“Classical Training with Rock and Roll Repertoire”

 

Bobby is a relentlessly enthusiastic and positive teacher with two decades of experience teaching everything from Led Zeppelin guitar solos to arias from Mozart Operas. Starting out on the guitar, he followed in the shredding footsteps of Jimi Hendrix and the other guitar legends of his hometown of Seattle. He fell in love with Opera while studying vocal performance at the University of Portland (‘09) and had the great pleasure of singing with the Portland Opera Chorus, as well as the Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, Opera Theater Oregon, and Classical Revolution PDX. He combined his two passions when he formed the Electric Opera Company, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that reinvisioned classical favorites by playing them on an orchestra of Electric Guitars and Synthesizers. Bobby started teaching full time at the School of Rock in Portland where he worked with hundreds of students and directed many staged performances before forming his own independent teaching studio. In 2014 he was tapped to be Vocal Coach to Oscar winning actor William Hurt as he prepared to play Greg Allman in a biopic. His students have gone on to attend Berklee College of Music and Musician’s Institute in LA among other universities. He remains a gigging musician, but gets the most joy from sharing his love of music with his students.

 

Bobby teaches from an extensive background in classical training, but takes pride in meeting his students where they are, focusing on singing and playing songs that they want to sing. Whether it’s a classical standard or a top 40 hit, there’s always an opportunity for growth to be found and a deeper level of musicianship to be discovered. It’s important to him that his students are engaged and fascinated by the music they’re singing or playing. From that starting point, the pathway to achievement is easy to walk!