Our Teachers
Chris Gibson
Chris is a musician, composer, and teacher with 25+ years of experience participating in a diverse range of music projects involving multimedia, film soundtracks, theater, dance and live performance.
In addition to working and performing with Tiny Orchestral Moments from its beginning in 2016, Chris was invited to be a Guest Producer for a TOM I session at London Bridge Studio featuring the full team as his backing orchestra.
He is a member of Tuning the Air (http://seattlecircle.org/tuningtheair/), the Atomic Chamber Ensemble (https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/ace), the League of Crafty Guitarists North America, and Lost Pedro.
In 1997, Chris attended Cornish College of the Arts Jazz Program.
During this time, he also began his participation in Guitar Craft courses directed by guitarist Robert Fripp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Craft).
As an extension of his involvement in Guitar Craft, he has also been an integral part of the non-profit LLC, Seattle Circle (http://seattlecircle.org) which has been sponsoring weekly workshops, quarterly seminars, and countless performances and education events in the Puget Sound area since 1997.
He also completed the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program (http://www.pnwfilmmusic.com) in 2013.
Most recently, Chris joined the band King Crimson (https://www.dgmlive.com/king-crimson) on keyboards for their 2017 Fall US Tour.
Chris lives in Seattle with his wife, Meleah, and his two daughters, Charlie and Nina.
Ben Kromholtz
Ben is an active music professional who is in demand as a choral director, adjudicator and accompanist in the greater Seattle area. In the last few years, Mr. Kromholtz has been staff accompanist for the Northwest Choirs, Seattle Choral Company and Bellevue High School. Mr. Kromholtz has adjudicated multiple choral festivals and directed honor choirs in the greater Seattle area in the last decade.
Mr. Kromholtz has been teaching piano for 20 years and has a large private studio in Bothell, but is excited to work with Play At Work, as not only kids should get the opportunity to learn and grow in music!
Ben Kromholtz is a graduate of the Northwest Boychoir and Vocalpoint! Seattle, and has over 25 years of ongoing involvement with the Northwest Choirs. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Washington.
Mr. Kromholtz lives in Bothell with his family.
Nathan Shiu
Nathan is a Voice Teacher, Accompanist, Singer, and Choir Director serving the Greater Seattle Area. Between earning a B.A. in Composition from Whitman College and an M.A. in Music from Washington State University he worked as Staff Accompanist and Adjunct Voice Teacher for Whitman College. During that time in Walla Walla, he gained additional experience on the stage as actor and singer for Whitman College’s Harper Joy Theatre and as pianist for the Little Theatre of Walla Walla. Nathan can currently be found directing church choir at Salem Lutheran Church in Mount Vernon, singing as a vocal mentor for St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral’s high school aged choir (Cathedral Schola), and playing piano for Bellevue Youth Choirs and Master Chorus Eastside. As a teacher, he seeks to demystify music for the general public, especially singing.
Jeff Bowen
Jeff is a composer and guitarist, and a co-director of Seattle’s Inverted Space Ensemble. His compositions have been performed by Pascal Gallois, Beta Collide, Ensemble DissonArt, and the Nebraska Chamber Players, among other ensembles in the USA and Europe. In 2013 his orchestral piece Stalasso was featured in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Works program, and he has recently presented work at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and the University of Nebraska New Music Festival.
Jeff is currently active in Seattle as a performer on classical and electric guitars, playing and recording with heavy-metal, folk-rock, and tango projects, and performing new works and 20th-century repertoire with the Inverted Space Ensemble, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Universal Language Project, and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. Recent performances include the Seattle premiere of James Bonney’s electric guitar concerto DARKlightNESS with the University of Washington Wind Ensemble, and Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint for guitar and ambisonic sound diffusion, in collaboration with Marcin Pączkowski. After studying classical guitar with William Ash in St. Louis, he received a BA in Music from Stanford University, where he studied guitar performance with Charles Ferguson and composition with Jaroslaw Kapuscinski and Mark Applebaum. He recently completed a DMA in composition at the University of Washington under Joël-François Durand.
