More About Our Instructors

Edward Evans: Trumpet & Trombone

esquaredjazz@gmail.com 
Mondays, Fridays, & Saturdays

Edward Evans is a jazz trumpeter, composer, and teacher defined by his unique ability to push boundaries and his unmatched creativity. With 19 years of jazz and classical trumpet playing experience, Edward is now looking to teach in a greater capacity to share his experience and expertise. Having grown up in the Bay Area, Edward was fortunate to have studied with renowned musicians—Mic Gilette, Louis Fasman and Dann Zinn. He then went on to earn his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of jazz masters Vince Mendoza and Ambrose Akinmusire. Edward performs regularly with the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra and at various gigs around the Bay Area. Edward has been praised for his versatility of sound and has played in concerts with various artists including Terrance Blanchard, Alan Ferber, Mark Turner, and Chris Potter. 

Solomon Alber: Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute, Bass Clarinet

clefwindsmusiclessons@gmail.com
Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Solomon Alber is a multi-instrumentalist and educator based in the East Bay Area, where he grew up immersed in the music scene. As a high school student, he performed and toured with the Jazzschool Studio Band in Italy, France and Switzerland. Solomon went on to study in Boston at Berklee College of Music, learning with Ralph Peterson Jr., Tina Fuller, and George Garzone, before he earned a Masters of Music degree in Jazz Studies from Rutgers University. Since moving back to the Bay Area, he actively performs on saxophone, clarinet, and flute, and he is a part of the Bay Area’s jazz, funk, balkan, and klezmer music communities. Solomon started Clef Winds Music Lessons as part of his vision of bringing the best music education to students from elementary school to high school and for adults in the East Bay Area. He enjoys teaching everything from woodwind instrumental technique to new ways of practicing jazz improvisation. He is excited to be teaching at Wind and Brass! Contact him for more info about music lessons.

Zoe King: Clarinet & Saxophone

zoe.king170@gmail.com 
No availability currently

Zoe is an orchestral and jazz musician who is well versed in both the clarinet and saxophone. Her orchestral experience includes playing with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, Cambrian Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Outside of classical music, Zoe has performed with the SF Jazz High School All Star Big Band, and in the annual Berkeley Choro Festival. She brings both her orchestral and improvisational experience into her private teaching studio, offering her students a well rounded musical education. She is currently earning her Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Jerome Simas. 

Sonia Urquidi: Clarinet

sonianumusic@gmail.com
Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Sonia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Clarinet Performance and Economics from the University of Notre Dame where she served as Principal Clarinetist for six years in the University of Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra (NDSO) where she won the orchestra’s concerto competition. Prior to her decision to attend Notre Dame, Sonia won a full tuition scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received a music education scholarship to Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. Sonia studied with Christopher French and attended training at the Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts and Birch Creek in Door County, Wisconsin. Her orchestral pursuits have also taken her on tour to Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic where she performed as a soloist with NDSO. While pursuing her Master’s in Global Affairs at Notre Dame, she was consistently hired as a doubler (playing clarinet, saxophone, and flute) for musicals and shows including Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, The Magic Flute, and more. 

In addition to playing clarinet, Sonia has music directed college-level productions of Grease, The Wedding Singer, and the Revue (a cabaret-style assortment of musical numbers) during which she led rehearsals with the band and did vocal coaching with the actors. She also spent two summers as a middle and high school band camp counselor and has taught clarinet and voice to students of varying levels and ages. 

After living in Chile on a Fulbright scholarship in education research, Sonia moved to the East Bay in June 2021 where she now pursues a career in music and social sector consulting. She has freelanced in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Napa, Oakland, and Berkeley and served as principal and second clarinet with the University of California-Berkeley Symphony Orchestra for a year and a half before focusing on other non-classical musical pursuits. With over eight years of vocal training including individual lessons, choir, a capella, and music theater, Sonia writes indie music and sings as a lead vocalist and plays clarinet and saxophone in funk and soul bands in San Francisco and the East Bay.

About my teaching style

Teaching is one of my favorite parts of music. I understand how to balance fun and productivity during a lesson. I like to know how the student learns best, find material that they can get excited about, and set goals. Want to learn how to write a song? Let’s do it. Interested in music theory? Let’s use the piano to help explain concepts. Want to mix in some pop music at the end of the lesson? Sure! At the same time, though, I will ensure that students develop a solid foundation. No matter the level, I emphasize technical proficiency, musicality, music theory, and building good practice techniques. 

Additionally, I am an advocate for thinking outside the box when it comes to classical music. I love bringing classical music and “popular” music together, whether that means performing in non-traditional spaces or writing melodic clarinet lines into my own songs. As a half-Latina and believer in music as a tool for mental health, I am also passionate about changing demographic stereotypes of classical music and using trauma-informed and culturally responsive teaching to inspire a lifelong love of music. 

What I teach:
Clarinet: All levels
Tenor and Alto Saxophone: Beginning and intermediate classical; Beginner jazz/improvisation
Voice: Beginning and intermediate  

I offer lessons in English or Spanish. 

Larry DeLaCruz: Saxophone and Clarinet

larry@larrydelacruz.com 
Fridays

Larry studied music at California State University at Long Beach, The Berklee College of Music, and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education at San Diego State University. Since 1994, he has played woodwinds in many different musical settings including jazz, classical, pop, and pit orchestras in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among them are: Doc Severenson, Kenny Werner, Phil Woods, Bobby Hutcherson, Bob Berg, Lou Rawls, The Temptations, The Four Tops, San Diego Symphony, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, Classical Philharmonic, The CARMA Big Band, and the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra. Larry has been in pit orchestras for the premieres of “Ain’t Too Proud” and “Goddess” at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, and “The Hippest Trip” and “A Strange Loop” at the ACT Theater. Larry teaches woodwind students, and enjoys composing and arranging for various groups.

Hayden Dekker: Saxophone

haydengd@gmail.com
Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays

Saxophone Instructor

Carlos Hernandez: Conducting, Saxophone & Clarinet

maestrocarloshernandez1@gmail.com
Wednesdays

Dr. Carlos Hernandez was born and raised in Miami, Florida. As a conductor, educator, and multi-instrumentalist, he has had the chance to perform locally, nationally and internationally.

Carlos holds four degrees in music, all with a major or minor emphasis in conducting. Saxophone & Clarinet are his two primary instruments even though he enjoys playing other instruments and singing. Two of his degrees are in Music Education and two are in Orchestral conducting. His doctoral studies allowed him to additionally focus on entrepreneurship studies in music which allowed him to dive deeper into business administration and the nonprofit sector.

Carlos has extensive experience as both an educator and arts administrator in public school systems, local, and national Music Education non-profits. Carlos remains active in the Bay Area as a conductor and educator. Purposeful engagement, rigor, social consciousness, peer to peer empowerment are a few guiding principles in his conversations with colleagues and musicians about (and through) high quality music experiences. Carlos aims to provide transformative experiences for musicians and audiences within, and beyond the concert hall/practice room.