Teacher Profile: Alec MacLaughlin

About Alec MacLaughlin

Alec MacLaughlin is a professional musician and designer who has been studying the guitar since 2005. His work as a musician has combined both rigorous dedication to technical mastery and a commitment to sonic exploration. His fascination with sound, which led him to work in bands and as a music director for Philadelphia theater groups such as New Paradise Laboratories and Sam Tower + Ensemble, has dovetailed with his academic pursuit of aesthetic philosophy through the European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland.

His eclectic experience as a musician directly informs his instructional style: MacLaughlin believes in approaching musical instruments from the perspective that they are tools for exploration and experimentation, not simply skills that can be mastered. Inspired by the teaching philosophy of his guitar instructor as a teenager, John Anderson, MacLaughlin will not teach students to become guitarists or pianists. He will teach them to be musicians.