Marc Solomon is a Dallas musician. After graduating from the famous Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas, and gigging in clubs around town , he did what any self respecting Dallas musician would do, he moved to Austin. During several recording and touring projects in Austin, Los Angeles, and New York, Mr. Solomon penned somewhere close to three hundred songs. He has worked with musicians as diverse as Tommy Stinson (Perfect & The Replacements, Guns & Roses) to Puff Daddy (Marc played the infamous guitar hook on “All About The Benjamin’s.” Upon his return to Dallas in 1999 he formed Clumsy, releasing “Center Of Attention Deficit Disorder”. (Idol Records) Songs from that record appeared everywhere from Comedy Central to Degrassi High. In 2005, his current band, Solly, recorded "Get It Wrong It’s Alright". This record was chosen by Performing Songwriter magazine as one of the years top ten DIY releases. Solly has had songs featured in television programs such as Lost, The Ghost Whisperer, and Beverly Hills 90210. He is also the founder and director of Zounds Sounds, a music education and training project that was the subject of a Dallas Observer feature article in 2005. Marc was nominated by the Dallas Observer as Musician of the Year in 2007. A man with many facets, he was featured in the Dallas Business Journal and appeared in the Onion in 2007. Recording for the new Solly LP has wrapped and it should be available in the summer of 2008. He also has a wife, two cats, and a vegetable garden. |
Born just down the street at Baylor Hospital, Mary is the co-owner of the school/studio and a co- director of Way Into Music. A proud graduate of The New School University in New York City, she has a BA in liberal arts with a major in creative writing. She has lived in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles and Holland. Believing in “blooming where you were planted” she moved back to Dallas in 2000. After a five year stint as a high school English & Creative Writing teacher, she was instrumental (no pun intended) in helping launch Zounds Sounds with her husband, Marc. Recently dubbed “the spiritual mascot” of the Zounds Sounds, she helps run things and keeps things in working order. Mary is a singer/songwriter that can play guitar. She has played bass in Penny Whistle Park and with Sara Radle, and is currently writing her first record. She has also founded writer's workshop that meets to encourage and support various members' work. Mary also received her 200 hour yoga teaching certificate in 2008. As a teacher, she loves helping people feel better not only through music but through movement and the miracle of breath. |
Paul wrote his first song at age 4 and has not stopped since. He picked up the violin at age 5 and by age 7 had progressed to guitar. He gained formal classical vocal training in his 3½ years as a soloist in the prestigious Texas Boys Choir. Then he turned 12. Paul is also a member of the recording group The Volares which have released two acclaimed records. Recorded in many locations in England and Texas, Paul worked on the Volares records alongside such diverse guest artists as Joe Ely, Ian MacLagen (The Small Faces, Faces, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan), Martin Newell, Marty Willson-Piper (The Church) and many other rock luminaries. Paul is a sought-after session player and vocalist, adding his talents to a number of various albums and commercial projects. Paul has a daughter, Julia, in college in Oklahoma. He strives to get his students as excited about music as he is. |
Ben Started playing drums when he was eleven years old. Born in Tyler Texas, Ben caught the music bug during his family’s stay in Minneapolis. Seeing live jazz and orchestral music inspired young Ben to start playing drums in the family’s basement. After moving back to Tyler, at the age of 7, Ben started taking piano lessons. Ben got his “chops” playing in the school marching band. He was the section leader of the snare line his senior year. While attending TJC, Ben composed and arranged a score to Shakespeare’ s The Tempest. After moving to Denton to attend the University of North Texas, Ben was swept away by the vibrant rock ‘n roll scene. With a friend, he formed the infamous Brutal Juice. With Brutal Juice, Ben toured Europe while on the Alternative Tentacles label. After returning to the states, they signed with Interscope records and toured extensively with bands such as Gwar and The Toadies. Like most great rock bands, Brutal Juice broke up. Ben then brought his talents to bands such as Pinkston, and The Falcon Project. These days you can catch Ben performing with Jack with One Eye, Tomorrow People & the random Brutal Juice reunion. Ben believes in challenging his students and that “there is nothing in my life that compares to the feeling of playing drums and to be able to share that with my students is great. It’s fun to watch the process of them struggling to understand then and ‘getting it’.” We at Zounds feel lucky to have Ben in our “band”. |
Wade is a musician of rare talent and skill. He began playing guitar at age 8, saxophone at 11 and drums at 14. By the ripe old age of 15 he was recording professionally for television and radio. He moved back to Dallas after attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston. As a testament to his range and versatility this multi-instrumentalist, was a founding member of the beloved funk/hip hop super group, Strangelove as well as the country-esque Homespun Remedies. In addition to his lively schedule (guitar, drums, bass and vocals) at Zounds, Wade keeps busy with many musical projects. He is currently playing just about every instrument imaginable in Homespun Remedies, is the bassist for Rose County Fair (2007 DOMA nominees for Best Indie Rock & Best Country Act), the drummer in The True Achiever and is playing with Marc Solomon and Trey Johnson . |
Adam started his musical life playing piano at age ten and bass guitar at fourteen. His first band was Trinidad ‘Y Tobago which eventually morphed into a band called The Miracle Triad. They were signed to Chicago’s , somewhat ironically named Naiveté Records. CDs ensued. Adam Studied Music and Journalism at People’s Music School and at Truman & Eastfield Colleges respectively. A talented writer, Adam is currently playing music in The True Achiever, and is looking forward to future projects A.C. Slater, The Bro’s and Donahue. He teaches bass, piano and guitar at Zounds. He is consistently described as “freakin’ hilarious” by students and their parents alike. We like Adam.
