Suburban Music Center - Teacher Biographies

Ryan Richko is a session guitarist from Chicago IL. He is known mostly for his instrumental guitar music, and recently he has joined the Chicago rock band "Me The Mirror," in February of 2010. Ryan has played for many different artists ranging from the styles of rock, metal, funk, blues, and progressive metal. He has shared the stage with many local and national acts in the hottest Chicago venues like The Metro, The House of Blues, and The Cubby Bear, just to name a few.

Ryan's musical training began when he was 6 years old taking cello and piano lessons at the Suzuki Academy of Music. After 9 years of training at the Suzuki Academy, his father handed him a fender stratocaster and ever since then his life has been devoted to making music with his guitar.

Throughout high school he took guitar and music theory courses to help further his knowledge. After high school he enrolled at Columbia College Chicago as a music major for guitar performance. There he took theory, sight-singing, ear training, keyboard, and jazz guitar courses that allowed him to fully expand his musicality and creative skills. He took private lessons with Peter Lerner, Norman Ruiz, and Frank Dawson, some of the finest and well respected guitarists in Chicago.

Currently Ryan is working on his first full length solo album, doing session work, and will be touring with his new band Me The Mirror.

www.ryanrichkomusic.com www.myspace.com/ryanrichko www.methemirror.com

Guitar - Dmitri Rakuba
Dmitri is a highly motivated individual with an underlying desire and determination to become the best musician he can possibly be.

With a deep love for song writing and musical arrangement – he takes you further than the standard guitar lesson and offers his perspective from a more “musical” standpoint. His desire to constantly progress and never be stale and stagnant opens up doors to all types of music, ranging from classical and jazz to rock and popular music. One of Dmitri's views on becoming a good musician is opening up one's ears to all styles and learning from them in order to become a somewhat original musician.

Dmitri has played in successful bands in the Chicago area, consistently playing venues like the Metro, Beat Kitchen, Bottom Lounge (which is no longer), Schubas's, Double Door, and many more. He is currently writing and recording in a new musical endeavor called Vertigo Whales and is in pursuit of a BA in guitar performance and the process of a transfer to Columbia College is in progress.

Guitar - Paul Rodriguez

Paul Rodriguez graduated from Elmhurst college in 2001 with a Bachelors of Music in Music Business. Paul has been teaching at Suburban Music Center since September of 2000. Paul teaches a wide variety of music to a wide variety of students, from classical music to classic rock, blues, punk, alternative and YES even country and rap. Paul enjoys every opportunity to share his love of music with his students and learns as much from them as they do from him.

Brass / Woodwinds/ Strings / Piano -Tom Scheffler

Tom Scheffler earned a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from Montana State University, where he learned how to play and teach band and orchestra instruments. Joining the Suburban Music staff in 2003, Tom teaches all of the brass, woodwind, and orchestral string instruments, including trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, viola, and cello. He also teaches piano and beginning guitar. Tom’s teaching style emphasizes the development of music sight reading and creative improvisational skills. Over the years, Tom has learned that great musicians aren’t born. Becoming a fine musician is a goal that can be achieved by determined students who have the drive to put in the time and hard work that it takes to develop the craft of playing a musical instrument.

Piano - Ralph Greco

Ralph Greco has been teaching piano for 40 years and has been at Suburban Music since we first opened. He has the patience and experience to teach piano to all types of individuals (young children to older adults) whether beginning or advanced.

Guitar/Bass - Steve Michals

Steve Michals received his AA degree in music from College of Dupage and is currently working on his BA in Musical Performance from Columbia College. Driven by a wide variety of styles, Steve received most of his influence from classical, rock, and metal. Currently Steve is playing in Gideon's Pawn, a metal band based out of the Joliet area.

Guitar - Tim Johnson

Tim Johnson is 27 years old and has been playing guitar for 14 years.
He graduated from Elmhurst College in 2001 with a BA in Music Business. Aside from playing in various jazz and classical ensembles, Tim has consistently played in several successful bands in and around Chicago at venues such as Beat Kitchen, Bottom Lounge, Lyon's Den, Martyr's, The Note, and Double Door. Accepting students of all ages, Tim has been teaching guitar for 7 years in a wide range of styles from Jazz & Classical to Rock, Pop, Blues, & Metal.

Guitar - Mark Verbeck www.reverbnation.com/markverbeck www.myspace.com/markverbeck.com

Starting at the wee age of 8, Mark first discovered his love for performing and listening to music while attending a school presentation that was trying to influence kids to join the school band. He was one of the many that where inspired to try playing music. He started playing Saxophone and learned the fundamentals of music until he was 12, at which point he turned his eye to the guitar.

