Oren Polak – loves the new friends he makes every day Born in upstate New York and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Oren Polak started singing at a very young age. He learned piano early on and later, began playing guitar in high school. Oren went to George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, graduating […]
Chris Case a Double Buchi Chris Case was born in New York and was raised in Bermuda and the Bahamas. His family was in show business, traveling all over. They moved to the Bahamas when his father began working for Howard Hughes as manager of the Emerald Beach Hotel in Nassau. The first-time Chris saw […]
Izzy Zaidman – Izak Gabriel Zaidman (aka Izzy) was born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. His father was a professional guitarist, teaching and performing roots blues and ragtime in the New York area. Izzy was twelve years old when his father bought him his first guitar. He attended Charles Evans Hughes […]
Raven Cooper “Singing is like a natural high” Raven Cooper grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas and was a competitive freestyle and butterfly swimmer and diver in high school. She began listening to Janis Joplin at an early age, and it was a major music influence. Her grandmother bought her a classical guitar while on a […]
Chris Burchard. – his face is hurting from smiling so much Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Chris Burchard spent time in California but his formative years were spent in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He began playing piano at six years old and received his first guitar in the 4th grade. Early in high school, he played […]
David Feder – Music was always his first love David Feder was born in Niagara Falls, New York. His father was in the military, and they lived in a few places but spent most of the time in Buffalo area. To David, Buffalo was a great place to grow up. It was a center for […]
George Victory “Key West is like Trinidad without the mountains” Born in 1950, George Victory grew up in Five Rivers, a small village near Arouca in Trinidad. He said there was only one river but you had to cross it five times as it snaked its way down Arouca. One of George’s teachers recognized his […]
Walter Yarbrough “A much better person because of music” Walter Yarbrough is from Albany, New York. A younger brother received a guitar when he was six but quickly gave it up. Walter confiscated the guitar and never stopped playing. He bought a Beatles album and the sheet music to go with it. He soon heard […]
George Chapman ”making memories for people” George Chapman was raised in Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He played drums in the school band and, at age 11, started playing guitar. When he was 12 years old, George started playing drums in his guitar teacher’s wedding band but had to hitch a ride to gigs […]
John Bartus …playing music is not a bad life When John Bartus was young, his family moved to Florida. His father worked for NASA as a launch team leader on the Saturn Rocket program. John enjoyed growing up with the Gemini and Apollo space programs. The family moved to South Carolina as the Apollo program […]