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Our Amy hails from an incredibly musical family. Her father James, a noted composer of symphonic, wind & brass music, and her mother, an accomplished artist, encouraged Amy from an early age (family legend has it at 18 months!) in her singing, and her piano playing. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Amy was extremely active in various church & school choirs, as well as performing in many musicals. She went on to earn her BA in Vocal Performance at Asbury College, while working with legendary producers Charlie Peacock & Dave Barrack. She then went on to earn her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Kentucky. After graduating, Amy moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to teach for a year at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Community School of the Arts, and to perform with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. She also recorded commercial jingles, and put together an early professional demo. It was this demo that garnered her a national McDonald’s radio ad after she moved to Dallas in 2001. (Go ahead; ask her to sing it…) She was the lead singer of cult fave, Shanghai 5 (winner Best Jazz Band by the Dallas Observer Music Award in 2007), and was nominated Best Female Vocalist in both 2007 & 2008. During her four years in Shanghai 5, Amy worked with such production luminaries as Matt Pence, Tim O’Hare (Frank Black & Franz Ferdinand) Todd & Toby Pipes & Earl Harvin. Amy is currently pursuing acting & modeling, in addition to voice over work. She is currently singing in a band with Zounds’ Marc Solomon & Gerald Iragorri, and has been doing recording session work with Trey Johnson, Danny Balis, PPT & Stuart Sikes. Amy enjoys teaching her students to find their own individual voices. As a yoga practitioner, she believes in exploring the breath as a support system for not only singing, but for life. |
Dave Hineman, one of Buddy Magazine's "Texas Tornados of Guitar" of 2001, began learning the guitar around age 10. He has been a favorite guitar slinger for many Dallas bands, including Solinger and Tres Hombres. A featured performer at the Dallas Guitar Show and Musicfest since 1994, Dave currently performs with the bands The Flavours, Dream On, Metal Shop, Suburban Legend and "Comes Alive!" - a Peter Frampton tribute act. Dave's influences range from B.B. King to Steve Vai. "My first guitar hero was Peter Frampton, My second hero was Ace Frehley. Then I just went after anybody who played great lead guitar." Dave also attended UNT for two years as a Jazz Studies Major. "I didn't really want a Jazz degree, but they didn't have a 'School of Rock' back then." Dave will be teaching in our new Plano, Texas facility opening in September 2008. |
Dallas-based singer/songwriter/musician Chris Holt has been writing and recording his own music for more than a decade. Beginning with his passion for playing guitar while in his teens, Holt spent his 20’s becoming an in demand multi-instrumentalist, and working with a wide variety of regionally successful bands, including Walter Mitty, Hard Night’s Day, and Olospo. In 2007, Holt began a new musical chapter by forming The Slack, a rock band based around his constantly evolving songwriting. The Slack’s debut album, Wishful Sinking, was released in August 2007. Holt and the band spent the better half of a year gigging to promote it, and they are currently in the studio producing their second record, to be released in the fall of 2008. Holt has shared the stage with everyone from Bob Schneider to The Gourds to The Flaming Lips, and has been featured in several prominent music festivals, including the prestigious Austin City Limits Music Festival, and Xingolati – The Groove Cruise Of The Pacific. He currently plays with a variety of musical projects, including The Slack, Sorta, Salim Nourallah, and Johnny Lloyd Rollins. He also moonlights as a session musician and works during the day as a music teacher for the Zounds Sounds School of Rock. |
An Arts Magnet High School graduate, Gerald Iragorri attended Berklee College of Music in Boston to study Jazz. Gerald has been playing in the Dallas Metro area professionally since 1987 with groups varying stylistically from Rock, Reggae, Pop, Funk, Blues, Acoustic and Electric Jazz, to Country, Latin, and Klezmer Music. As a teacher, he emphasizes the variety of styles that a modern working drummer will find in the field, imparting in his students the value of versatility and the focus of specialization. |
