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Reagan Ranch/Jazz Saxophone/Flute |
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Originally from Houston Texas, saxophonist Reagan Ranch attended high school locally at Sacramento High School and McClatchy High School, before moving on to San Diego State University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance. While a resident of San Diego Reagan vegan national touring and recording as an original member of Concord Picante recording group, the B-Side Players. Over the past 12 years of working as a professional musician Reagan has shared the stage with the likes of James Brown, The Headhunters, Poncho Sanchez, and Charlie Hunter to name a few and has won mutiple San Siego Music Awzrds including Jazz Album of the year in 2000 and vest world music in 2009. Reagan is currently completing his Masters in Music Performance at Cal State University, Sacramento where he is a member of Jazz Ensemble and Latin Jazz group Ensemble, winning the 2008 Downbear award for the best collegiate Latin Jazz group performance. Teaching emphasis is in the following areas of jazz concept, memorization, transcribing, improving reading, combo/big band, artistic development and composition. |
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 Santiago del Estero is the city where Ms. Marta was born and spent the early years of her life. This is where, at age 4; her parents first discovered what seemed to be a natural talent for piano and a strong uncanny ability with music. After hearing a song on the radio she could immediately reproduce the melody unerringly on a small toy piano. Amazed her parents began to search for a real piano and an instructor for their prodigy.
After a year at the Provincial Conservatory of Music, Marta performed her first recital for the public. This performance at such an early age was so impressive her mother started to receive offers for Marta to do other concerts, appearances and even television programs.
The next several years were spent studying under Franklin Ponce, a famous pianist and instructor who had studied in Europe. He made her ready for her first full symphony concert, Beethoven’s first Concerto for Piano with the Tucuman Symphony Orchestra…she was 14.
The next several years provided time for little else but study. She received her degree from the prestigious Tucuman Conservatory of Music as Professora de Piano and by the time she turned 21, had moved to Buenos Aires and become the star of The National Symphony of Argentina there. For the next decade plus she studied under other famous instructors; Carmen Gomez Carillo, a protégé of Vincente Scaramuzza, the teacher of Martha Argerich; Etelvina Chinicci with whom she studied Chopin; Elsa Pupullo; and Rosalyn Turac. It was also during this time in her life she traveled extensively and performed with many of the largest most respected symphonies in the most prestigious concert venues throughout Latin America.
Ms. Marta has recorded two compact disks utilizing a mix of Classical selections and her native Argentine Tango. She is scheduled to record once again later this year for the Bluthner Piano label in Germany.
Ms. Marta is an international artist with an exceptional command of the instrument and brings with her to Pacific Institute of Music a vast amount of knowledge and skill and an amazing performance experience background!
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Mr. Gregory Blankenbehler, Tenor |
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 Born into a family of musicians and music educators, Gregory Blankenbehler enjoyed singing before he could talk and began formal piano and violin lessons with his mother before age four. As a child, he participated in countless musical theater, choir, band, orchestra and drama experiences, while always holding a special love for solo singing. Pursuing that love, Gregory earned Bachelor's (BYU-Idaho) and Master's (San Jose State University) degrees in vocal performance and completed opera training programs with San Francisco Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory and the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI). Performance opportunities have taken him to England, France and Italy; to San Jose and San Francisco to perform lead opera roles, and to Salt Lake City to solo with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Some of the companies and ensembles he has performed with include Opera San Jose, Mission City Opera, the Sierra Symphony, BASOTI, Oberlin in Italy, SJSU Opera Theater and "Collegiate Singers" at BYU-Idaho. Gregory served as a choral assistant to the Concert Choir at San Jose State University and has led church choirs and congregations in Idaho and California. He has studied with voice teachers Kristine Ciesinski, Norman Bailey and Joseph Frank. Gregory discovered his joy and talent for teaching others during his undergraduate studies when he began teaching voice, as well as tutoring students in music theory and ear-training. This interest led him to undergo a major comparative study of voice training and performance techniques during his graduate education. Since then, Gregory has balanced his performing career with a full studio of voice and piano students of all ages and abilities. Through his research and experience, he has become an expert in helping singers of all abilities overcome their vocal challenges and become skilled singers. He is also a certified teacher of the Harmony Road total musicianship course for children ages 18 months and up. Gregory has published the Singing Lessons for Little Singers voice lesson method for children ages 5 to 9 and is the chief editor of the Bel Canto Masters Study Series. |
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Ms. Sasha Kachugina, cello |
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Ms. Kachugina has been playing and teaching professionally for almost twenty years. Born and educated in Russia, she studied at one of the finest Russian conservatories of music, the Novosibirsk State Conservatoire named after M.I. Glinka. Ms. Kachugina began playing the cello at age seven and piano at eight. She won her first cello competition at age ten. Her first teacher was Ms. Tatiana Magidina (class of Professor Grigory Pekker) until she began her studies at the Novosibirsk Conservatoire in 1992, where she joined the class of Professor Alexander Lapkin (a pupil of Natalia Shakhovskaya, Moscow Conservatoire).
At the age of 18 she began teaching children self-expression through listening to music and creating images using drawings and poetry, while introducing them to various musical styles. At the Novosibirsk City Children’s School of Music she also taught cello, piano and chamber music classes while studying at the conservatoire. In 1995 Ms. Kachugina became assistant principal cellist at the Novosibirsk State Theatre of Musical Comedy before moving to California in 1998.
In California Ms. Kachugina joined the North State and Auburn Symphony Orchestras. She also continued her private cello studies with Mildred Rosner (pupil of Luigi Silva and Bernard Greenhouse) and Burke Schuchmann (pupil of William Pleeth, London Cello School). Ms. Kachugina began playing baroque music with Fiori Musicali and Orfeo ensembles in 2008. She is now a principal cellist with Apollo Baroque Orchestra and the Choral Union Orchestra of California State University, Chico. As a chamber musician, Ms. Kachugina also performs with soprano Camilla Pistilli and harpist Larisa Smirnova. Their classical trio Romantic Scent had its successful debut in the spring of 2008. Ms. Kachugina holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Novosibirsk State Conservatoire and a Teaching Diploma from Novosibirsk City College of Music.
She is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Cello Performance degree at California State University, Sacramento, under the tutelage of Professor Andrew Luchansky (pupil of Timothy Eddy, the Stony Brook and the Julliard School), her most revered teacher. “Music is a mirror in which we can see ourselves and understand how we relate to the world. A cup of coffee brightens the morning, and, similarly, music can evoke a personal dawn of increased awareness and joy.” ~ Sasha Kachugina |
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