BANDS | STRINGS | PERCUSSION | GUITAR
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SELECT BAND DIRECTOR
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NOVICE BAND DIRECTOR
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Woodwind Sectionals
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Woodwind Private Instruction
2025-26 will also include
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JAZZ BAND DIRECTOR
Marty Magnini
Marty Magnini studied clarinet performance and conducting at the University of Illinois in Champaign, and Roosevelt University in Chicago. His teachers included Walter Wollwage of the Chicago Symphony and Melvin Warner of the St. Louis Symphony. As a performer, Marty has played clarinet and bass clarinet with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Lyric Opera Orchestras. After 15 years of performing, Marty graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Northern Illinois University.
Marty has also completed a Master’s Degree in Education from North Central College, and a Master’s Degree in Music Education from Kent State University. After graduation, Marty taught at Cary-Grove High School in Cary, Illinois for 27 years, where his concert and jazz ensembles won acclaim throughout the midwest. While at Cary-Grove, Marty also taught music theory, A.P. music theory, percussion ensemble, marching band, college level music appreciation, and music technology. In addition, Marty was the music director for the Crystal Lake Community Band in Crystal Lake, Illinois from 2003 to 2022. Marty recently moved to the Nashville area with his wife Julie, and is currently the Associate Director for the Nashville Community Concert Band.
Marty has worked with all levels of music students, from beginners to college music majors, and loves to share his passion for music with students of every age and ability.
Roland Barber roland.b@nashvillenotes.org
Roland Barber has performed with an impressively diverse list of artists including Chaka Khan, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center, Kirk Whalum, the Wooten Brothers, the Chico O’Farill Orchestra, Robin Thicke, the Temptations, Manny Oquendo y Libre and the NBC Saturday Night Live Band. He’s performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Birdland, the Blue Note, the Beacon Theater, Lincoln Center, the Copacabana, the Kennedy Center, and Madison Square Garden.
His jazz style is greatly influenced by jazz master J. J. Johnson, Steve Turre, and Al Grey. Also having a deep impact on Roland’s style is the joy of connecting to listeners through a vocal concept to the instrument, embodied by masters such as Clark Terry and Al Grey. Roland believes in drawing on the strength of an ensemble and community to create music, modeled by Duke, Count, Blakey, and so many of the great soloist-infused big bands and small groups of the post Bop era.
Roland has also gained much acclaim as a composer and arranger, as well as producing the album "Twinnovation" with his twin brother, which put the Barber Brothers on the map of the national jazz scene.
Motivated by a love to teach, Roland has attended virtually every major jazz educational classroom in the country. Roland has taught private study of trombone, jazz history, big band, and jazz improvisation in Manhattan School of Music’s Pre-College Program for NY area’s talented youngsters. When he's not teaching at Nashville Notes on Tuesdays, he can be found teaching at Vanderbilt and at the Nashville Jazz Workshop.
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JAZZ BAND DIRECTOR
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Brass Sectionals
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Brass Private Instruction
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PERCUSSION DIRECTOR
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Percussion Private Instruction
Chris Nelsen chris.n@nashvillenotes.org
Mr. Nelsen began his percussion studies at the age of eight. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education and a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance, both from the University of Colorado where he performed with the Colorado Springs Symphony. Mr. Nelsen holds a master’s degree in percussion performance from Austin Peay State University, with honors, and has done graduate work at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Mr. Nelsen is a frequent guest percussionist and timpanist with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, as well as several other orchestras throughout the southeast. He is a member of the Nashville Opera Orchestra and the timpanist for The Nashville Praise Symphony, and has worked with a diverse range of artists including Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Louise Bellson, Glen Campbell, Pink Martinis, Bernadette Peters, Bill and Gloria Gaither, Peter Noone, and Jose Feliciano to name a few.
Teaching privately and in class settings for more than 30 years has been one of his greatest joys. Chris taught class percussion at Pope John Paul ll High school for 11 years and serves as Adjunct Professor of Percussion at Lipscomb University, where he has taught for 12 years now. He is Visiting Assistant Professor of Percussion at The University of the South in Sewanee. He also teaches drum set and percussion at Sam Ash Music. Many of his former students enjoy careers in the music industry.
