Welcome to Grow Music!
We offer early childhood music, violin/fiddle, viola, and cello lessons.
Grow Music is home of the Viol Conspiracy, the Cello Mafia, the String Mafia, the Nearly Spring Strings Festival, and other lively musical explorations in Missoula, MT.
We offer early childhood music, violin/fiddle, viola, and cello lessons.
Grow Music is home of the Viol Conspiracy, the Cello Mafia, the String Mafia, the Nearly Spring Strings Festival, and other lively musical explorations in Missoula, MT.
A note from Jessica (founder):
I love music and I love teaching music. Music is my passion, my joy, my muse, and my solace. It is my honor as an educator to share all I've learned and all that inspires me about music! My cello has taken me all over the world and I feel proud and excited to bring what I have learned along the way to each unique student.
I started Grow Music as a way to promote healthy, well-rounded, high-level musical development with a focus centered on the group dynamic. Music is a natural outlet for creativity, discipline, and self-expression - the sheer joy of making music together promotes socialization, connection, community, and a wonderful sense of belonging. Thanks for stopping in.
I love music and I love teaching music. Music is my passion, my joy, my muse, and my solace. It is my honor as an educator to share all I've learned and all that inspires me about music! My cello has taken me all over the world and I feel proud and excited to bring what I have learned along the way to each unique student.
I started Grow Music as a way to promote healthy, well-rounded, high-level musical development with a focus centered on the group dynamic. Music is a natural outlet for creativity, discipline, and self-expression - the sheer joy of making music together promotes socialization, connection, community, and a wonderful sense of belonging. Thanks for stopping in.
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BIO:
Originally from the Black Hills, Jessica Catron spent 20 years making music in Los Angeles, by way of Albuquerque, and then relocated to Missoula in the summer of 2013. She received a B.M. in Cello Performance from the University of New Mexico, studying with Pablo Casals pupil Joanna de Keyser. She received her M.F.A. in Cello Performance from the California Institute of the Arts, under the tutelage of both Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick (Contemporary Cello Performance) and Dr. Rajeev Taranath (Hindustani Classical Music of North India). As supplementary study, her love of folk music lead her to study with Eugene Friesen (Berklee School of Music), David Baker (Indiana Univ), and Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas (Scottish Fiddle Camp). Throughout her higher education, Jessica was awarded full scholarships for music performance and study. Jessica spent the majority of her professional life in Los Angeles where she worked as a freelance performing artist and educator. Some of her musical adventures include touring, performing, and/or recording with artists including Carla Bozulich (Geraldine Fibbers/Evangelista), Harold Budd, Nels Cline, Devotchka, The Eels, Fun., Trevor Hall, The Heavy, Eleni Mandell, Dave Matthews, Tim Meyers (One Republic), Alexi Murdoch, Sheila Nicholls, Linda Ronstadt, Spiritualized, James Tenney, Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Steve Vai, Vitamin String Quartet, VOCO, Scott Weiland, Emily Wells, The White Buffalo, and Wilco. Jessica has appeared on The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show, the NBC Music Video Awards, KPFK's Global Village, KUSC's Arts Alive, and has been a soloist for films Mean Creek, The Strangers, The Covenant, and Levity. As a teaching artist, Jessica worked for eight years as the lead cello mentor for YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) - a partnership of the Harmony Project and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Through YOLA, she worked regularly with four youth orchestras, string ensembles, led fiddle and singing workshops, and had 32 cello students in group classes and private lessons five days per week. Her students have had the fortune of sitting beside LA Phil musicians in concert, backing up Stevie Wonder, Journey, and The Black Eyed Peas at the Hollywood Bowl, performing with Grace Potter and Sharon Stone on the Tonight Show, playing chamber music next to Condoleeza Rice, and traveling to the White House to play for Michelle Obama and Joshua Bell. She was the first distinguished musical-artist-in-residence at the UCLA Hammer Museum, and has lead music workshops at the University of Auckland (NZ), Universidad de Bogota (Columbia), University of Nebraska (Omaha), Cornish College (Seattle), University of New Mexico (Albq), Lake Tahoe Unified (CA), Port Chester School District (NY), Community Music Works (RI), and the California State Summer School for the Arts (LA), among many others. In Missoula, Jessica can be seen as a member of both the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and Glacier Symphony. In addition to her full private teaching studio, she has subbed as a music teacher at Sussex School and for MCPS. Jessica plays in The Receptionists string duo, leads music workshops, founded and arranges music for the Cello Mafia, String Mafia and Viol Conspiracy, and writes music and sings with her avant-folk band Missincinatti. Over the past several years, Jessica has been developing her most fulfilling projects to date - raising two young kids - with her sweetie, Jeremy. They love family game nights, snuggling, asking Google random factoids, making tacos, raising four hens and two cats, taking saunters in the woods, floating rivers, spending time with their extended family, and eating those donuts in Ravalli whenever possible. |
Additional Grow Music Teaching Artists:
Anna Walter-Grussling has been studying the violin and piano since she was 5 years old. She continued with her violin studies at the University of Montana under Margaret Baldridge, and graduated with a degree in Elementary and Special Education. She has been an active substitute in the Missoula Symphony since her junior year in High School. Anna was a participant in the Suzuki Institute for 13 consecutive years and has studied under Missoula violin teachers Heidi Martin, Beth Youngblood, Madeleine McKelvey, and Molly Morrison on piano. She currently has a home violin studio with students ages 5 to 15. In addition to music, Anna currently teaches Special Education at Bonner Elementary and works as a dance instructor with the Missoula Irish Dancers. Anna strives to make learning fun, while also maintaining an atmosphere that facilitates learning and reaching goals. Anna is currently Grow Music's lead teacher for all things violin, as well as assisting with the String Mafia.
Britta Thomas was raised in Montana and began playing the cello at the age of eleven through the public school music. She received two degrees from the University of Montana: a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance under Fern Glass Boyd and a Bachelor of Arts in German language and culture. During her undergraduate studies, she was an active solo, chamber, and orchestral performer. Her success within the university earned her several awards and scholarships for her outstanding performance in the field of music. She has a particular fondness for orchestral ensembles and has performed in many orchestras throughout the state of Montana, often as principal cellist. In addition to performance, she is an avid teacher of both private and group cello lessons, teaching a variety of music genres and techniques. Britta is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Cello Performance at UC Santa Barbara under the instruction of Jennifer Kloetzel.
Laura Geier is a violinist, pianist, and music educator. Having developed a passion for Romani (Gypsy) and Balkan music, she lived in Plovdiv, Bulgaria for a year supported by the prestigious Fulbright Grant, and subsequently traveled to Romania, Moldova, Turkey, and Sweden to pursue further studies. Her unique approach to teaching encompasses all styles - Eastern European folk, Romani (Gypsy), traditional classical, and jazz. An MFA recipient of the California Institute of the Arts, Laura studied Balkan music, Alexander Technique, Bulgarian folk singing, jazz improvisation, music transcription, and violin. Prior to CalArts, Laura also received a Masters in Music at Ohio University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
Melinda Rice is a violinist, violist, and music educator. She approaches music learning as a joyous process that can lead to commitment and discovery in many areas of one's life. Born in Pennsylvania to a music teacher, and Melinda began violin at a young age. Music has taken her to England, France, and the Netherlands as an orchestra performer, she has studied at the Suzuki camp in Japan, and began writing music and acting with a Conflict Resolution theatre troupe in Philadelphia. Since receiving her Masters in Violin Performance from California Institute of the Arts, she has both conducted and taught as an LA Philharmonic Teaching Artist with Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. Melinda loves to see students take both joy and ownership of their musical journey.
