Dr. Gaby Valladares is a native of Santa Clarita, California. After earning her Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara, she made her way to Ohio, where she has established herself as a clarinetist and teacher around the city of Columbus. She has performed with local symphonies, such as the Westerville Symphony, and has performed with symphonies in California, including the Symphony of the Canyons. She is also part of the Held-Together Wind Quintet, which was awarded the Barbara and Sheldon Pinchuk Arts-Community Outreach Grant. This quintet also had the honor of opening for the Imani Wind Quintet at the Southern Theatre in March 2022. She also served as the President of the ClariNetwork Association, whose efforts have funded masterclasses featuring world-renowned performers and teachers. With Dr. Sarah Jaegers, she is a member of the DesertLake duo, who have performed at ICA’s 2020 Clarinetfest.

While doing her DMA degree at Ohio State, she served as the head Graduate Teaching Associate for the History of Rock ‘n’ Roll course. During her time in her performance program, she advocated for the playing of music of a wide range of performers and is comfortable playing music ranging from Johannes Brahms to Vulfpeck. She continues diving into and teaching her students about classical and popular music, including jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.

Gaby has taught a wide range of students and has experience teaching elementary, middle, high school, and university level students. She served as a graduate associate in OSU’s clarinet studio and has experience teaching a wide range of instruments, from clarinet to piano and saxophone.

During her free time, Gaby enjoys finding and listening to records, buying books she won’t have time to read, and transcribing famous rock solos to clarinet (Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” is her most recent project).

Dr. Valladares holds a DMA and an MM degree from the Ohio State University and she received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her primary teachers include Dr. Caroline Hartig and Paul Bambach.

Thane Leshner is a Columbus-born guitarist and vocalist who began playing in 2005. He graduated from Capital University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Music where he participated in choir and the school rock ensemble.

Thane has worked with rock bands for 10 years and written and recorded over 30 original songs. He currently performs locally and regionally with Why Omen and RK Maroon and also has experience on drums, keyboard, bass guitar and mandolin.

When he’s not playing music, Thane enjoys reading, soldering electronics and skateboarding. He lives with his girlfriend and 2 cats, Mable and Edith.

A seasoned drummer for over 30 years, Josh specializes in teaching all skill-levels, with students ranging in age from 4 to 74.  Josh has a fun and engaging approach to his teaching, and also has extensive experience teaching drums to students on the Autism spectrum, Cerebral-Palsy, and Kabuki Syndrome, among with other physical-challenges. Josh has also written a complete drum curriculum specifically for children.

Josh has taught drums professionally for over 20 years, and is *most* proud to say that 3 of his students that applied & auditioned for Berklee School of Music in Boston, have all been accepted!

Eryn Reynolds is a voice music lessons instructor specializing in Rock, Pop, Country and Musical Theatre styles.

Originally from the Cleveland area, Eryn developed a passion for entertainment at a very young age and started her career in Cleveland’s theatre and film scene nearly 15 years ago. Her experiences have landed her opportunities all over the world including Off Broadway in New York and with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England to eventually signing on as a lead vocalist, dancer and sketch comedian at Shadowbox Live in 2016.

Aside from a passion for performing herself, Eryn has a passion for sharing the joy of music and performance with students of all ages and skill levels. She caters each students experience to their interests and abilities in a fun yet professional environment.

Music has always been Aster’s life passion, and they love to share and help cultivate that passion with their students in music lessons. A nonbinary composer and pianist, Aster holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Miami University and a Masters in Music from Wright State University. Aster has arranged music for cabarets, accompanied vocal recitals, played recitals at anime conventions, released instrumental music on Spotify, and has even been sampled by the Wu-Tang Clan. In 2022, Aster had their orchestra piece, “Tone Poem in G Major ‘Rain-Songs,’” premiered by the Wright State Chamber Orchestra as part of their Fall Strings Festival. Aster lives in Columbus, Ohio, with their fiancee and their cats.