The Teachers

Jim Armenti

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Jim Armenti is the senior member of the Downtown Sounds faculty. He teaches guitar, mandolin, clarinet and saxophone. He has a BA in music from UMass and has performed with a variety of valley bands over the past twenty years, including the Yankee Rhythm band, Klezamir, Gutterbirds, Donna Lee and Lonesome Brothers. Jim teaches a variety of musical styles including rock, country, jazz, folk and klezmer.

Doug Beaumier

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Doug Beaumier teaches dobro and pedal steel guitar in addition to folk, country and rock guitar for students of all levels. He has a BA from UMass and over 25 years of experience in performing with dozens of bands. He is a staff writer for Steel Guitar World Magazine, and has self-published and sold thousands of home-study steel guitar courses since 1977. He has also recorded in over 200 recording sessions with dozens of New England artists, including Arlo Guthrie. He is currently performing with Lonesome Brothers and The Debbie Weyl band.

Dan Margolis

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Dan Margolis has played guitar for over 30 years. His early teachers were jazz guitarists Bob Shaw, Bob Rider and Nick Sencio. Later he studied under Ted Dunlop at the UMass Jazz in July program. Dan enjoys many musical types, primarily roots-oriented styles. Over the years he has played rock, jazz, folk, blues, country, swing, and bluegrass music. Currently he is leading his own jazz group, The Dan Margolis Trio, and has recently joined the doo-wop vocal group The Memories. Dan began teaching guitar in the early 1970's, and still feels that he learns something every time he teaches. When he perform jazz, his main guitar is a Guild Artist Award. When he's playing blues-rock-country, he prefers a Fender Telecaster. Dan uses Fender amplifiers.

Dave Trenholm

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Dave Trenholm is one of the most versatile members of Downtown Sounds staff and teaches guitar, sax, flute and clarinet. Dave is a member of the local band King Radio.

Robby Roiter

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Robby Alan Roiter is a versatile guitarist based in Western Massachusetts, originally from New York City, who has been playing music passionately for several decades. Robby performs regionally on electric and acoustic guitar (and bass) playing jazz and other genres in a variety of solo and ensemble settings in clubs, cafes, art galleries, with modern dancers, at weddings, jam sessions and more. His musical mentors includes legendary saxophonist/ composer Yusef Lateef, pianist Eugene Uman, cellist David Darling, and guitarists Freddie Bryant and Helmut Kagerer. Robby brings an encouraging, effective blend of focus and fun to teaching, tailoring lessons to the interests of students of all ages while establishing a strong foundation in all aspects of solid musicianship.

Keith Levreault

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Keith Levreault has a BA in music from Westfield State College, and studied privately with Alan Dawson. He has over fifteen years playing experience, and is well versed in many different styles, including rock, jazz and Latin. He has played and recorded with many artists, including Freedy Johnston, Kevin Salem, Patty Smythe, Eric Ambel, Ware River Club, Robert Holmes' Love Bomb, Klezamir, Settie, Blood Oranges, Square One, and many other groups. He has been teaching at Downtown Sounds for ten years, specializing in developing drumset technique and reading skills. All levels are welcome.

Jeff Nissenbaum

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Jeff Nissenbaum has been a professional drummer for over 15 years. After studying classical music for ten years, he began drum study with David Barrett. He has also studied with Keith Copeland and Max Roach. He has performed and recorded with numerous groups in various styles, including Paris, Ben Demerath Band, Quetzal, and Steel Wave. Jeff has been teaching drums at Downtown Sounds for six years. In his teaching he stresses fundamentals and versatility, focusing on each student's individual needs.

Chet Pasek

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Chet Pasek grew up in Holyoke, MA and studied drums with Joe Sefcik and Alan Dawson, and went to school at HCC and U-MASS. He has been playing professionally since the age of 14, both locally and around the US with Larry Chesky, Ray Mason, Michael Gregory, Ed Vadas, Peter Newland and many others. He also toured with Stella Parton in "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and Jennifer Flowers in "Oh! Calcutta". He has also played on many recording sessions. Chet teaches technique, rudiments and fundamentals on the drums through reading and listening. He teaches the basic dance rhythms of rock, blues, jazz and ethnic music.
     

Kate O'Connor

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Kate O'Connor has been teaching music and performing in pop/rock, folk, and jazz/blues bands for eighteen years. This wealth of experience, combined with formal training in classical, jazz and rock, performance and theory, provides students with the best knowledge and insights from both the academic and working musician worlds. Kate helps vocalists learn to sing with ease, power and increased range and expression. She guides students through exercises to master all the basic singing techniques and apply them to singing many vocal styles and textures from folk to pop to jazz. Kate assists the beginning or continuing keyboardist to learn or improve their rhythm, sight reading, ear training, musical expression and theory. Songs are chosen by students from their own musical interests, and from popular and classical repertoires as appropriate. She can teach students by sight reading or by a combination of chart reading and learning by ear.

Rudi Weeks

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Rudi Weeks has been a professional musician and teacher of music for over twenty years. He has performed with such Mo town greats as The Contours, The Crests and Ronnie Spector and Folk and Bluegrass legends Tom Paxton and Tony Trischka. He also toured internationally with the Dirty Dancing Concert Tour. His extensive free-lance performance and recording experience includes projects with over thirty ensembles, performing styles that range from Classical, Big Band Swing, Jazz; to World Beat, R&B, Funk and Rock. He served as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Performing Arts Division and teaches currently in his home and is an adjunct bass faculty member for Amherst College, and Holyoke Community College Music Department. He is also an 11 year veteran of the highly acclaimed Andean influenced world music group, Viva Quetzal.
     

Jon Weeks

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Jon Weeks has over ten years teaching experience. He is currently the instrumental music director at Charlemont Academy. He is also on the faculty at the Valley Community Music School and the Family Music Center in Greenfield, and at Downtown Sounds and the Northampton Community Music Center in Northampton. He teaches flute, saxophone, clarinet, and hand drumming. Jon currently performs and tours with Viva Quetzal, an Afro-Andean fusion band based in the Northampton/Amherst area, Sol Y Canto out of Boston, and the Joe Velez Quintet, a Latin jazz group based in Springfield.