Drew Benito has spent the last 4-5 years traveling the US while studying, producing, and performing music. After majoring in classical piano in college, they studied under Jazz legends such as Jacob Collier, Anomalie, Jesus Molina, Cory Henry and more. Being of Latin American decent, Drew traveled Central and South American to better understand the rhythms of his roots. They also toured with a percussion ensemble around this time. Due to their diverse education, Drew has been able to adapt to perform rock, electronic, latin, jazz, r&b shows and more on over 20 different instruments.
Drew currently is the Music Director for an indie game studio and manages an online learning community. Their goals are to make a home in Lakewood/Denver as they change focus from performing to educating. Their education focus is centered around students having the freedom and knowledge to create whatever they desire, not just play off of a piece of paper.
Julie McCarthy received her Bachelors at the University of Denver in Music Theory and Composition and Masters at Berklee College of Music in Film Scoring. McCarthy’s work ranges from composing for orchestras both local and international to media post-production.
Heidi Schmidt was born and raised in Denver until the age of eight. From Denver she moved with her family to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and has since been a citizen of the world. Coming from a musical family, Heidi started her own journey in music on the piano. From piano, she studied oboe and classical guitar at the Interlochen Arts Academy. It was there that she began to discover her love for singing and song writing. Heidi has traveled extensively interacting with different cultures and musical genres. She lived in Romania for eight and a half years where she worked as a volunteer music teacher and choral director. She produced three albums of original compositions in Romania and toured around the country as well as England, Germany, Holland, Austria , Norway, France, and Croatia.
Heidi Schmidt holds a BM in Vocal Performance in the Jazz and Commercial Music Studies Program at Lamont School of Music, Denver, Co. She is the recipient of many awards and is an active performer in the greater Denver area. She is a lecturer at University of Colorado Denver and Red Rocks Community College. Heidi usesclassical technique for a basis in her instruction of voice, guitar, and piano. Having a good understanding of the instrument and how it works is vital to growth as a musician. Concurrently, she works with students to reach their own personal goals as growing musicians. She teaches all styles of vocal technique including classical, jazz, pop, folk, and musical theatre. She loves to work with singer songwriters in guitar/piano instruction, composition techniques, and lyrical content. She teaches beginning to intermediate guitar, both classical and folk/rock styles. She also teaches beginning piano and piano for song writing.