ERIC COOPER Bass Guitar Teacher
Eric Cooper, more commonly known as "Coop", has been playing bass for about 18 years, and doing so has taken him all over the world. After a few years playing in the Philadelphia music scene, Coop traveled the globe as a professional musician, playing on cruise ships with his band, The Funky T. That experience led Coop to seeing 37 different countries in 2 years while also honing his skills on the bass and truly learning how to play in a band.
Since the cruise career, Coop has continued to play in the Philadelphia music scene with The Funky T, while also backing up local artists such as Emily Drinker, Maggie Mae and John Gilbride at venues like The Ardmore Music Hall, Philadelphia Folk Fest, Milkboy, 118 North and many more. In addition to playing in bands, Coop also has a solo bass project called "Coop a Loop" which consists of bass-centric music created with nothing but a bass, a loop station and effects pedals. The most recent chapter of Coop's musical journey has led him to teaching at School of Rock. Influenced by bassists such as Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Joe Dart, Flea and Les Claypool, Coop hopes to continue his own search for knowledge while teaching the next generation of musicians.
JOSHUA LEE GUITAR Teacher, BASS Teacher
The journey began 40 years ago, when Joshua first picked up one of his father's battered old Harmony acoustic guitars at age 4. At first he would sit on his old sofa in Washington DC, picking out melodies by ear from the radio, his father's records, TV commercials. . .whatever. Everything changed when the family moved to South Orange NJ, when the discovery of 89.5 WSOU (New Jersey's Hardest Rock!!) out of nearby Seton Hall University introduced Joshua to the sounds of the thrash, black and death metal that would become his main source of inspiration.
Founding several NJ hardcore and metal acts (Face First, Deadbolt and Eyes Of The Blind, respectively) and a stint as guitarist for legendary DC crust/grind act Flinch firmly entrenched Joshua in the underground music scene, where he has remained ever since. After a favor to a friend turned into several years as the lead guitarist and second vocalist of the southern NJ based power-pop band The Colorfield Theory, Joshua has once again returned to his roots and currently masterminds the one-man project Mastemah, combining elements of black, thrash, death metal, and hardcore. He plans to teach, record, and release music into the foreseeable future.
Chris Caulder Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Chris Caulder is a musical jack-of-all-trades. Staring his career as a drummer for the underground rock band Downside, Chris went on to play guitar and sing for several hardcore bands in Florida, including Signal 13 and No Way Out. Most recently, he played guitar, bass, and piano in a downtempo electronic-based duo Beauty’s Confusion. Currently, Chris is busy writing and recording music. He is working on his 14th solo project CD, currently entitled The Surcharge. To date, Chris has self-released thirteen solo music CDs of various styles and sounds, all of which are available from his upstart record label Ousted Records. In addition to Chris’ live band and recording experience, he co-wrote a book about computer recording with author Michael W. Dean entitled “Digital Music DIY Now!” This Creative Commons-licensed e-book is freely downloadable from diynow.org. Furthermore, he has provided music for several video games, independent lms, and has collaborated with and remixed countless indie artists including Bitstream Dream, Buck 65, East Hundred, and Lovespirals. Chris listens to and loves every style of music under the sun, and some of his favorites include Jet To Brazil, Van Halen (only with David Lee Roth!), the Mists (Danzig-only!), Queen, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Pink Floyd, Jimmy Eat World, Azure Ray, Julianna Hateld, Minipop, Nada Surf, The Smiths, and Metric.
Mike Kiker Keyboard Teacher, Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher
Mike Kiker is a multi-instrumentalist, session player, producer, recording engineer, and film composer. He currently plays keyboards in Philly-based psychedelic rock band St. James & The Apostles.
He started playing piano at age 4, but didn't take music seriously until picking up guitar and bass at age 9. After taking guitar lessons for over a year at the original School of Rock, during which time he also picked up the drums. After moving on to the music program at Archbishop Ryan High School, he rotated between instruments in different ensembles. A common joke heard from his band director was "Jeez Mr. Kiker, which instrument are you gonna learn this week?". His Senior Year Spring Concert featured him in different groups playing guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and flute, respectively. He also had a side career at the time as a church organist.
