rock Portland.
Stefan Simanton Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Piano Teacher, Vocal Instructor
Stefan Simanton teaches voice, guitar, bass and keys at School of Rock Portland. He attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX and graduated with a degree in Music Education. Stefan is a big fan of classic rock and indie rock, especially David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Modest Mouse and Radiohead. In his spare time he likes to cook, read, play video games and watch movies.
Glen Scheidt Drum Teacher
Glen Scheidt has been playing drums for 30 years and teaching at School of Rock since 2010 as a drum teacher. When not teaching, Glen plays in several bands in town ranging in genre from punk to country, including Don and the Quixotes, King Who, The Lonesome Billies and Bus Fights.
Derek Blackstone Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher
Derek Blackstone teaches drums, bass and guitar at School of Rock Portland. Derek pursued music from an early age and earned a Louis Armstrong Jazz Award. He studied at the University of Washington, where he played drums for musical theater and dance. He is committed to lifelong learning and continues to take drum lessons and attend workshops. Derek collaborates with various artists and loves to improvise. He plays drums and synthesizer in his experimental duo, Unity Garnish.
Joel Henigson Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Piano Teacher
Joel Henigson graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with a degree in Songwriting. Originally from Ashland, he’s been playing in bands and writing songs since he was eight years old and currently plays in two heavy metal bands in the Portland area. Influenced by a range of artists from Kris Kristofferson to New Order to Phil Collins, he enjoys listening to and playing a wide variety of genres. When not practicing guitar, Joel loves surfing, making fermented foods and watching old scary movies. He is a guitar teacher, bass guitar teacher and piano teacher at School of Rock Portland.
Luke Broadbent Guitar and Bass Guitar Teacher
Luke Broadbent is a recent graduate from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance with a Bachelor's Degree of Music in Jazz Studies. He has toured internationally and worked as a studio musician for the last five years. With close to ten years of experience teaching music, Luke has developed a curriculum that caters to the individual needs of each student. Luke teaches guitar, bass, ukulele, and beginner keys.
An avid fan of Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, The Beatles, Prince, and D'Angelo, Luke has an eclectic taste in music and mastery of many different genres including rock, blues, jazz, latin, funk, reggae, soul, and R&B.
When not teaching, Luke can be found playing music with his band Spiller, watching sports (Go Packers), and enjoying the beautiful scenery Oregon has to offer.
Zach Alec Holden Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher
Zach Alec Holden has been a devoted musician since he was a teenager when he began playing rock guitar. Those early years consisted of everything from learning, practicing, and rehearsing to performing, writing, and recording music with various groups. Holden is a graduate of SOR who then attended Portland State University, earning a Bachelor of Music degree and further developing his musical ability and identity through his education in jazz and classical styles. During his education and thereafter, Zach has continued to write music, perform in bands and in the “pit” for staged musical productions in Portland, and has begun educating others about music as well. Zach is also an avid cook, a history and geography nerd, and a burgeoning language enthusiast who is currently studying Italian.
Tiana Jimenez-Srisook Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher
Tiana is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and audio engineer from Los Angeles. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Audio Design & Production at Columbia College Chicago and has engineered, performed, produced, written music and worked alongside musicians and engineers all over the country. Tiana is a lover of all things analog, lo-fi, or unreleased and you can usually find anything from Zappa to Japanese funk to AfroCuban to old country music on my record shelf. As a former School of Rock All Star, Tiana is happy to be teaching guitar, bass, and drums to the next generations of music makers. A fun fact about Tiana: “I once toured with an all-female Metallica tribute band Misstallica as Kirk Hammett!”
Tiana loves to cook and spends most non-musical brain power thinking about food and new recipes. Her favorite foods are the family’s traditional cuisines: Thai and Argentine. ”I’m a huge X-Files nerd and my favorite movies to watch over and over again are “Spirited Away, Harold and Maude, and The Hunger.”
Peter Kramer Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Peter was born and raised in Portland. He began playing the guitar at the age of ten after discovering the music of Modest Mouse, Elliott Smith and Robert Johnson. Peter studied composition, piano, and violin at Mount Hood Community College and graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory with a double major in Composition and Harpsichord Performance. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Composition at CUNY and has earned many awards for classical music composition. His recent compositions include a guitar solo entitled Still Life and a tempestuous piece for piano trio entitled Pietà.
Peter teaches keys, guitar, and bass and is excited to teach rock, pop, blues, and soul music to new students. He loves listening to the music of My Bloody Valentine, Miles Davis, JS Bach, as well as blues and folk musicians such as Skip James, Howlin’ Wolf, John Fahey and Sandy Bull. Peter’s first foray into making his own music was with a Tascam 424 cassette tape recorder, nowadays he loves to teach songwriting and music theory.
When not working on music Peter also likes reading poetry, cooking simple but delicious food, and watching films by directors: Andrei Tarkovsky, Akira Kurosawa, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Lexi Pifer Singing Teacher
Lexi is a Midwest born and raised singer/songwriter who started singing at the age of 4 sitting around the piano with her grandma and dad. After graduating from Indiana University Fort Wayne in 2015 with a degree in Vocal Performance, she hit the open seas and performed as a soloist and band leader and Music Director for Carnival Cruise Line. Lexi has had the pleasure of honing in her skills performing all over the US, Australia, Caribbean, and Ireland over the past few years and has recently made Las Vegas her home. When she's not performing, Lexi spends her time in the studio writing and recording her original music. Lexi is excited to lend her knowledge to singers of all ages to help them find their own unique voice through remote vocal lessons from SOR Portland.