Our Experienced Music Teachers
All of School of Rock Libertyville’s music teachers are experienced musicians devoted to helping students attain musical proficiency. Our instructors guide students one-on-one to personalize learning, inspire confidence and build social skills.
Jonathan Dawson
Music Director, House Band Director, Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher
Jonathan Dawson was naturally attracted to the guitar. His cousin had one and she would play it when the family came around. He immediately loved the sound and found it magical for musical expression. He moved started with The Beatles and took flight when he found Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin hitting the late 60s airwaves.
Over his 39 years of playing, he took lessons from a folk guitar lady, a jazz master, a series of teachers at his Pittsburgh arts high school, and then from professors in the music department at the University of Miami in Coral Gables. He’s mastered the guitar, bass, and ukulele, and helps his students develop with those, as well as players in our Performance Groups and House Band. His band is the JD Trio, and he’s played as a sessions artist and in the pit orchestra for such musicals as Rent. Now he inspires his students by showing them the possibilities they have as players in the exciting and ever-changing world of music.
Jared Brown
Drum Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Jared teaches drums and keyboards, with his primary focus on drums, an instrument he has been playing from the tender age of 5. Jared fell in love with the keyboard when he started to learn music theory at Elmhurst University, and through dedication and practice I developed a proficiency in both instruments.
Currently, Jared plays in two funk bands. That includes keyboards in Dream Soda and Drums in MetroFern. Jared graduated in 2021 with a major in music business with minors in music composition and music production. He was interested in music from a very young age and was in school band from 5th grade all the way through college.
As a teacher, Jared's goal is to inspire students to fall in love with the instrument and music as a whole. His favorite thing about teaching is to get his students to find their own voice and connection with the love of music. That could cover a range of genre's from his backgrounds in Funk, Pop, Jazz, Rock, R&B, Latin, and everything in between.
Dan Dubow
Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Vocal Teacher
Dan teaches guitar, bass, and vocals and that's not a surprise to those who know him. He's been playing and singing for 20 years now and teaching for about 10 years.
Dan's love affair with music started at a young age from parents playing classic rock throughout the house and was only increased when he learned how to play. He started playing when some of friends picked up the guitar in middle school and it was soon after that he realized how much I enjoyed both playing and singing together.
Dan graduated from Colombia College Chicago in 2011 with a degree in instrumental performance. He got into teaching after college because he loves to share the gift of music with anyone who wants to learn. He enjoys seeing a growing group of students develop a love affair with music that will bring them and those around them joy for the rest of their lives.
Andy Jasinski
Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher, Keyboard Teacher
Besides teaching music, Andy is a composer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in the Northwest Chicago suburbs. Andy started playing in bands in the mid-90s in his native Virginia. Finding inspiration in styles like math rock, shoegaze, and free jazz, Andy pursued a formal education in composition, and earned a PhD from The University of Chicago, where his principal teacher was Shulamit Ran. As a teacher he believes in helping every student find their own voice as a musician, whether it be in performing, creating, or both. Andy is currently finishing an album of original material with his wife Jackie.
Jonathan Graef
Guitar Teacher, Bass Guitar Teacher
Jonathan Graef teaches guitar and bass, two instruments which he has been playing for decades. He's been playing in bands since his high school days, and, in the past ten years, has played a part in founding two promising underground Chicago metal bands. (Downcaste and Uncouth, respectively.) School of Rock represents a new, exciting challenge for the experienced musician: teaching. Emphasizing beginners and intermediate players, Jonathan hopes to communicate passion and excitement for the art form of rock, something that reached him at the right time and the right age, and maybe learn some killer tunes along the way.
Jay Davenport
Drum Teacher
Born in 1960, Jay Davenport grew up on the south side of Chicago, listening to jazz, jazz-fusion and lots of 60s and 70s R&B. After being particularly influenced by the different styles of his favorite drummers, Art Blakey, Billy Cobham and Steve Gadd, he set out to find his own niche and develop his own sound. He started out playing locally with Chicago-style R&B, soul and fusion bands, and at age 22 began his road career, touring the U.S. with The Dells, an iconic doo-wop group. Jay started playing the blues when he was connected with blues/rock harmonica stalwart Sugar Blue, who had recently completed his performances on The Rolling Stone’s “Some Girls” album and tour, and was starting his own Chicago-based band.
When John Mayall disbanded the Bluesbreakers in 2008, Jay got an audition through Mayall bassist Rzab. John invited him to come along to play drums for what was, at the time, John Mayall’s new quintet. Jay decided to resume his music career full-time, and has been touring, recording and growing as an artist with John Mayall ever since. During the past decade, Jay has manned the drums for John Mayall in the various incarnations of his band and is now a member of the current trio. He is currently a drum teacher at School of Rock Libertyville.
School of Rock is where music and learning come together
For over twenty years, our amazing instructors have transformed hundreds of thousands of students across the world into skilled musicians. Become a musician at School of Rock.