After high school, he ended up in the music program at Community College of Philadelphia, graduating with honors in 2010 with a double major in Music Theory and Sound Recording Technology. While there
he sang as a tenor in the school choir, and rotated between bass, drums, vibraphone and percussion in the Jazz ensemble.
Soon after graduating, he formed St. James & The Apostles with his cousins, while also teaching one-on-one lessons on the side. They've since released 4 albums and started their own recording studio, Green Rock Recorders, with the purpose of producing their own records, which soon blossomed into a fun side career as a sought-after production team. They were also awarded "2019's Best Band" by Philadelphia Magazine. Mike has also contributed instrumental scores to the science fiction web series "The Weirdness" and created a new score for the 1911 silent film "L'Inferno", both of which are available to view
on YouTube.
Johnny Hertler Drum Teacher
Johnny Hertler, better known as Johnny Zabo, has been playing drums professionally live and in recording studios for 14 years. At the age of 25, he has performed with many artists and recorded with some big names in music in the world of rock, pop, hip hop, jazz and more. He now plays in the Philadelphia native and local legend original bands The Electric Boa & Mach 22 and the American tribute to Santana, Santana Amigos. He was trained by many professional drummers like Frankie Banali (Quiet Riot) Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats) and many more as he was thrown into the fire to tour at the age of 12. He has performed and toured with many bands, both local and international, such as Black Stone Cherry, Hinder, Bowling for Soup, The Stray Cats and many more. Johnny has recorded and been on many albums of local and touring artists, was a studio drummer for Nickelodeon for two years, and is still a working studio Drummer for Netflix. He has recorded on albums with Lukas Graham, Michael Buble, Dominique Pruitt, Bowling for Soup, Hinder, Black Stone Cherry, Ariana Grande & many more.
Jessie Wexler Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher, Singing Teacher
Growing up in suburban Philadelphia, Jessie performed over 200 performances prior to starting college. Throughout his academic career Jessie participated in many music programs. In this time, Jessie developed a skill for performance at a young age while studying various composers. Jessie composes and performs various styles of music from rock, jazz, film scores, middle eastern and world music. At The University of the Arts, Jessie holds a bachelor’s with honors in music composition. He has studied with some of the cities most talented composers and artists In college. Jessie focused on music production through classes and personal music projects collaborating and composing music for animators, film makers, dancers, and music business students. Jessie has performed with and produced for original bands in the Philadelphia area such as Seoul Delhi, Juice Wax, and Breathing, collectively performing hundreds of shows and creating a fan-base in the Philadelphia area. Jessie’s passion for music continued into education. Through private and group lessons, Jessie dedicates to teach his students to learn their instruments and to play what they want confidently. Jessie is proficient at both production and performance, with a passion for writing high quality content and performing at a professional level.
WILL HENRICKSEN Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar, Singing Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Will Henriksen is a guitarist, violinist, bassist, singer, songwriter, and occasional keyboardist. Raised in a musical family and originally trained on violin, he studied music theory at the Longy School of Music, taught himself guitar and performed classic rock covers in high school. Early adulthood in New England had him performing and releasing music with many rock, dream pop, and post-punk acts including Harmoos, Blau Blau, Beverly Tender, and Mini Dresses. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2017, he has performed in a quartet under his own name, as well as with alt-country outfit Florry, performance art group Tiffany's House, and singer-songwriters Michael Cormier and Snow Caps.
