Did you know that Opus 118 also has a guitar program?  Steve Jabas has been teaching guitar to our students since 2008!  Steve is a talented guitarist, music producer, composer, and arranger who hails from Minnesota.  He is excited to expand the Opus guitar program in the coming school year. 

Steve is committed to bringing music into the lives of his students in many forms. At his studio’s spring 2016 recital (pictured above), students performed fully rehearsed pieces, improvised collaborations, and even their own compositions. Guitar lessons with Steve afford students incredibly diverse musical experiences, and a special ability to explore.

When we think about Opus 118, we all think of Roberta Guaspari’s celebrated violin program. But do you know that Opus also has an extraordinary – and growing! – cello program?  What started as one of our smallest studios has been expanding in recent years. The cello program has been essential to Opus’s development broadly: it has diversified our sound, provided children with a wider range of options, and exposed students to the exciting possibilities of collaboration across instruments.

Nelly Rocha is Opus 118’s cello teacher. She comes to us with an extensive performance background, including work with the Camerata New York, the National Lyric Opera, Reading Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Miami Symphony Orchestra. In her feature for our spring newsletter, Nelly cited the cello’s deep, distinguishable sound as what drew her to it as a young musician. For burgeoning students of the instrument, Nelly is committed to imparting a “never-ending curiosity, a continuous desire to learn, and the joy of making music.”

We couldn’t be prouder of our current cello students, whose commitment to a challenging and rewarding instrument inspires us. This school year, we are hoping to bring even more students on board to study our lowest-toned instrument! 

 

Interested in registering a student for our cello program? Click over to our registration page to learn more about the 2016-2017 after-school offerings!