About
Hi, my name is Jordan and I’ve been teaching and playing the banjo professionally since 2012!
I started my teaching career at the Chick Rose School of Bluegrass when I was 16--there I taught beginning bluegrass and performance skills to youth. Additionally I taught jamming skills to groups of all ages at the Taborgrass Sunday bluegrass jam in Portland, Oregon. One of my favorite things about teaching music is having fun through the whole learning process and getting students to start playing with other musicians and spreading that excitement for music--I love it so much that I decided to go to school for it!
I attended Berklee College of Music and graduated magna cum laude with a Professional Music degree in 2016. During my time at Berklee continued to teach private lessons, lead workshops at festivals such as Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Festival Memoire et Racines, and others!
Since then I’ve taught banjo at Teachers College at Columbia University, performed on Broadway with the Tony Award-winning revival Oklahoma!, been selected as a cultural ambassador with the US State Dept.’s American Music Abroad program, and toured extensively both in the US and abroad with various musical outfits. I have great teachers to thank for all of this—and I’d like to teach you what I’ve learned over the years!
Playing music is fun! Over the course of our lesson you will spend as much time playing your instrument as possible. Bluegrass is a very community-centered tradition that emphasizes informal jamming in all age and skill sets--the skills I teach are geared toward getting you out into the world playing music and enjoying the process of making music.
It's equally important to me to have an open and inviting dialogue with you to help achieve your specific goals and ideas. If you're interested in learning something specific, or are writing your own music, or have an audition you'd like to prepare for then that will be the priority of our time!
Bachelors of Professional Music, Berklee College of Music (Magna Cum Laude)
Sam Eisenson Award for Country Music, 2015
Selected Student at Acoustic Music Seminar, Savannah Music Festival
Winner of Top Notch Music BerkleeFest Band Competition
2nd Place, Freshgrass Awards Band Competition