Guitar

Guitarist Nikos Baroutsakis is an Artist Diploma in Performance graduate from the Royal College of Music, London. He studied with Gary Ryan and Charles Ramirez and was an RCM Award Holder supported by a Soiree d’Or Award, provided by the Ladies of the Soiree d’Or Committee. His work includes performances as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles, as well as arrangements of compositions for the guitar. He has appeared in concerts in Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. 

Born in Athens in 1989, Nikos began his formal studies on the guitar as a teenager with Dimitris Pappas, with whom he obtained his Soloist Diploma in 2011. His participation in the 2010 Volterra Project Summer Guitar Institute in Tuscany, Italy, introduced him to Antigoni Goni and motivated him to continue his studies under her guidance at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels from 2011 to 2015. Nikos also studied historical music on Baroque and Romantic guitars with Dirk de Hertogh, and Contemporary music with Bart Boukaert. During that four year period he obtained a Bachelors and Masters Degree (Distinction) of Arts in Music.

Nikos has participated in masterclasses with highly acclaimed guitarists such as: Sergio Assad, Dusan Bogdanovic, Zoran Dukic, Elliot Fisk, Rene Izquierdo, Timo Korhonen, Elena Papandreou, Konrad Ragosnig, Raphaella Smits and Gohar Vardanyan.

In the summer of 2015 he participated once more in the Volterra Project thanks to a scholarship provided by the Institute for Culture and Education in Brussels and was active as an assistant to the organisation during the 2016 edition where he also performed in the concert series. 

Nikos is interested in extending the classical guitar repertoire through transcriptions of works for other instruments. His arrangement for two guitars of the orchestral work The Light by Phillip Glass was premiered in Brussels in 2015 and received great critical acclaim. 

Nikos plays a guitar by Antonio Marin Montero (Granada, Spain).

https://www.nikosbaroutsakis.c...

Hi! My name is Giovanni Cresseri, and I play Electric Bass and Double Bass.

I started my career as a rock and funk bassist, attracted like a magnet to the unstoppable groove of people like Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Les Claypool (Primus), Marcus Miller, and so on and so forth.

Recently I have been seduced by the sound of the double bass and the feel of jazz, so I decided to attend a postgraduate course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I perform with the Jazz Silhouettes, alongside fellow YMM tutor, Francesca.

Can't wait to teach you some of the grooviest music that's out there!

Martin has had a wide and varied playing and teaching career spanning 20 years. His playing ranges in style from classical to rock though blues and jazz. Martin studied at the London College of Music, achieving an ALCM and LLCM. Since then his playing has taken him to the Greenwich, Cheltenham and Saddleworth Festivals.

Martin has also played on BBC Radio, Shanghai Television, the Amsterdam Hilton and for various West End shows. He has also been involved in producing tapes for education.

Vitor Pereira was born in Porto/Portugal where he studied mainly classical music and classical guitar.

His interest in Jazz took him to participate in seminars and private lessons with the likes of Pat Metheny, Jonathan Kreisberg, Gilad Hekselman or Aaron Goldberg to name a few and ultimately led him to London in 2004 to study at the “Middlesex University” where he graduated in Jazz performance.

Living in London since then he is an active name in the UK and Europe playing with names like: James Allsopp, Asaf Sirkis, Josh Arcoleo, Binker Goldings, Marc Demuth, etc…

He also leads his own quintet with which he released two successful albums.

www.vitorpereira.net

www.facebook.com/vitorpereiraquintet

Jon first started learning classical and electric guitars at age 10 and in 1998 was a finalist in Guitarist magazine’s Young Guitarist of the Year. He studied jazz at Middlesex University, graduating in 2006 with first-class honours and held the guitar chair in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra from 2007-2010. He plays in various bands and has worked with artists such as Darius Campbell (Pop Idol), Newton Faulkner and Bruce Forsyth, gigging across the UK as well as abroad in Venice, Qatar and Istanbul. He started teaching at Young Music Makers in 2006 and also works for Hertfordshire Music Service as a peripatetic tutor.

http://jonrussellguitar.weebly.com

Steven has several decades of experience teaching guitar in primary, secondary and adult education, inspiring confidence and enabling students to find shortcuts in their learning. He played in several ensembles ranging from Musicworks Big-Band, jazz duos and trios including with Don Paterson and Loz Speyer, to Nigerian Afro funk band Juwon, and Brazilian dance ensemble Yes Brasil.

He teaches a range of guitar styles, from classical to jazz, rock and pop, with a particular interest in composition and improvisation. Steven is happy to start wherever the student is at in their musical journey - at the start or somewhere along the way, and will incorporate elements from his own self-learning (beginning for him as a teenager using knitting needles for drumsticks on the sofa!).

He has attended numerous courses and workshops including, Guitar at Goldsmiths, Composition for Big-Band at Morley College and City Lit, Composition and Synchronisation for Film and Video at Westminster Adult Education, and Percussion with Irakere at Musicworks. He has attended guitar workshops with Frank Gambale, Stanley Jordan, John Scofield and Allan Holdsworth, and had one-to-one lessons from musicians such as Vajahat Khan and Wayne Krantz.

He also received mentoring and tuition from friend and teacher Amancio D’Silva (Amancio D'Silva/Joe Harriott Quartet, Krishnamurti School).

Martina was born in Sardinia, Italy, where she started her music path as self-taught guitarist, eventually exploring the topic in varied ways through the years.

In 2016, Martina achieved a milestone, earning her bachelor's degree in Jazz guitar from Pierluigi da Palestrina's Music Conservatory. Her thesis delved into the mesmerising world of Django Reinhardt and his European swing, a testament to her dedication and passion for music. Remarkably, she stands as the lone female guitarist to have completed this rigorous academic program, under the tutelage of esteemed mentors like Massimo Ferra, Stefano D'Anna, and Alessandro Di Liberto.

In 2020, Martina's pursuit of excellence led her to the prestigious Film Scoring Academy of Europe, where she embarked on a transformative master's program in Film Scoring. With her thesis titled "Mind Over Body," she explored the profound impact of voice and its psychological resonance in cinematic compositions, a testament to her innovative approach to music. Under the mentorship of luminaries like Andy Hill, Derek Gleeson, and Norman Ludwin, Martina emerged from the program in September 2021, equipped with a wealth of knowledge and a boundless passion for creating immersive musical experiences for the silver screen.

Martina is actually based in London and, in addition to her successful music career, she also enjoys teaching and has taught students of all levels and ages. Her teaching philosophy is centred around cultivating a love for music while also developing strong technical skills. Using students’ interests as a goal, Martina’s method tailors lessons towards their achievements and ambitions, never forgetting the shared passion for the subject and to have fun through it.