Max Holmberg
Max is a Seattle-based drummer, bandleader and educator. He first started getting to know the drum set at his grandpa's house at age two. Born into a family of actors and musicians, it's no surprise that the first music he remembers listening to is Count Basie. Max got his fist real taste of jazz playing in the jazz programs at Eckstein Middle School and Roosevelt High School in Seattle. Max then moved to Boston for four years where he completed his B.M. at Berklee College of Music. Upon completion, he returned to Seattle where he currently resides and can be found performing in person and on the radio with many diverse projects and bands including the Alex Dugdale Band, Mark Hunter Quintet, Jacqueline Tabor Jazz Band, 200 Trio, The Arsonists, the Eric Patterson Band, The Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and the Kareem Kandi Band, as well as teaching out of his studio and at the Seattle Drum School. Max hosts the Sunday night jam session at the Angry Beaver in Greenwood, co-runs the podcast Jazztalk Seattle, and runs the Secret Jazz Club on Airbnb.
Throughout Max's musical journey, he has had the opportunity to perform in 7 different countries and gain personal experience and knowledge from many notable musicians. Some highlights include performing clinics at Berklee College of Music with Joanne Brackeen, Eddie Gomez, and Wayne Krantz, a performance/rehearsal at Lincoln Center with the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band and Wynton Marsalis, workshops with Gerald Clayton, Joe Lovano, the late Rashied Ali, and the late James Moody, a performances and recording with the Roosevelt Jazz Band and Cuong Vu, among others. In addition to these artists, a special thanks goes out to Benny Green, Neal Smith, Katia Roberts, Ernesto Diaz, Tyler Richart, Joanne Brackeen, Stuart MacDonald, Moc Escobedo, Lisa Holmberg, Ed Mays and Scott Brown for going above and beyond in helping mentor Max as a musician, drummer and human spirit.
Max has since been a featured guest artist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville (UVM), Gonzaga University, Eastern Washington University, and Whitman College.
Alexey Nikolaev
Performer, instructor, clinician, and studio musician Alexey Nikolaev graduated from Gnesin's Music Academy of Russia, with a B.A. in saxophone performance and arrangement, and studied with saxophonist Dave Liebman. He has performed with a wide array of artists including vocalists Diane Schuur and Michael Buble, saxophonists Benny Golson, Maceo Parker, and Joe Lovano, trumpeters Winton Marsalis, Randy Brecker, and Jon Faddis, trombonists Curtis Fuller and Slide Hampton, guitarist John Pizzarelli, bassist Buddy Catlett, and drummers Jeff Hamilton and Butch Myles. Alexei has played for audiences all over the world, in settings including the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Moscow Hermitage Jazz Festival, and the Vancouver Jazz Festival, as well as Seattle’s own Earshot Jazz Festival. He has taught at Central Washington University, Edmonds Community College, the Mercer Island School District, Music Works and the Roberts Music Institute.
Since 2000, Alexey has lived and worked in Seattle, performing and recording with artists including Greta Matassa, Jacqueline Tabor, Thomas Marriott, and Mark Seals, and is a member and soloist of Doctor Funk Band (Strokeland Records).
Press:
"The first time I heard Alexey Nikolaev perform, I was knocked out by his big tenor sound and his willingness to take chances with the music" - All About Jazz Magazine
"An absolute monster saxman" - The News Tribune (Seattle)
"Keep your ears open for Alexey Nikolaev, a commanding tenor saxophonist" - Pony Boy Records
"The inflections of Alexey Nikolaev on tenor saxophone" - Kirkland Jazz Festival
“Gentle Giant” - All About Jazz magazine
Carlos Cotallo Solares
Carlos Cotallo Solares is a Spanish composer and improviser based in Seattle. His work deals with indeterminism, musical quotation, meter and tempo polyphony, and the relationship between music and language. His pieces often focus on a single concept or technique that is interpreted in multiple ways.
As an improviser, he performs on electric guitar and pedalboard, exploring effects not as a way to modify the guitar's sound but as instruments on their own. He is a member of the free-improvisation trio Wombat, with Justin Comer (saxophone) and Will Yager (double bass).
