Music Lessons

About Me

Christopher Clarino
Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) - Contemporary Music Performance
University of California San Diego
Master of Music (MM) - Applied Music
Stony Brook University
Bachelor of Music (BM) - Applied Music and Music Education
Eastman School of Music
Dr. Christopher Clarino is an enthusiastic music educator based in San Diego, California.
He shares a holistic approach to music education; In the way a child learns their first language - first by listening and repeating, then by speaking and reading - so too must a student learn music. Chris believes that a well-rounded student will learn to develop the ability to sing, perform, improvise, and audiate in a variety of styles on their instrument.
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Chris been teaching in Southern California for the past nine years. As a member of the Music Teachers' Association of California (MTAC), Chris's students are eligible to participate in the Certificate of Merit® program. This standardized music curriculum promotes excellence in performance, technique, ear training, sight reading/singing, and music theory. His students have received "excellent" ratings and achieved State Honors in this program, showcasing their outstanding musical accomplishments.
Chris previously served as Director of Instrumental Music at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, where he taught orchestra, wind ensemble, guitar ensemble, men's choir and marching band. At the University of California San Diego, he served as an Associate Instructor of Music Fundamentals, teaching a 30-week course for undergraduates. Chris currently serves as Instructor of Music Theory, Music History and Percussion at Southwestern College and has taught K-12 music in New York and California.
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His 2019 doctoral dissertation, “At the Intersection of American Sign Language and the Performer-Percussionist: A Hybrid Practice,” chronicles both the roles of gesture and language in the percussion canon, and his efforts at merging ASL and percussion into a new and idiosyncratic genre of performance art.
Chris has performed with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Bang On A Can, the Ojai Music Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s annual “Noon to Midnight” marathon concert, the Festival Internacional Cervantino, and Monday Evening Concerts. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall, Harvard University, Georgetown University, SUNY New Paltz, The San Diego Museum of Art, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). Chris has performed as soloist with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the USMA Concert Band at West Point, the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, the Fredonia Wind Ensemble and the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra.
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Recording credits include Thomas DeLio's Transparent Waves. Selected Compositions IV (1995-2021), Xavier Beteta's Lasting Shadows, Larry Polansky's These are the Generations... and Lei Liang's Luminous.
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Chris has studied percussion with Steve Schick, John Beck, Eduardo Leandro, Michael Burritt, and piano with Valentina Shatalova and Tony Caramia.
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