Michael Anthony Shanks is a guitarist, composer and seasoned music teacher from Houston, TX. In addition to the guitar, he also teaches, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, electric bass, piano and saxophone. His music has taken him to some pretty amazing places such as Buenos Aires, Argentina and London, England. He c…

Preston Sharp is a passionate and motivated music education student at Houston Baptist University. He started his musical journey singing in church at age five. Upon reaching middle school, Preston joined the band as a percussionist, and took up the drum set. He spent the next several years playing in worship…

Derek began his career as a musician at the age of 12 as a percussionist in school. When he turned 15, Derek began playing the drum set and guitar while taking lessons for both instruments. Later around the age of 18 he began to take up other instruments like bass and piano. While in college, Derek played in …

Hannah Sitoy is from the city of Pearland, Texas and began studying classical piano at the age of five. She competed in various TMTA competitions under Cindy Mills and studied twelve years of music theory and music history. In middle school, she learned how to play the violin and the clarinet and began playin…

John Smith is an accomplished music therapist at the Michael DeBakey VA Medical Center. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Therapy from Sam Houston State in 2014, followed by a Masters’ Degree in Music with a focus in Music Therapy in 2021. His thesis explored the relationship between gross motor co…

Ricardo Sweatt Rodriguez has been a master-class clinician at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and has studied guitar technique & performed with world-renown Belgian guitarist Bert Lams of the California Guitar Trio and American guitarist Curt Golden of the League of Crafty Guitarists. He has also studied m…

Schuyler Tsuda is a guitarist and composer who holds two Bachelor’s Degrees in Music from Gonzaga University with concentrations in Classical Guitar Performance, Composition and Music Education. He went on to earn his M.M. and Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Hawaii and the University of Minn…

Shane started his musical journey with guitar at the age of 11. After playing guitar for several years, he added the alto saxophone in 6th grade and continued through grade 12, furthering his knowledge as a musician. Shane continues to this day to work on his musicianship in the areas of composition and perf…

Reef started their musical career at the early age of 4. They played through grade school and regularly traveled to Ottawa, Kansas to train at the Suzuki Strings institute over the summer. They started playing many styles of music ranging from musical theatre, classical and jazz, to rock, pop , and hip-hop. R…

From a very young age, Talon was passionate about music. He has many memories in riding in the back of his moms car while she played her favorite music, from Michael Jackson to Willie Nelson to Def Leppard. Being exposed to a wide variety of music at a young age instilled a deep passion and love for music. He…