Luca Schmidt Singing Teacher, Guitar Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Luca Schmidt is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional keyboardist from Baltimore, MD. They began singing in elementary school choirs and started guitar lessons at Baltimore School of Rock in high school. They write in a variety of styles ranging from folk to punk. They have played their original music in numerous small venues both solo and with a band. Luca relocated to Philly in 2019 to study voice, guitar and music tech at University of the Arts, where they currently attend. In addition to their original music, they are now training in classical and jazz styles. Luca gets inspiration from a variety of genres and artists, including local indie bands like Hop Along and Big Thief. They are also influenced by great jazz vocalists like Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. Luca was hired at School Of Rock in 2022 with the goal of empowering younger musicians through music.
Zoë Jean Tanner Singing Teacher, Guitar Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Zoë Jean Tanner is from Baltimore, Maryland. She began playing music at a very young age. She studied piano, guitar, saxophone, clarinet, and voice. Zoë has been studying classical voice for fifteen years. She has performed in multiple traveling choirs across the world. She moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after studying vocal performance at The University of Valley Forge. She has since performed and written for multiple bands in the area such as Geisha Facade. Currently, Zoë is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and composer for Good Things Take Time. Zoë takes great care that each student gets to work on material that excites and engages them. She uses method based teaching with theory influence to ensure a strong musical knowledge that will help carry the student throughout their musical experience.
DAKOTA DEYOC Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Dakota Deyoc is a multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer from Plymouth Meeting, PA. His musical journey started at the age of 11 when he decided that he wanted to pick up guitar and drums. Video games such as Guitar Hero and Rockband really got him involved with music, but the plastic instruments were soon traded in for the real thing. Since then, Dakota has picked up other instruments such as bass, piano, and various smaller stringed instruments. Dakota currently holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Technology degree from Temple University, where he graduated in 2020. Dakota was trained in audio engineering, composition, conducting, and music theory. As a producer, his influences span a wide variety of genres and styles so that he can constantly take in new information and approaches to the craft. His primary influences include Tame Impala, Mac DeMarco, Dream Theater, Flume, Queen, John Mayer, and many others. He has performed and composed in various styles of music including rock, metal, R&B, funk, and psychedelia. Dakota has been a part of many different bands and projects over the years, but in June of 2019 he decided to take matters into his own hands and go solo. He has been releasing music independently since then, taking full control of the creative process. Dakota is excited for his future at the Fort Washington School of Rock, and looks forward to helping musicians blossom into their full potential.
Mark Terrizzi Music Director, Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Drum Teacher
Mark started his life with music early. At age 6, he was playing drums along to all his favorite albums. As a teen he taught himself guitar along with bass, mandolin and piano. After years of touring as a multi-instrumentalist, he took the knowledge he gained and focused it on teaching all the tricks, secrets and fundamentals of music he's picked up over the years.
Mark has been influenced by many different genres and bands. Ranging from the classics like Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes to the more obscure acts like Magma, This Heat and Talk Talk. He has taken his love for all things experimental and put that into over 20 original albums written, produced and recorded by himself. As music director at School of Rock, Mark is here to help you learn more about not just your instrument of choice but also a deep history of rock and rock related music.
Darren Ellis Drum Teacher
Darren has been playing drums for a little over 20 years. He has studied drums and percussion in college and his experiences encompass a wide variety of styles with many different people and bands in Ohio, Tennessee, New Jersey, and New York. Some artists in which he has performed with include the Dave Landeo Band, Stonewater Groove, Jagstar, Jason Allen Phelps and Donald Brown.
Darren has recently spent much time over the last two years studying at The Drummers Collective in New York City where he continues to study. Drums are his primary focus, however, beginning in 1998 he worked as a systems technician for a pro concert sound company in the southeast. During this time, he gained valuable experience in the music industry that he applies not only to his playing but everyday life as well. He has been fortunate to have been a technician on a long list of shows varying in genres and artists that include the Black Crowes, Sister Hazel, Slayer, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Nickelback, Johnny Lang, Moe, Wilco, Old 97's, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Keb Mo, James Brown, Rascal Flats, Keith Urban, Alan Jackson, Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker/Herbie Hancock, Cassandra Wilson, as well as many others. Darren holds a BSC in audio production from Ohio University.