Mike Gillespie
Today I’m pleased to introduce you to Winterhalter Music’s newest teacher, Mike Gillespie. Mike originally hails from North Carolina and is relatively new to the DC area. He joins Winterhalter Music with an enormous amount of teaching and musical experience. Along with a bachelor’s degree in music and two master’s degrees in music and teaching, he has extensive experience teaching at the elementary, middle, and high school levels in addition to teaching private lessons. Besides teaching trumpet (his primary instrument), he also teaches brass instruments (French horn, trombone, tuba) and woodwinds (clarinet, flute, saxophone) in addition to guitar, piano, and songwriting. When Mike’s not playing or teaching, he loves composing and working with award winning drum and bugle corps groups. Wow! What a massive amount of experience he brings to our already phenomenal team of teachers! The following is my interview with Mike:
1. Why did you decide to become a music teacher?
The short answer is that I had some fantastic teachers when I was younger and their example inspired me to pursue teaching. As a teacher we create the world that our students experience in our lessons. I’ve seen so many great teachers and I want to give my students the very best.
2. Describe your teaching style.
My teaching style is very energetic and transformative. I listen to every single note played by my students during our lesson and give them 100% of my attention. I am an improvising musician and spontaneity informs my teaching.
3. What do you hope your students will get out of taking lessons from you?
Without being too aware of it, I hope my students’ technique will solidify and from that process they will know how to teach themselves in areas outside of music as well. From a non-physical perspective I hope they will learn to appreciate the beauty of sounds and enjoy exploring music spontaneously. My wish is that everyone views themselves as a composer.
4. What is your favorite music to play and listen to?
My favorite type of music to play is jazz in a small group setting such as a jazz combo which typically has bass, drums, a guitar or piano.
5. What do you like to do in your free time?
I love to find old vinyl records and listen to them. I found an old turntable and restored it. Vinyl helps make music listening more of an experience than many other formats of music consumption that are popular today.
Thanks so much for reading! You can find out more information about Mike in his bio. He is currently accepting new students, so if you are interested in starting lessons with him or with one of our other wonderful teachers, please reach out to us. Subscribe to the newsletter if you haven’t already and “like us” on Facebook. Have a musically filled day!
Sincerely,
Cassie
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