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What if learning music was a collectively enriching experience teeming with creativity, passion, and excitement?Groove School is a dynamic mix of fun, play and education that will develop your musical skills and bring out your fluency in the language of music.
Our very own musical maestro Jon Handelman will open each session with a collective jam, an authentic relating activity, and an innovative musical activity. After a short break, an incredible array of talented professional musicians will guide us towards musical mastery! Check out who we've got coming this time!
Week 1: Teso Macdonald
Week 2: Reggie Headen
Week 3: Lillie Syracuse
Week 4: Molly Hartwell
Each teacher will creatively touch into the fundamentals of rhythm, melody, and harmony while also integrating the subtle, potent elements that make music come alive.
Whether you have years of experience or are new on your journey of musical discovery, this course will joyfully guide and challenge you to:
* Find and ride musical grooves
* Creatively collaborate with other musicians
* Tighten your timing
* Flow and improvise
* Explore vocal expression and harmonies
* Bump up your musical confidence
* Jam out with voice and instruments
This unique offering is a love letter to everyone who feels the power of music deep inside of them. Come be a part of the magic!
Here's what you need to know:
* Dates *
We meet for 4 consecutive Thursdays in October and November from 7:15-9:30
--October 30--
– November 6--
--November 13--
--November 20--
*Location*
Groove School is hosted at Inspire Studios-- a beautiful, two-story, open-space environment in downtown Asheville with great acoustics and a good vibe for music.
* Cost *
Sliding scale of $120-$160, no one turned away for lack of funds.
We strive to keep this program accessible while tending to the long-term sustainability of this work. Please help us strike this balance by contributing the highest ticket tier you can afford.
Your generosity helps this work reach a greater diversity of individuals, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. And we actually pay our teachers well.
* Registration *
Spaces are limited to only 22 participants! Sign up here:
https://forms.gle/6zwjHJ3DqMXtKxaM9
Your Guides:
Teso McDonald is a genre-bending musician, writer, and creative instigator rooted in Asheville, North Carolina. As one half of the indie-soul duo Chilltonic, he crafts music that fuses vulnerability with groove, drawing from influences as wide as hip-hop, folk, and experimental pop. He is the founder of True Noble, an arts collective dedicated to showcasing raw, local talent through immersive events and collaborative creation. Teso’s work centers on authenticity, connection, and breaking down barriers between artist and audience. He now brings that same spirit into a class on improv hip-hop, where participants are invited to discover the power of spontaneous self-expression.
Reggie Headen is committed to the idea of being a “fully embodied singer” and to helping others also tap into that space of deep and dynamic musical expressiveness. By day, he works as a music teacher at The Learning Community and as adjunct voice faculty at Warren Wilson College, both in Swannanoa, North Carolina. He also finds time to work with private voice students. By night he performs regularly at various big name venues, such as the Grey Eagle. He is a graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, in New York.
Molly Hartwell is a musician and songwriter who is one half of Wellspring duo and has opened up for MaMuse multiple times. She has written some all time classics including "Put your roots down". She has been performing on stage for years and has led many song circles around the country.
Lillie Syracuse's voice and music pours deep from the heart of the in between places of joy and grief. For a decade, Lillie honed her craft in Nashville, TN, where she wrote and released her debut album Coming Up Diamonds in 2020, with producer and Grammy-nominated drummer Mike Marsh (The Avett Brothers, Dashboard Confessional). Lillie's hope in song-craft is to foster shifts towards a deeper connection with nature, community, authenticity, creativity, and magic in the lives of those who hear her. She will be releasing her first self produced album in 2025.
Jon Handelman is a life coach that has been playing and studying music for over 20 years. He has started regular communal jam meet ups and created and directed traveling musical peace circuses that have performed all throughout South America. Jon regularly hosts jam spaces and teaches voice workshops and song circles at various festivals. In the last 2 years Jon founded the Love Song gathering, a communally run 4 day, 200 person event focusing on village building, communal singing, and musical development. Recently, he completed his first musical "Before Long", an interActivist communally driven theatre experience, and is gearing up for another musical with frequent collaborator Cat Hood due at the end of May. For more on Jon check out: www.jonhandelman.com
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
13 Long St, Asheville, NC 28804-3552, United States
