Our Instructors are George Vlesmas, Dean Cholakis, Heather Sommerlad, and Lucas Madrazo.  George Vlesmas teaches Bouzouki and Guitar, Dean Cholakis teaches Guitar and bass, Heather Sommerlad teaches Violin, Lucas Madrazo teaches Voice and Guitar and Wael Eldin teaches Percussion.

George Vlesmas has been a professional musician for more than 30 years, he plays Guitar, bouzouki (three and four strings) and Bass.

He is a second generation musician.  George started receiving lessons from his father, a professional musician, at the age of 7.    He turned professional at the age of 15, both by studying and playing with the old Greek bouzouki masters which belong to the era of "REBETIKO", such as Takis Binis and Kostas Kaplanis.  Later in his career he attended the JULLIARD SCHOOL OF MUSIC where he perfected his theoretical music background.   In his career he played with many famous Greek singers such as Harry Lemonopoulos, Manolis Aggelopoulos, Stratos Dionisiou, Poly Panou, George Margaritis, Stamatis Kokotas and many others.  His professional career has included extensive travel overseas in such locations as Greece, India, China, Australia and France.

For twelve years, he was a member of the famous Greek band Trio Belcanto. Currently he is playing with ALPHA Orchestra (www.alphaorchestra.com).

Dean Cholakis was born and raised in Albany, NY.  He started playing music at an early age.  He has studied guitar and bass extensively and has been performing professionally for 25 years on both instruments.  He has also been involved with many different styles of music including Jazz, Classical, Middle Eastern, Rock and Metal.  He has performed in many night clubs and shows in and around the NY area.  He enjoys teaching students of all ages who really want to learn to play music.  Dean is also presently performing with Alpha Music.

Heather Sommerlad is a recent college graduate of Bennington College in Vermont. She grew up in El Paso, TX where she performed with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra at the age of 16. From there, she went on to perform with various ensembles, including the Bennington College String Quartet. She has performed and taught in the Czech Republic and Kingston, Jamaica, as well as various places throughout the country. Heather is dedicated to nurturing the passion, dedication, and enthusiasm in all her students to maintain a healthy balance of technical proficiency and musical integrity.
 

Lucas Madrazo hailing from the modest city of Toledo,  frequenting clubs such as Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit and the former mid-western gem Rusty's Jazz Cafe, Lucas had the rare privilege of witnessing and partaking in the last few remnants of the "old school."

After making the decision to move to Boston and attend Berklee College of Music, Lucas honed his skills playing with musicians such as Mulgrew Miller, Bill Pierce, and George Duke, to name a few.  After four years of beautiful collaborations yielding countless influences, it was time to take the next logical step. 

Lucas now resides in New York City where he has just released his debut CD, Culmination, showcasing his original work in capacities never before explored. Culmination achieves a colorful organic blend of jazz, folk, and various world styles with keen pop sensibilities and tastefulness rare in such a young artist.  "I consider myself somewhat of a minimalist.  Space is extremely important to me.  I tend to gravitate towards trying to say the most using the least amount of notes possible."   

Despite his professed minimalism, he manages to conjure up plenty of life  during every performance in a way that is quite simply...honest. 

Wael G. Eldin is a Middle-Eastern percussionist born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt and migrated to New York at the age of 19. He was trained to play Middle-Eastern Jazz on drum set, now focusing on traditional hand drumming and ethnic rhythms. Wael started playing music professionally in Alexandria in the mid 90’s, worked hard on building, acquiring, and maintaining steady (residence) gigs in ballrooms where traditional North African and Egyptian musicians and belly dancers, such as Fifi Abdu, Dina, Shams of Alexandria, Nouga, Amr Diab, Rashid Taha, Natasha Atlas, M. Mounir, Sherine…etc Wael has been always eager to tour with nomad musicians the Bedouin and Sufi winter music festivals in Egypt, North Africa and Sinai. The most influential step in his musical career was playing Λαϊκά και ρεμπέτικα (folk and rebetika) at the age of 14 in Greece. In Athens, he played with his percussion teacher, mentor and uncle in ERT’s Saturday night show with many known names in the Greek pop scene such as Νότης Σφακιανάκης (Notis Sfakianakis), Άννα Βίσση (Anna Vissy), and Αντζελα Δημητρίου (Anzela Dimitriou). Wael also played traditional Greek percussion with local underground musicians in the Ionian Islands Ζάκυνθος (Zakynthos) and Κεφαλονιά (Cephalonia) as well as mountain percussion in Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloniki). In New York, he graduated from Hofstra University, and took advantage of the diverse music scene where he managed to perform with ethnic musicians from Russia, Latin America, and Italy with Alessandra Belloni’s I Giullari Di Piazza. Now, he plays music of the world with several ethnic trios and bands, and promotes and accompanies talented dance troops. Wael’s musical focus in New York is to play, learn, and teach ethnic percussion.