Christian has just recently moved to the Bay Area from Madrid Spain. He has extensive teaching experience working as a music/guitar teacher at prestigious schools like The American School of Madrid (Aravaca, Madrid) and King's College, Madrid (Spain). He has done many solo performances in weddings, art exhibitions and corporate functions.
Hailed by the Santa Barbara News-Press as a “strong and focused” artist and praised by CASA Magazine for her “sensitively realized” performances, Abigail Sten is an active soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral flutist. Sten has held the position of second flutist with the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra in Ventura, California, as well as with the YMF Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles. She can frequently be found performing with Irish dance music ensembles.
Got diva?
Highlights from my broad range of appearances in opera, recital and concert include most of Mozart’s heroines, Handel's evil sorceresses, and Verdi's Lady Macbeth with Donald Pippin's Pocket Opera; Four Last Songs of Strauss with LiederAlive; and Britten’s War Requiem in San Francisco’s Davies Hall.
Michael Goldberg has extensive experience teaching both classical and jazz guitar. He currently teaches at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Davis, and maintains a private teaching practice in Berkeley. Mr. Goldberg has recorded on the Arabesque and Kameleon labels. He has toured throughout the United States as part of the Alma Duo, an ensemble of violin/viola and guitar, and is also a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, a group devoted to contemporary music performance. Mr.
Katrin Arefy is the artistic director and head teacher at the Golden Key Piano School in Berkeley, California. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the Gnessin School of Music in Moscow. Katrin also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in Painting from Azad University in Tehran.
Mr. Preston was recently appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Before moving to San Francisco last August, he was a violinist with the North Carolina Symphony for seven seasons. While in Raleigh, he was a member of the North Carolina Symphony String Quartet, Mallarme Chamber Players, and the Eastern Festival Chamber Players. Jeremy is a faculty member of the SF Community Music Center and the Eastern Music Festival.
Bios of our teachers www.stepupmusicvallejo.com
I am a Marin County native currently residing in Santa Rosa. A 2002 semi-finalist of the Pacific Piano Competition for California Community College Pianists and a recipient of the Carolyn D. Witt Memorial Music Department Scholarship, I transferred to Sonoma State University where I studied general music and gave a senior piano recital in 2006.