Jeff Lamothe

Dave Lavallee

David began teaching with us in our 2005 Summer Session. He hails from Napanee, Ontario. David has successfully taught electric bass and electric guitar for several music schools in the London and Greater Toronto Regions before coming to us here in Kingston. David enjoys working with each student to foster a common goal of increasing their musical knowledge and love for their instrument and art form.

He teaches beginner to intermediate level students of all ages with a precise and consistent format that gives them a greater understanding of musical concepts. This provides his students with insight into how they can improve their inherent musical skills as bassists/guitarists.

David holds two diplomas from Fanshawe College of Applied Arts in London, ON, in Digital Recording Engineering and Music Industry Arts. He has performed with several professional bands including Through the Red, I AM and April Fool. Dave is also a founder of the Renaissance Rock School summer camp for beginner bands.

Seann Battams

Seann is a new addition to our guitar faculty this fall! An active musician in the Kingston area, Seann is in his fourth year of the Bachelor of Music program at Queen's University. In addition to the guitar, Seann also plays the tuba, violin, drumset and several other instruments. He also has a keen interest in music theory.

Julien Palassio

Julien has taught classical and acoustic guitar for Renaissance the past two years. Julien began playing guitar at the age of twelve and continued in high school under the fine direction of renowned local artist Dave Barton.

His teaching style is mainly classical mixed with a bit of country, blues and jazz. All of Julien’s students are taught to read both musical notation and guitar tablature notation. They each receive weekly lessons in performance and theory as well as keeping hold of the fundamentals and technical aspects of playing guitar.

Now in his fourth year of the classical guitar program at Queen's University, he studies with Jeff Hanlon and is looking forward to obtaining his Bachelor of Music degree in guitar performance and pedagogy.

Jeff Hamacher

Jeff began studying guitar privately at age 11, switching from acoustic to electric guitar at age 13. He continued to play through high school, performing with stage bands and pit orchestras at the Etobicoke School for the Arts. Although guitar was not his principal instrument, his studies at the University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Music, where he obtained an Honours Bachelor of Music (Music Education) degree in 1993, and at the University of Windsor, where he obtained a Bachelor of Education degree in 1994, helped to greatly expand his understanding of music theory, history, and pedagogy. After several years spent overseas teaching foreign languages, he returned to Canada in 2003. Since then, he has started performing with the Kingston Symphony, in addition to various community ensembles.

Jeff enjoys playing electric guitar in a number of styles, mainly blues, rock, and pop, as well as some basic jazz. He also plays some classical guitar. He prefers to work with beginning to intermediate level students, where he encourages a balanced, structured approach to learning the instrument. Jeff incorporates body care, technique, playing by ear ("lifting" songs from recordings), improvisation, and sight reading into his lessons with an eye to developing the student as a well-rounded musician. He places particular emphasis on helping students to find the healthiest and most efficient ways of playing the instrument, not simply to promote good technique, but also to provide the freedom to explore the musical and emotional aspects of the material that students are learning.

Alex Bien

Alex has been at Renaissance Music since 2004, teaching bass and guitar. Originally from Kingston, Alex has studied music theory at the University of British Columbia, and has played in a variety of local groups on guitar, bass and piano. In the summer of 2006, he studied at Victor Wooten's Bass/Nature Camp with Victor Wooten, Chuck Rainey, Adam Nitti, and Steve Bailey.

Eric Uren

Eric is an accomplished singer/guitarist/harmonica player with countless hours of stage experience under his belt. His style ranges from country & folk, blues and rock to jazz and swing standards.

Beginners can come to Eric to learn the basics of guitar or harmonica in a fun, friendly environment. He enjoys taking the mystery out of music, allowing his students to grow in knowledge and confidence.

If you are a more experienced player Eric can help pick apart specific songs and develop your repertoire so that you can entertain your friends and family around the campfire or at the next open stage.

Guitarists and vocalists can draw on Eric's experience to add another dimension to their playing by learning how to integrate the harmonica into their act (a la Bob Dylan and Neil Young) in either country, folk or blues styles.

Eric can be seen around Kingston performing great music with his band The Trainites.

Mauricio Montecinos

Mauricio started to play guitar at the age of seven and started to perform with his guitar and voice when he was eight. He has studied and performed a large variety of Afro-Latin American Folk Music, Classical, Folk and Flamenco Guitar Styles, Classic Rock, Music of the Andes Mountains and Latin Social Trova Music.

While pursuing a teaching career, he studied Classical Guitar and Music Theory at the Carolina Klages Music Conservatory in the South of Chile. Mauricio has taught guitar and music courses at various primary and secondary schools in Chile, Music at primary schools in Manitoulin Island and this past year ran a guitar program at three primary schools in Sudbury, Ontario.

Mauricio moved to Sudbury, Ontario in 1993 to continue his performing career, playing at folk festivals and concert series. His music has been broadcast in Canada by CBC, CBON, and Waterloo University Radio. He has had special appearances on MCTV, CBS, and STAR TV networks. International performances at folk festivals include: Chile, Argentina, Brasil, and the Dominican Republic. In the upcoming years Mauricio is planning to perform in Cuba, Mexico and South Africa.

Mauricio plays solo classical Spanish Flamenco guitar and also with a five to nine piece latin fusion band. He features original songs, instrumental compositions and folk songs from across Latin America with a global fusion style.

His latest albums are "Baila Conmigo/Dance With Me" (Nominated for Best Album & Best Songwriting by Music and Film In Motion Awards 2003) and his latest guitar album is Latin Strings/Cuerdas Latinas, recorded live. Past recordings include three tapes of Latin Folk and Social Trova Latin Music by CBC Radio.

Marcus Garniss

Bio coming soon!