Guitar & Ukulele
Sungmin Lee
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Sungmin Lee is a classical guitarist from South Korea who is currently based in San Francisco, California. He started piano training when he was four years old and his passion for music grew at a young age of 12, when he grew interest in finger style guitar. Sungmin then discovered his love for classical music, sparking his interest in studying classical guitar.
Sungmin has received several prizes and wide recognitions in competitions during his guitar career—highlights include the Great Lakes Guitar Festival, Eastman Guitar Concerto Competition, Lone Star Guitar Festival and SF Bay Classical Guitar Competition. He has also performed in several reputable master classes with Jorge Caballero, Carlos Barbosa Lima, Manuel Barrueco, and Matthew McAllister. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Sungmin received his Bachelor of Music in Guitar Performance in addition to the Performer’s Certificate. By May 2020, he will receive his Master of Music degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. At SFCM, his primary teacher is Judicaël Perroy and prior teachers include Nicholas Goluses, Thomas Viloteau, and Leighann Narum. |
Matt Funamura
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Matt Funamura is a trumpeter, guitarist, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist raised in the Sierra Nevada Foothills near Sacramento. At the age of six, he picked up his first guitar and trumpet at the age of 8 beginning his musical journey. He majored in music performance and jazz studies at American River College in Sacramento, California for two years during which time he was a freelance musician throughout the west coast. He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
Matt has performed with and studied under numerous musicians in a wide range of genres including: Angelique Kidjo, Ingrid Jensen, Tiger Okoshi, Gamble & Huff, Salvador Santana, Joe Gilman, Charles Haynes, Dontae Winslow, Jerry Martini, and Victor Mendoza. He currently plays with local legend Ed Ivey and the North Beach Brass Band, as well as a wide range of musical acts in Northern California. He teaches trumpet, guitar, bass, ukulele, and mandolin. |
Lucia Pontoniere
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Lucia Pontoniere plays violin, guitar, sings, and writes songs. She graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in violin performance, where she studied with world-renowned fiddle players and violinists such as Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, and Matt Glaser. Lucia began playing violin at the age of six and has always seen violin as her first musical love, but also enjoys songwriting and singing as a creative outlet.
Lucia grew up in the Bay Area, and after spending five years on the East Coast is excited to call it home again. She tours the country with her band called The Ladles, an indie-folk singer-songwriter group. In addition, she enjoys freelancing with different bands, teaching music, and doing studio work. Lucia has played on many band’s albums, and for a couple TV shows as well! Music is her greatest passion in life and she is so excited to share that passion with as many people as possible. Lucia has seen first hand how music can change lives, as well as be a fun and creative way to learn and grow. She has experience teaching all ages, both group classes and private lessons. Lucia has taught classical violin as well as fiddle, guitar, and voice.” |
Adriana Rätsch-Rivera
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Adriana Rätsch-Rivera is a classical guitarist, music historian, and composer. She was born,
raised and educated in Berlin with German and Irish-American roots. After she finished a degree in pedagogy and natural sciences in Friedrichshafen at the Lake of Constance, she moved to Stuttgart to study classical guitar at the Stuttgart Music School with Dimitry Nikitos. She later moved to Honolulu, Hawai’i where she went to the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and earned her Bachelor of Music in classical guitar performance. In 1986 she decided to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area where she is an active classical guitar performer and music educator. One of her performing career’s highlight was playing the Vivaldi Concerto in D for three nights at Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston, Texas. In her music teaching endeavor, she counts her many years at the Pacific Academy (formerly the Nomura School) as the most rewarding. In those years, she was music director teaching all children twice a week all elements of music fundamentals, theory, history, Suzuki violin, singing, chorus, guitar, piano, recorder, and xylophones with the Orff method. At the California State University, Hayward (later East Bay) Adriana entered graduate school to continue her passion for music history, theory, and composition (MA in Music, 2004). For music history and literature, she won several awards, grants and an associate student fellowship for many of her research projects. She also wrote several compositions and performed her own vocal compositions in a recital featuring all four music periods with male and female composers side by side. Adriana is adjunct faculty for guitar studies at Napa Valley College, and in Moraga, she teaches children and adults guitar at all levels; as well as beginning strings methods, violin, and cello, which includes the Suzuki method and the basic singing method. |