He started playing in the basements and garages of his friends trying to play whatever they could until his interest started to grow and he needed to know more about the instrument he was holding. He began by taking lessons from local teachers until he finally enrolled into local music academy and studied under a man named Richard Wiley, who helped him open up some of the many doors the guitar holds. He then moved on from his friends basements and started playing with local bands around town, performing anywhere from local bars and clubs, to private events and parties, trying to gain as much live experience as he could.

After graduating high school he then attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania as a music performance major. He studied classical guitar under Irving Kauffman, cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as theory and ear training. He also played with many local bands in the area and played for college events, such as the "Pre-Exam Jam," where he opened for bands such as the Black Eyed Peas and Rusted Root. After 2 years of extensive studies, he decided to set his sights at the Berklee College of Music, where he studied various forms of music such as jazz, blues, rock, and funk. During his stay at Berklee, he discovered his love and talent for writing and performing his own music and started his band Scotch Hollow, which he still performs with today, and also discovered his love for teaching. He started by hanging flyers around the city and teaching people in their homes. He found a great joy from passing down the knowledge that was given to him and helping people love and understand music. After 4 years, he received his Bachelor's Degree in Professional Music from Berklee and moved to Nashville, where he continued to teach out of various music shops and perform.

He now resides in Chicago and currently performs around the city while giving private lessons at Suburban Music in Wheaton IL.

Drum and Percussion -
Robert Allen Wimmers

Robert is a graduate of the Musicians Institute of Hollywood, California. He specializes in Jazz, Latin, World Beat and others on the Drum Set, Congas and Djembe. Robert has been teaching drums and percussion for over three years to 150 students, ranging in ages of 5 to 55. Teaching students all styles of rhythms, rudiments, and to read music. Robert continues to play with bands based in the Chicagoland area.

Amber Fairbanks

Music has been a part of Amber’s life since before she can remember. Her father used to record her and her sister singing onto cassette tapes when Amber was only two years old. At four years of age Amber begged her mother to put her in piano lessons and, after a steady search to find a teacher that would take a student so young, she finally began lessons in Aurora, IL. Amber studied piano lessons with a few different private teachers up until age fourteen. She was taught classical, contemporary, jazz, blues, ragtime, gospel and all sorts of other styles. By fourteen, Amber became more interested in arranging pieces of sheet music and delving into more popular and contemporary cover songs. She discontinued lessons and pursued her studies alone to create her own style and accompany herself while she sang.
Just two years later, at age sixteen, Amber continued lessons in Geneva, IL and participated in the St. Charles Art and Music Festival’s attraction called “The American Grands”. Aside from traditional recitals, this was her first real live performance for the public which set fuel to her fire.
In August of 2002, Amber graduated from Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove with an Associates Degree in Music Theory and Composition. She graduated with honors and was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society. For her final project of her time spent at Waubonsee, she took choir for honors. She composed an ensemble for the choir to sing as back up to a piece she composed for piano and sang lead vocals.
This achievement pushed her to further her education at Columbia College in Chicago where she studied Sound Engineering, Physics of Acoustics, and Audio Techniques. After a few semesters at Columbia, Amber transferred to North Central College in Naperville where she was awarded a piano scholarship upon admission. At North Central College she studied Piano, Voice, Women’s Choral, and Music Education. She continues to further her education towards her Bachelor’s Degree.
Amber has participated in church choirs and musicals to school productions and school band to Summer Stage to metal bands to solo performances. She loves to compose her own music and has picked up skills on other instruments such as the clarinet and acoustic guitar. What she loves the most, however, is performing solo on the piano and singing. She has performed solo in various places around the Chicago land area and continues to compose and search for performance opportunities. She has recorded two demo CD’s with different bands and one full length solo album. She is currently working on her second full length solo compilation.
Teaching Piano and Voice became a part of Amber’s “musical self” when she began at Waubonsee way back in 1998. She started teaching at Naperville Music and Sound. This is where she developed a core curriculum for her students that she still uses to this day. She encompasses many important factors in being a well rounded musician such as technique, theory, performance, sight-reading, aural skills, memorization, and the importance of building a repertoire. Amber has a passion and a patience for each student, as she values them as individuals and knows that each and every one learns differently and frequently claims even learning from them. “Music is an art form and should be treated like one. No two artists are the same, even if they are painting the same picture.”
Amber views herself as “a painting that never dries, a song that never ends, and a continuous work in progress.” She may be a teacher, but is also always a student, as well. Education, be it in music or otherwise, has been a great key to her success. Her ultimate goal in teaching is to pass on this value to as many students as she can. She hopes to surround herself and her students in a positive environment for learning which makes music fun, exciting, and the ultimate expression of one’s true soul!