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MUSIC > Instructors
Meet the talented group of teachers who instruct and inspire at Bird:
Christian Carpenter | Ben Davila | Amy Foote | Tom Griesser | Dave Mihaly | Alex Stein
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Christian Carpenter: Bass/Guitar/Voice
Born in Seattle, raised in Boston and educated in Ann Arbor, MI, Christian Carpenter has many places to call home.
A life-long lover of music with a collector's appetite for discovering new sounds, Christian began playing music
in high-school. After a surprisingly fortuitous tenure in the Boston-area rock scene, Christian decided to move to
the Midwest to pursue an undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan School of Music. In 2008, after graduating
with a B.F.A. in Jazz and Contemplative studies, Christian spent two years touring the United States with
electro-pop dance band My Dear Disco. Thousands of miles, hundreds of shows, dozens of festivals and 38 states later,
in the fall of 2010 Christian decided to settle down in a then unfamiliar and magical place, the Bay Area. Having just
completed his first year in Oakland, CA, Christian regularly plays with local bands, singer-songwriters, and dancers
and is near completion of his first solo recording.
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Christian Carpenter
Bass/Guitar/Voice
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Ben Davila: Guitar/Bass/Piano/Drum
After graduating from music school in June of 2006, Ben packed up and moved from Liverpool
to San Francisco, where he lives "at the peak of three enormous hills." His influences include
Jim Henson, The Marx Brothers, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen Hawking and "all the music (good and bad)
that has ever crawled in my ear and layed its eggs in my brain."
Read about Ben in SF Weekly 7.7.10
More info: www.myspace.com/bendavila
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Ben Davila
Guitar/Bass/Piano/Drum
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Amy Foote: Voice
Amy Foote grew up in San Diego, California and began studying piano and singing at an early age.
Her study of folk, blues and pop music gradually led her to classical music and she began studying classical
voice at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music with Dr. Sarah Holman. She performed many operas at
Wheaton College Conservatory including Ellen in "The Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters," Just Jeanette in
"Too Many Sopranos" as well as Beth in "Little Women." She received her Bachelors Degree in Music with
elective studies in arts and culture in 2008 and is currently working on her Masters Degree of Vocal
Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she is a student in the voice studio of
Professor Sylvia Anderson. During her Masters studies, she studied jazz and improvisation under Mark Levine
and also continues to study extended vocal technique as well as her classical vocal technique. At the
Conservatory, Amy performs with the New Music Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Opera Theatre and pieces with the
String Chamber Music department. Beyond the conservatory, she enjoys performing and touring with her
Chamber group, Blue Rider Collective, as well as working on New Works with many Bay area composers.
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Amy Foote
Voice
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Tom Griesser: Saxophone/Clarinet
Tom Griesser fell in love with jazz at age 6 while listening to his father's and uncle's record collection.
He took up clarinet at age 9 and has been playing ever since. He also picked up both alto and tenor sax at age 13,
and has been playing baritone sax since age 30. After studying with members of Denver Symphony Orchestra, University
of Redlands and Stanford, he began performing professionally in 1992 and plays regular gigs around the Bay Area.
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Tom Griesser
Saxophone/Clarinet
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Dave Mihaly: Drums/Guitar/Bass
Dave has been teaching music for 31 years, in New York, New Jersey and California.
He received a B.A. in music theory and history and a B.A. in psychology from Drew University,
and studied drums and percussion privately in New York and San Francisco with Andrew Cyrille,
Barry Altschul, Zakir Hussain, Jack Van der Wyck and Richard Perrini.
He also plays piano, marimba and guitar. Mihaly has toured the U.S, Canada, Europe and the
South Seas and is featured on recordings by Iron & the Albatross, Jolie Holland, Sean Hayes,
After the End of the World Coretet, and his own Shimmering Leaves. His first string quartet
was played at U.C. Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technology and the
S.F. musician's union hall, and he has written for singers, jazz bands, dance bands, rock bands
and other idioms.
Mihaly taught music in New Traditions, the Video Drums Clinic, and though the auspices of the
S.F. Academy of Sciences. He has had hundreds of students from the ages of 3 through 70 and
learns much through his teaching practice.
More info: www.davemihaly.com
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Dave Mihaly
Drums/Guitar/Bass
Photo: Andrew Carver
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Alex Stein: Piano/Guitar/Bass/Drums/Voice
Alex Stein is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. Alex works as a music teacher, freelance composer and arranger,
performs as a singer-songwriter, and plays in bands variously as a guitarist, bass guitarist, and keyboardist. His concert
works have been premiered at the Bowdoin International Music Festival as well as by New York's renowned Mimesis Ensemble.
Alex holds a Master's Degree in composition from the Mannes College of Music, as well as a BA in guitar performance from
U.C. Santa Cruz. While at Mannes, he was a winner of the 2008 Jean Schneider Goberman competition and the Martinu prize
for orchestral composition, as well as the Composer-in-Residence Chamber Ensemble commission.
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Alex Stein
Piano/Guitar/Bass/Drums/Voice
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