His music has been performed in festivals in the US, England, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, and Finland, and his audiovisual collaborations with the filmmaker Timothy David Orme have been presented in film festivals internationally. He releases and performs experimental rock music under the name Black Stork and has produced guitar and pedal demos for premierguitar.com.
In 2019, Carlos finished his PhD in composition at the University of Iowa, previously completing a Master's degree at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and a Bachelor's degree at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg.
Machado Mijiga
Classically trained, jazz weathered, and eclectically inclined, multi-instrumentalist Machado left the proverbial creative "box" at a very early age, with access to many instruments and a diverse musical background brought about by an intercultural heritage.
A Portland native, Machado is a musical polymath; composer, producer, bandleader, educator, gear fanatic, and audio engineer, to name a few.
Machado studied classical and jazz saxophones at University of Puget Sound from 2012-13 and Washington State University from 2013-2017, with elective studies in Percussion at UPS in 2012 and, ensemble experience at Whitman College from 2008-2012.
Machado has shared the stage and/or collaborated with the likes of Benny Golson, Terence Blanchard, Brian McKnight, Charlie Hunter, Mark Giuliana, Bill Watrous, Tamir Hendelman, John Clayton, Eddie Palmieri, Fareed Haque, Darrell Grant, George Colligan, Damian Erskine, Thomas Marriott, Joe Kye, Ora Cogan, PDX All Stars, and many more.
Festival highlights include (but not limited to): Pickathon, PDX Jazz Festival, Vanport Jazz Festival, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, PaseoFest, Montavilla Jazz Festival, Taco Tapes Festival, and Ghost Carrot Festival.
Machado serves as Artist-in-Residence at Portland's Roosevelt High School, along with being a guest lecturer and workshop collaborator for Portland State University.
As a composer, Machado recently won the Portland Jazz "Composers Cook-Off" in 2020 and became one of Third Coast Percussion's "Creative Currents" Partners in 2021. As a producer and audio engineer, Machado currently has 12 records, 14 EPs, and 16 singles released under his name, with all but two of these releases self-produced. He has also served as a freelance producer and engineer for artists such as Rob Araujo, Darrell Grant, and more.
Authenticity and uniquity assume the locus of Mijiga's artistic identity — self-expression is the prime directive, and the medium of choice changes like the weather.
Machado teaches drums, saxophone, piano, composition and music production.
Brigitta Teuscher
Brigitta Teuscher is a professional vocalist in Portland, Oregon. Her voice has been lauded as having a rare mix of unconventional warmth and power. She was the Best Vocalist winner at the Teagarden Jazz Festival singing for the Jazz Legacy Band and lead vocalist for five years in the internationally renowned Synthesis Jazz Band. Has experience touring in Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, England, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Performance highlights include getting the first triple encore in the Saukraasti Jazz Festival’s history, being a featured vocalist at the National Theatre of Cuba, and performing at Festinord’s 50th Anniversary in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a mainstay in the Portland jazz scene, and tours nationally in a variety of shows.
As a teacher, she works with her students to free their true voice regardless of where they are in their vocal journey. She works to create a positive environment to uncover vocal gifts students never knew they had. She has specialized expertise in contemporary voice, training students in variety of genres that feature mixed/belt techniques including pop, R&B, jazz, rock, and musical theatre.
Brigitta teaches voice, songwriting and piano.
Peter Qualtere-Burcher
Peter QB is a jazz musician based in Portland, Oregon. He gigs and hosts jam sessions around towns, teaches music lessons on a variety of instruments, and composes original music for his group. Peter studied music performance (jazz saxophone) at Whitman College under Dave Glenn and Leo Potts. His latest project for jazz quintet called Sci-Fi is available for sale on this site or can be streamed on all platforms.
When he isn't ears deep in the music, pqb designs sneakers for a small Italian shoe company, works in his grandfather's woodshop and explores Oregon with his life partner G Blues.
Peter teaches saxophone, guitar, bass, piano, composition and music production.