Carol Pelkner
Carol Pelkner
Music Residency Instructor
What I bring to the classroom is a method for helping students connect to the music. What exactly are we hearing? How does this bring meaning to us individually? I use the marimba and at least 40 other smaller percussion instruments from the U.S. and around the world to help students hear what it is that makes up music. Students participate in abstract, hands-on activities to work with the elements of music, such as rhythm, beat, tempo, pitch, timbre and dynamics to understand the tools that composers use to assemble music and how these elements come together to bring images to our minds and thoughts and feelings to our hearts. We may be transported to another time or place, all while remaining seated in a chair in the classroom. This is the power of music.
To begin to more deeply understand rhythm, for instance, each student receives a 5″ X 5″ piece of newspaper and tears a set of long and short sounds. Each student creates something unique! We quickly realize that the sounds may have spaces of silence in between, that some of us want to arrange the sounds around a framework (beat) and that we want to hear a change in sound. The students may be inspired to shake or crumple the paper which is working with the quality of the sound, timbre. These sorts of activities gradually lead to abstract class compositions, using some of my instruments and some found objects.
I firmly believe that there is a creative musician inside of each of us. Music has brought incredible meaning and beauty to my life. The only thing better is to share it with others.
April Leslie
April Leslie
Music Residency Instructor
April Leslie is a San Diego native who plays the clarinets and saxophones. April received her Masters in Music from Azusa Pacific University. She is an in-demand freelance musician both locally and internationally performing various styles and genres of music (classical, jazz, pop, etc.). Some of the groups she performs in include: the Classics Philharmonic, California Chamber Orchestra, Diversions Trio, Left Coast Quintet, JAMB, San Diego Symphony, The Saxations, The Sully Band, Stellita’s Grove, Manny Cepeda Orchestra and the Ira Liss Big Band. April also has a successful private lesson studio where she loves sharing her passion for music with her students!
Francesca Savage
Francesca Savage
Music Residency Instructor
Violin and Viola are two of the voices of Francesca Savage. She was educated at SDSU and continued her musical explorations at UCSD. She has performed orchestral and chamber music in Europe, Mexico and throughout Southern California. Her passion is helping others find their “musical” voice.
David Savage
David Savage
Music Residency Instructor
Bassoonist David Savage has been performing with orchestras, chamber ensembles, and musical theater groups for 40 years. In addition to bassoon and contrabassoon he also performs on other woodwind instruments, like flute, recorders, saxophone, etc. He has been a musician with Classics 4 Kids since it was founded.
Based in the San Diego area, he has performed regularly with ensembles throughout Southern California, Mexico, and Oregon. He has performed in a wide variety of musical shows, concerts, and educational venues. His performances range from very old to very new, and from traditional, popular, and classical, to modern experimental music.
Over the years some of the groups have been the Harry Partch Ensemble, San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Civic Light Opera, Lyric Opera San Diego, Orquesta Baja California, Suriver Music Festival, Oregon Coast Music Festival, South Coast Chamber Orchestra, California Chamber Orchestra, Temecula Valley Symphony, Pacific Lyric, SONOR. In addition to the larger ensembles, there are several wind quintets and other chamber groups which have performed extensively and recorded on O.O. Discs, CRI, Neuma, New World Records, American Composers Forum, and Old King Cole Productions.
Melanie Medina
Melanie Medina
Music Residency Instructor
Melanie Medina is a multi-instrumentalist currently residing in San Diego, California. While her areas of expertise are guitar and electric bass, she is also proficient in piano, ukulele, drums, and voice. Melanie started playing guitar when she was 12 on a rather questionable First Act acoustic and has not stopped since. Her musical engagements span a multitude of genres and occasions, including but not limited to musical theater, Latin jazz, R&B, rock, funk, straight-ahead jazz, blues, hot jazz, bluegrass, and even Nigerian highlife. She can be found playing in venues all around San Diego, recording guitar or bass with local bands, and helping singer-songwriters flesh out their compositions with her arranging expertise.
Melanie graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies in 2017 from San Diego State University. In addition to performing, she also teaches private music lessons and composes original music, including her song “Recently”, which will be out on February 1st. Aside from her musical endeavours, Melanie also enjoys travelling, reading, and trying new food.