Jacqueline (Jaxie) Binder, M.A.Ed.
Jaxie Binder holds a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Teacher’s College at Columbia University. She is on staff at Salmon Bay School as the Elementary Reading Specialist.
Jaxie taught in both public and private schools in New York City and worked at a model school for Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project in the early 1990’s. Combining her own education at the Waldorf School with the approach to literacy of Teacher’s College, Jaxie developed an expertise in whole language literacy teaching – one that approaches literacy learning through rhythm and cadence and includes a strong oral tradition, much like learning music.
Jaxie grew up playing classical violin and played in the school orchestra throughout her childhood. As an adult she began to play the guitar and in 1990 attended her first Guitar Craft course. She moved to Seattle in 1997 and helped form the Atomic Chamber Ensemble and the Secret Cafe, and in 2004, Tuning the Air.
Jaxie began teaching Kids Guitar Circles in 2009 in the Seattle schools. Jaxie’s wish is to bring the playful approach she experienced within Guitar Craft to children who are just beginning their musical development. Due to her educational background, she is able to combine a deep understanding of how kids learn with the approach to music discovered through Guitar Craft.
Jaxie lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters.
Tony Geballe
Tony Geballe has recorded, performed, produced and taught music of many kinds all around the world. He has worked as soloist and with the Trey Gunn Band, Karin Coonrod, La Compagnia de’ Colombari, Toyah Willcox, The Hellboys, Sun Palace, The League of Crafty Guitarists, The NY Indonesian Consulate Gamelan, Kelli Rae Powell, Braindance and many others. He has designed soundscapes, composed music and performed in theatrical productions primarily in New York City and Italy. His solo 12-string guitar CD Native of the Rain was released on Robert Fripp’s DGM label. Tony studied Indian classical music with Ustad Z. M. Dagar and others, and spent a year in Istanbul learning classical Turkish music from Necdet Yașar while exploring the Turkish folk music tradition. Tony studied guitar, composition and improvisation with Ralph Towner and other members of the group Oregon and has a BA in Musical Engineering from the University of Washington. Tony was an instructor with Guitar Craft from 1985 to 2010, and has worked regularly with the Seattle Circle since its inception. Though he has lived in NYC for the last 20 years, Tony will be returning to his native Seattle to provide a key resource to the Seattle Circle Guitar School.
Curt Golden
Curt Golden is a guitarist and guitar instructor. He was born and raised in Virginia into a family that believed in a musical education, and he was given lessons in piano, violin, and cello. Curt first picked up the guitar at the age of 11, and it quickly became his life’s passion. After attending the Berklee College of Music, Curt played in a number of rock, blues, and jazz bands. In 1985, Curt took part in the first Guitar Craft seminar, presented by guitarist Robert Fripp, and went on to record and tour extensively with the League of Crafty Guitarists. Fripp named Curt a Guitar Craft instructor in 1986. Curt taught guitar and performed with a number of groups in New York City.
As part of the emerging Seattle Guitar Circle, in 2001 he co-founded Seattle Circle, the not-for-profit corporation created to support the group’s growing performance and educational efforts. As the principle guitar instructor Curt has conducted hundreds of classes, and a number of residential seminars. In 2004, Curt, Frank Sheldon, and Jaxie Binder joined together as the producers of a new performance entity, a location-based production of ensemble guitar music to be performed “in the round.” A group of guitarists quickly came together to realize this vision, and from those efforts Tuning the Air was launched and for the next 7 years presented 225 weekly performances in Seattle.
For the past 8 years Curt has been working with children on guitar in the traditional one-to-one lesson format, and in that time experienced a growing sense that much more is possible. Young students who excel do so because they are personally motivated and really wish to know how to “do that”, whatever “that” may be for them. Teaching in the guitar circle format is an approach which begins with “that”. In 2010, when his colleagues Jaxie Binder and Greg Meredith began teaching guitar in the circle format at their children’s elementary schools, the idea for the Seattle Circle Guitar School was born and Curt signed on without hesitation.
Lucius Gregory Meredith
With two albums to his name now available on iTunes (The Disciples of Pop and The Adventures of Victoria and Balthazar) Greg considers himself a musician and a mathematician, computer scientist. Greg is the principal architect behind Microsoft’s BizTalk Process Orchestration and one of the principals behind the highly advanced programming language, Rosette. In 2004 and 2005 Greg was a visiting scientist at Harvard Systems Biology and the nascent formal methods in systems biology group at the University of Trento, Trento Italy. In 2005 Greg presented seminal results on reflective process algebras both at Oxford and the premier European conference, ETAPS and co-founded with Walter Fontana (Fontana Lab, Harvard Systems Biology), Plectix Biosystems. Greg is the author of Monadic Design Patterns for the Web (Artima Press) and co-producer of the C9 videos of the same title.
Greg is a long-time student of music, having played the guitar for nearly 40 years and worked within the Guitar Craft community for 15. From 1999 – 2002 Greg studied with the Senegalese Griots, Mapathe and Thione Diop, working with them both in Senegal and the Pacific Northwest and performing with them frequently. When he’s not engaged in the day-to-day duties of being a father of 5, running guitar classes with 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, Greg is producing a series of videos promoting the Kelstone, a new musical instrument, designed by Jan Van Kelst.
Carl Martí Germain
Carl Germain was born into a family of musicians, and began taking Suzuki piano lessons at the age of four. In fourth grade he picked up the violin, and in middle school he began teaching himself to play his father’s electric guitar. Shortly thereafter many of his friends acquired instruments and started a punk band. While he continued his piano and violin studies through high school, guitar quickly became his preferred instrument. Aside from briefly studying classical guitar, Carl continued to learn the guitar by ear, and received a degree in Philosophy at Beloit College while playing guitar and drums, often in as many as four bands at once.
After graduation it became clear that he must devote his life to music, and the following year attended to a Guitar Craft course in Gig Harbor, Washington which challenged him to re-learn the guitar in a more thoughtful way. Within a few weeks, Carl traveled to Sant Cugat, Spain for a second course and has since been regularly involved in Guitar Circle courses and retreats.
Carl’s experience in Guitar Craft prompted him to relocate to Seattle from Wisconsin to participate in the Seattle Guitar Circle which has attracted many musicians from across the country. This lead him to join Tuning the Air for its final two seasons, and to begin working with the Seattle Circle Guitar School. In addition to teaching guitar, Carl plays in several groups including Sgt. Bones and the Definitely String Quartet.