MUSIC FACULTY
MATTHEW KING
// rock ensemble
Educator, Musician, Songwriter, Producer, Recording Artist, Performer, Activist, Preacher, Gardener, Comedian, Instigator, Lover, Friend. Teacher of Music and History using Community Building and Social Justice as foundational principals; Primary instruments - drums, percussion, guitar, bass, vocals with a side order of keyboards. Performs and records with The Alchemystics (percussion and vocals), Dave Noonan's Green Island (percussion and vocals), and his own band, TapRoots (all instruments and vocals).
Matthew's passion for music, history and activism have united and combined in multiple ways throughout his life, and culminated in his teaching career at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School (PVPA), where he directs the Rock Ensemble. Matthew has directed the M.A.P.S. songwriting course, gives percussion lessons and teaches history. He has performed at countless music festival mainstages and at small clubs across the East Coast, and enjoys bringing the transformative power of music and rhythm wherever he goes.
MARA LEVI
// dept leader // spectrum a cappella //vocal music // recording studio // songwriters workshop
Mara is a trained music educator with a MEd from NYU. Mara's educational passion is for building spaces for students to learn through being creative. The recording studio we have built at PVPA uses state-of-the-art equipment and allows students to study composition, mic positioning, mixing, and mastering during school.
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Mara also incorporates their considerable a cappella arranging experience into most singing courses, encouraging students to arrange songs together so they can learn the process for themselves.
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Mara is a multi-instrumentalist with further training in jazz composition, classical vocal technique, pop vocal technique, improvisation, and songwriting.
Before coming to PVPA, Mara made a living as a touring musician, first as a solo performer, and then with the band The Pushovers.
FRANK NEWTON
// groovy truth jazz //instrumental music // music mastery
Frank has traveled the world playing music. He brings his passion for the arts to the classroom. At PVPA, he specialized in instrumental study (Orchestral/Concert and Popular instruments) as well as music theory, and composition/arranging. He is also the director of the Groovy Truth Jazz Ensemble and PVPA Orchestra.
RAHUL ROY
// pop r&b // music of india // film scoring // lyric writing // wild world of music // rhythm section workout
Born in London, England to Indian immigrants, Rahul started to realize at an early age that the only world he wished to inhabit was the world of music. In his home, the music that he heard from his parents, and the records that he listened to, formed a basis for what would become a launching pad for his sonic inquiry over the rest of his life. He studied Jazz composition and arranging, and applied those techniques to life elements, rather than to notes in order to integrate the musical, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional threads of his life into a sort of tapestry. Since discovering his deep love of children, he has been privileged to work with many wonderful young people over the last 40 years.