Drum & Percussion Faculty
Shakir Ballantyne
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Shakir Ballantyne was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and received his Bachelors Degree in Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts studying under professor John Beck. While at UNCSA Shakir has performed in concert with the Jazz Band, Wind ensemble, and Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as a percussionist in opera productions with the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute as well as the ballet department's production of the Nutcracker. As an aspiring educator, Shakir has previously worked with Atkins High School Marching Band and North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem. He taught lessons at the Separk Music Company and was the director of bands in the Waterford Unified School District. Shakir teaches drum, piano, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, tuba, guitar, and ukulele. His goal is to use his ability and knowledge to entertain and educate others with the gift of music. |
Kian Stevens
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Kian is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and music producer all the way from Southern Illinois. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Music Production from Drexel University and has been teaching guitar, bass, and drum lessons to all ages for several years.
Kian believes that no two students learn the same. He spends extra time and care getting to know each student’s personality, musical tastes, and learning style in order to customize lesson plans that work for each student. With an emphasis on fun and practicality, Kian’s lessons are designed to get students excited about music while instilling a strong foundation of technique and music theory along the way. Kian lives and breathes music and is very excited to share his knowledge and passion with new students! |
Ahmed Ragab
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A trilingual artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Originally from Egypt, he listened to and lived in both Egyptian and Japanese cultures during his childhood. He started learning music on the drum kit at 17 and has been on a journey exploring the different languages of music ever since. Starting from Heavy metal music, he quickly expanded into learning jazz, funk eventually learning piano and composition.
Ahmed has performed in various places around the world, including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Tokyo, and Cairo. He has performed in local festivals with several notable artists in the Bay Area including, Audiopharmacy, Climbingpoetree, Nina Grae, Sasha Bayan, Teao Sense, Thieves of the Sun, Dave Mihaly and YOURS. His style of playing ranges from Rock, Funk, Reggae, Jazz, all the way to Hip-hop as well as Electronic and world music. |
Ethan Yi-Hsuan Lin
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Dr. Yi-Hsuan Lin earned his Master of Music degree in Percussion Studies from New York University and Professional Studies Diploma degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with the prestigious principal percussion of the San Francisco Symphony, Jack Van Geem. In 2015, Dr. Lin earned his doctoral degree in Percussion Performance from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with Ricardo Flores and William Moersch. Specializing in marimba playing, his doctoral thesis is on the unique six-mallet marimba techniques in selected works.
Dr. Lin’s concerto experiences include Alfred Reed’s Concertino for Marimba and Ming-Shong Li’s Chinese Drum Concerto with the school orchestras in Taiwan (2005 and 2007). As a soloist, he has performed numerous recitals and has been active in orchestra and ensemble performances. Recently, he was invited to perform Steve Reich's marimba ensemble work, Six Marimbas, with the San Francisco Symphony members for celebrating the composer's 80th birthday at Davies Symphony Hall. Dr. Lin had participated in various music festivals, such as Nancy Zeltsman Marimba Festival (2010 & 2015), Keiko Abe Marimba Academy (2013), and SoundSCAPE (2014). In 2007, he won the first prize in the percussion category of Taiwan Music Competition. In addition to performing, Dr. Lin enjoys teaching as well. Having plenty of experience coaching percussion ensemble and teaching private lessons, Dr. Lin recently teaches percussion lessons and group class in the bay area. His teaching philosophy is to make music enjoyable to students at all times! His wish for his students is to not only gain musical knowledge but also to feel the joy and peace which music brings to them. |