Our music teachers travel to a number of schools each day to teach grades K-12 music classes.
Nancy Boyles holds a B.A. in Music and Liberal Studies, and an M.A. in Music Performance. Before teaching for BUSD, she taught for the Los Lomitas school district in Menlo Park. She plays saxophone and flute and currently teaches the King Symphonic and Jazz Bands and at various elementary schools. She has two children that play woodwinds in the BUSD music program.
Roland Brown is a saxophone and woodwind specialist. Mr. Brown has traveled to over forty countries and every state in the union (except Delaware) performing music professionally. Mr. Brown started teaching music in 2002, and has been teaching music with the BUSD since 2011. He teaches Concert Band and Jazz Band at Willard Middle School and elementary band throughout the district. Mr. Brown received his Bachelor of Arts in Music from CSU, Fresno. Mr. Brown’s graduate studies include classical saxophone with Harvey Pittel at the UT Austin and jazz studies with Dave Eshelman at CSU, Hayward.
Sarah Cline, a BUSD alum, is a jazz teacher and free-lance musician who performs internationally with many classical, jazz, and Latin groups. In addition to working for the BUSD, she is also Director of the Farallon Brass Ensemble’s Summer Brass Camp. She studied trombone at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Aspen Music Festival, and has recorded with many groups, including Holly Near, Peter Apfelbaum’s Hieroglyphics Ensemble and others. She directs the BHS Jazz Program.
Mary Dougherty is a native of Berkeley, and started playing music as a 4th grade violinist at Malcolm X Elementary. With Co-director Karen Wells, she directs the BHS Bands and Orchestras. Ms. Dougherty also teaches Mariachi Music at Longfellow Middle School, and elementary strings at various BUSD elementary schools. She earned a BA in Music and Classical Languages from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN. Mary plays violin and viola with Berkeley Community Chorus, Oakland Civic Orchestra and Awesome Orchestra.
Pete Gidlund is the Supervisor for BUSD’s Visual and Performing Arts Program. Prior to his current position, Pete taught guitar, uke, chorus, and world drumming (as well as core subjects like Math and Science) in BUSD since 2003. Pete is a lifelong musician who has gigged and recorded in punk/indie settings from his teenage years to the present time. He holds an MA in educational leadership, multiple credentials, and a BA (liberal studies w/music option) all from the CSU system. Current musical projects include composing instrumental music, making percussion instruments from home-grown gourds, and producing two music podcasts- ClickTrack and The Musical Moment.
Shannon Houston
shannonhouston@berkeley.net
Carlotta Jacobs is currently the director of the advanced orchestra at Martin Luther King Middle school. She also teaches strings at various elementary schools in Berkeley. Carlotta spent 9 years in Scotland, teaching high school music, and was director of the North Lanarkshire Symphony and Junior Orchestra. She earned her B.A. from Chico State University, and has performed with the Chico Symphony and Chico City Light Opera Company, and Mendocino Symphony.
Merlyn Katechis incorporates the Orff-Schulwerk methods and the Kodály pedagogy into her teaching at Malcolm X, and woodwinds at Thousand Oaks. She received Orff certification from UC Santa Cruz and Kodály certification from Holy Names University. Ms. Katechis is a recorder player and sings with several choruses.
Aimee Lubalin earned a B.A. From Smith College, and later a second B.A. and teaching credential in music from SFSU. She began teaching music in San Francisco in 2001 and joined BUSD in 2010. Aimee teaches Orff and Kodaly-based 1-3rd grade general music at Oxford and BAM and beginning instrumental music at various schools.
Henry Viets: Pulled into 5th grade band by his best friend many, many years ago, Henry had no idea what marvelous things were going to unfold later in his musical life. Besides playing horn with the Santa Rosa Symphony since 1986, he has performed with many groups in the Bay Area. One of his highlights was playing with his childhood idol Doc Severinsen. Besides being conductor of the Mighty Willard Orchestra, Henry teaches brass and strings at numerous elementary schools. His favorite cat, Caz, was rescued from a music camp in 2008.
Karen Wells revived the BHS Concert Orchestra in 1994, after it had been cut from the budget in 1988. From an initial group of 21 musicians, the BHS Band and Orchestra Program now boast over 180 musicians in 4 classes. Co-director Mary Dougherty joined the team in 2011. She also teaches AP Music Theory and Honors IB Music. She incorporates the Orff approach to 3rd grade music learning at Cragmont, having acquired her Orff Certification through Mills College. She also teaches 4-5 instrumental music at LeConte and Oxford elementary schools.
Randella Jones
randellajones@berkeley.net
Olesia Gordynsky
olesiagordynsky@berkeley.net
Georgia Martin
georgiamartin@berkeley.net
Bryan Marquez
bryanmarquez@berkeley.net
Johnine ” J.J. ” Hansen
johninehansen@berkeley.net