FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rockridge Music Academy Expands with Professional Recording, Composition, and Orchestra Performance Courses Led by Grammy-Nominated James Gardiner.
OAKLAND, Calif. (August 17, 2012) — Musically Minded Academy — a non-profit music school and community arts center boasting a new 6,000-square-foot facility in the upper Rockridge district — is launching a professional recording, composition, and contemporary orchestra program led by Grammy-nominated composer-producer-engineer James Gardiner.
James Gardiner Music Program
The new program will foster an elite group of young musicians by establishing a contemporary orchestra ensemble and offering weekly classes in music composition and production. The latter will be held at a world-class recording studio near Jack London Square. Orchestra auditions for youth ages 12 and older are being scheduled now, with all classes beginning August 27. Qualified students can enroll in any or all of the three program elements.
The new orchestra ensemble will span classical, modern, jazz, pop, R&B, hip-hop, rock and blues, offering students instruction in orchestration and scoring as well as live performances of original compositions by Gardiner and the young orchestra members.
The music composition course, also encompassing a range of genres, will cover orchestration, scoring, instrumentation, compositional forms, music history, and the use of music notation software.
To be held at internationally known Pajama Recording Studios and Gardiner Music Mentoring in the Oakland’s Jack London Square, the music production classes make up the new program’s third component. Students will produce polished recordings of their works using professional recording techniques and software.
James Gardiner Bio
James Gardiner is a composer, arranger, orchestrator, producer and recording engineer with two Grammy nominations and 42 gold and platinum awards to his credit. Gardiner’s background includes a stint as State of Washington composer-in-residence, commissions for the Seattle Symphony, and leadership of a high-school and college youth band that was international Grand Champion for three consecutive years. (See Kenny G talk at a recent concert about his membership in this band under Gardiner’s direction and how Gardiner helped launch his career.
Upon moving to the Bay Area in the late 1970s, Gardiner founded the 17-piece jazz orchestra Life-Line, which performed West Coast dates with Hank Crawford, Hubert Laws, Johnny Hammond, Grover Washington, Jr., George Benson and Ron Carter and toured in Europe. Gardiner then cofounded two prominent recording studios, Live Oak of Berkeley in 1981 and Oakland’s Pajama Studios in 1993, where his client roster has included Destiny’s Child, Will Smith, India Arie, Sheila E, Vanessa Williams, Angela Bofill, The Whispers, Tupac Shakur, Digital Underground, Too $hort, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Thomas Dolby, Pharoah Sanders, George Benson, Ron Carter, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Barry White, John Lee Hooker Jr., and Rickie Lee Jones.
Anna Orias
CEO
Musically Minded Academy
5776 Broadway
Oakland CA 94618
(510) 601 5700
admin@musicallyminded.com
www.musicallyminded.org
Paula Telander
Producer/Studio Manager
Pajama Studios
Gardiner Music Mentoring
247 4th Street Suite 407
Oakland CA 94607
(510) 832 5266 – studio
(323) 481 2393 – cell
paula@pajamastudios.com
www.gardinermusicmentoring.com
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