A resident of Nashville, Mr. Nelsen’s hobbies include crossword puzzles, home renovation, and gold panning.
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STRING ENSEMBLE DIRECTOR
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MUSICIANSHIP & THEORY
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MUSIC THEORY PLUS+
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Private Piano Instruction
Shawn Reed shawn.r@nashvillenotes.org
Shawn Reed received her Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Colorado Mesa University in her early twenties and recently graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting. She spent the time in-between her collegiate studies teaching music at various institutions, running worship departments, serving as a youth pastor, writing songs, recording albums, teaching private lessons, raising a family, and traveling extensively with her husband as worship leaders and worship team consultants.
As a result, Mrs. Reed brings a wealth of musical, leadership, ministry, and life experience to her position at Nashville Notes. Her passion for developing the God-given gifts in people is contagious and her love for music creates a fun and vibrant atmosphere where students flourish.
Shawn Reed is also currently serving as the Orchestra Director at New College Franklin and as the conductor of the Centerville Community Orchestra.
She lives in Franklin with her husband, Steve, and their two sons, Taylor and Michael.
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WORSHIP BAND
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ACOUSTIC GUITAR
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UKULELE
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Guitar Private Instruction
Steve Reed steve.r@nashvillenotes.org
Singer, songwriter, author, conference speaker, and multi-instrumentalist, Steven Reed, has been leading worship for decades. He got his start singing and playing acoustic guitar around the youth group camp fire, moments that ignited (pardon the appropriate pun) a lifelong passion to help people experience the life transforming presence of God. Over the years, Steve has served as a worship team member and leader at several churches. He has overseen youth bands, was a youth pastor for many years, and has traveled extensively with his wife, Shawn, teaching and training churches of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds.
In addition to providing musical and team training, Steve has a technological gifting for sound production and recording that has taken on many applications over the course of his life; from recording his teenage sappy love songs into a tape recorder, to running sound for live events, to recording professional level albums for himself and a host of other clients. Some of his music can be found by searching for Steve & Shawn on your favorite music platform. In addition to writing and recording music, Steve has also authored several books: 72% Cocoa: A Practical Guide For Intense Worship, Getting Your Church To Sing, and The Shift: How A Professional Doer Learned To Delegate.
Steve also has a calling to do all the afore mentioned ministry activities in both English and Spanish. Steve and Shawn have recorded several Spanish albums and regularly lead worship and minister in Spanish. You can check out more of their music and worship training materials at steveandshawn.com and musicandministry.co.
Steve is an avid learner and a teacher by nature. He has taught people of all ages how to play acoustic and electric guitar throughout his professional life and loves to help people flourish and grow into all God has called them to be. Steve loves to play sports as well as spend time pursuing new interests. He and his wife, Shawn, have two boys who also love to play music and sports.
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PRELUDE STRINGS DIRECTOR
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Violin & Viola Private Instruction
2025-26 will also include
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ANDANTE STRINGS DIRECTOR
Kristi Strohwig kristi.s@nashvillenotes.org
Kristi Strohwig is a Nashville violinist and violist, podcast producer, educator, and entrepreneur. A New Jersey native, Kristi began playing the violin at the age of 7 and graduated from James Madison University with a degree in Instrumental Music Education.
Throughout her career, Kristi has recorded and performed all over the United States with notable names in various musical genres such as Michael Bublé, Tasha Layton, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and The Vigil Project. Kristi regularly performs at weddings and special events with Southern Strings, a musical group she co-founded in 2021, as well as with the Orchestra of Kentucky, the Paducah Symphhony Orchestra, and many other ensembles.
With a passion for music education, Kristi currently teaches 15 private violin and viola students in the greater Nashville area. She believes music is the greatest gift God has given her and she is delighted to join the team at Nashville Notes as the director of Prelude Strings!