graduated North Texas music major, English minor. |
Ace began playing guitar at the tender age of five. By the time he was eleven, he had played his first professional gig. By age 13, he was playing the bass and the drums as well. A well diversified player, his past projects include stints in Houston’s Necropolis, Deaf Experience, Hollow Point, W.H.A.T?, Denton’s The Gravity Plan, Gebo, Abby Norml, Feed The Animals and numerous other Dallas bands. Ace has toured the US several times and is currently playing in Little Big Horn (nominees for Dallas Observer’s Best Metal & Best Hard Rock acts 2007), Grant Jones & The Pistol Grip Lassos, Used Rugs & The Double Downs. His training has included attendance in the Houston Community College For Audio Recording & University of North Texas. Ace was nominated as Best Producer in the DOMA’s 2007. Ace teaches guitar, bass, drums, music theory and coolness in general. |
Glen Reynolds grew up in Denton, TX surrounded by the UNT music scene. He picked up the guitar at age 14, taking lessons from Denton’s premier instructor, Thad Bonduris. After releasing records with the power trio Liquid Three in the 90’s as the lead singer/guitarist Glen joined Dallas’ Chomsky in 1998. Around this time he also formed the much lauded Weezer cover band Weener. Weener and Chomsky went on to win more 10 Dallas Observer Music Awards between 1999 and 2002.In 2002 Chomsky signed to Aezra Records, then home to the Toadies and Deep Blue Something. After recording with Steely Dan’s producer, Gary Katz, who noticed his knack for vocal arrangements, Glen was hired by the legend to arrange vocals on one of his other projects. Chomsky toured the U.S. on several occasions, culminating in a 2004 summer appearance on the Craig Kilborn show. After years of travel, Reynolds decided to settle down, marrying his long time partner and best friend, Ashley Campos. In December 2008 Reynolds graduated Suma Cum Laude with a BS Science in early childhood education. He currently substitute teaches in the Richardson ISD and records with local hip hop producers laying down vocal and guitar hooks for their tracks. Reynolds believes that there are many different ways for students to learn and succeed in life. He feels that finding out what motivates a student is the key to their accelerated learning, growth, and eventual proficiency at their instruments. Awards: |
Mike has been with the Zounds Sounds music family since it’s official inception in 2005. One the school’s most popular teachers (and most booked!), Mike teaches guitar, bass, keyboard and vocals. He is the proud father of two little girls, Vivid & Eleanor and a full time musician and teacher. This singer/songwriter is the keyboard player in Solly as well as being a founding member (along with Wade Cofer) of Homespun Remedies. Their highly anticipated debut CD is set for release in summer 2008. He had taken a total of 100 hours of credit in college before deciding to surrender to the inevitable music theory and composition major. His students, & fans are glad he did. |
Chad grew up in Terrell TX and has been playing the piano for 27 years. After attending the University of North Texas Music program, he officially made Dallas his home. Chad has been playing professionally for 13 years in such bands as The Sons of Sound, Budapest One (Beatville Records) & Sara Radle And Her Band. He is currently entertaining crowds in local favorites (Quick Award Nominees) The King Bucks & (2006 DOMA nominees) The Drams. Chad was nominated DOMA 2007 Best Instrumentalist and has toured the U.S. as well as Europe. A seasoned session player, Chad has recorded with Jon Congleton, Solly, Stuart Sykes, Shibboleth, R&B legend Bobby Patterson & many more. You can see him play around town in such venues as the Granada, The Sons of Hermann & Adair’s Saloon. He teaches keyboard, guitar and vocals. His teaching philosophy : “No Muss, No Fuss”. |
Marc Solomon
Mary Armstrong-Solomon
Paul Averitt
Ben Burt
Wade Cofer 
Adam Cole 
Amy Curnow
Chris Holt
Gerald Iragorri
Trey Johnson 
Ace McNeely
Glen Reynolds
Mike Saunders
Chad Stockslager 
