Our instructors
Meet the talented group of teachers who instruct and inspire at Bird:
Matt Funamura: Guitar, Trumpet, Bass, Theory
Matt is a trumpeter, guitarist, composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist raised in the Sierra Nevada Foothills near Sacramento. At the age of six, he picked up his first guitar and trumpet at the age of 8, beginning his musical journey.
He majored in music performance and jazz studies at American River College in Sacramento, California for two years, during which time he was a freelance musician throughout the West Coast. He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
Matt has performed with and studied under numerous musicians in a wide range of genres including: Angelique Kidjo, Ingrid Jensen, Tiger Okoshi, Gamble & Huff, Salvador Santana, Joe Gilman, Charles Haynes, Dontae Winslow, Jerry Martini and Victor Mendoza.
Dave Mihaly: Drums, Guitar, Bass, Piano, Banjo, Theory
Dave has been teaching music for 31 years, in New York, New Jersey and California.
He received a B.A. in music theory and history and a B.A. in psychology from Drew University, and studied drums and percussion privately in New York and San Francisco with Andrew Cyrille, Barry Altschul, Zakir Hussain, Jack Van der Wyck and Richard Perrini.
He also plays piano, marimba and guitar. Dave has toured the U.S, Canada, Europe and the South Seas and is featured on recordings by Iron & the Albatross, Jolie Holland, Sean Hayes, After the End of the World Coretet, and his own Shimmering Leaves. His first string quartet was played at U.C. Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technology and the S.F. musician’s union hall, and he has written for singers, jazz bands, dance bands, rock bands and other idioms.
Dave taught music in New Traditions, the Video Drums Clinic, and though the auspices of the S.F. Academy of Sciences. He has had hundreds of students from the ages of 3 through 70 and learns much through his teaching practice.
Photo: Andrew Carver
Ahmed Ragab: Drums, Ukulele, Piano, Guitar, Early Childhood Music
A trilingual artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Originally from Egypt, he listened to and lived in both Egyptian and Japanese cultures during his childhood. He picked up the drum kit at 17 and has been on a journey exploring the different languages of music ever since. Starting from Heavy metal music, he quickly expanded into learning jazz, funk eventually learning piano and composition along the way. Ahmed has performed in various places around the world, including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Tokyo, and Cairo. He has performed in local festivals with several notable artists in the Bay Area including, Audiopharmacy, Climbingpoetree, Nina Grae, Sasha Bayan, Teao Sense ,and YOURS. His style of playing ranges from Rock, Funk, Reggae, Jazz, all the way to Hip-hop as well as Electronic and world music.
Patrick Marquis: Piano, Electronic Production & Performance
Patrick found his way into his teaching role with Music for Minors after discovering his love of early education during a demo class interview, facing a group of 30 3rd graders for the first time. Patrick is a recent addition to the Bird School of Music Staff and mainly teaches Piano and Drums.
Nikola Printz: Voice, Piano, Ukulele
Jesse Maynard: Drums, Piano, Guitar, Bass, Theory
A native of the New York City Area, Jesse began playing drums with professional bands at age 17 and went on to study jazz performance and theory at Berklee College of Music. After leaving Berklee, Jesse returned to New York City and helped to operate a recording studio as both a recording engineer and recording artist.
Along with Drums and Guitar Jesse also plays piano and bass. Throughout his career he has had the opportunity to share the stage or studio with artists such as: Son little, Mumford and Sons, Eric Krasno, Leon Bridges, X Ambassadors, Shakey Graves and many others. Aside from maintaining an active touring schedule, Jesse remains a student of music and is always looking for new ways to learn.