Meet Our Teachers

John Lamb is the founder of Backbeat Music Academy, and is dedicated to setting students up to achieve whatever they set their goals on. This means breaking down barriers – developing the physical skills, the mental tools and above all, mindset to get past the roadblocks to success.

John has taught for over 20 years, has a Masters in Education, graduate-level certificates in eLearning, Training and Development and Teaching Adults, and a B.S. in Music, Psychology and Biology. He has also studied with Bernard Purdie (Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin, James Brown). He has played professionally around the US and Asia, starting when he was 15 years old.

John teaches internationally, doing clinics and master classes around North America and Europe. These are mostly around his book, Anatomy of Drumming. John has also written several other books, including Anatomy of Guitar Playing, Start Playing Drums and The Boots And Cats Book. He also writes for DRUM! Magazine and Computer Music Magazine. John endorses Remo Drum Heads and Tama Drums.

Kynwyn Sterling is a drummer/multi-instrumentalist. She graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 2018 with a BFA in Jazz Performance. You can see her perform on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts with Naia Izumi, or catch her with the progressive synth-pop band Crying, the math rock duo Standards, or others, including her own band Heirloom. Kynwyn endorses Aquarian drumheads. and is a co-founder/administrator of Odd Times and Atmospheres, an online community and resource for progressive and experimental musicians.

Timmer Blakely is a bassist and multi-instrumentalist who, among other things, regularly tours and records with Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big, ranked by Guitar Player Magazine at #4 on their All Time Greatest Shredders list). He’s toured the world as a musician and clinician, and has taught for over 30 years. He’s the owner/founder of Lighting In A Bottle records and is the president of the Cascade Blues Association.

A.G. has been playing the guitar professionally, touring with internationally famous bands such as Pink Martini, and in the recording studio for the last 25 years. A proud father of 4, he’s also been teaching for decades.

John England-Fisher is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays many different styles of music – currently gigging with bands that play rock, ska, cumbia, country, punk, reggae, jazz, etc. He was a Montessori kindergarten teacher for nearly a decade and hopes to share his love of music with his students and help them develop their own musical personalities.

Sofía Nava Ulacio is a Venezuelan musician, singer, and songwriter. Her passion has led her to pursue a career in the music industry, getting different awards and scholarships, and participating through mentorships and projects with different artists and organizations in the US and Latin America. As a child, Sofía always had a great interest in music and at only 5 years old, learned her first song on guitar by herself. Later, Sofía was accepted to study at the advanced music school “Fundación Niño Zuliano” in her hometown, Maracaibo. A school that belongs to “El Sistema”, a recognized organization for having trained great musicians and conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel. Right there, she studied for 5 years, getting involved in guitar, cuatro, cello, and participating in youth and children’s choirs and orchestras. Currently, Sofía is studying Music at PCC with the plan to attend a 4-year college for music, while she works professionally as a highly demanding Latin songwriter, music teacher, independent artist, and multi-instrumentalist. Some of her recognitions include: • Two time consecutive winner of song-writing contest in Maracaibo, Venezuela, 2018-2019. • Winner of the award and scholarship “Beaverton Youth Arts Award 2023” in performing arts, offered by the City of Beaverton, Oregon. • Finalist for “Best Music Video” at the Signal2Noise Film Festival 2023. • Selected as one of the 5 “Leading Ladies Connect TogetHER 2023” mentees: a mentorship sponsored by the Latin Recording Academy. Sofía is also a Latin Grammy Member.

Dave Fleschner has toured with the likes of The Pointer Sisters, The Steve Miller Band, Grammy Nominated Earl Thomas, Curtis Salgado (John Belushi’s inspiration behind the Blues Brothers), in addition to performing with B.B. King, The Portland Symphony and many, many more. Dave is also in demand as a producer, composer, arranger, and music director. He’s he has composed music for several documentaries and short films. On stage, his partnership with playwright Wayne Harrell has resulted in writing music for three different musicals: Buried Fire, Just This One, and Gospel Blues. He has been in the pit orchestra for Jesus Christ Superstar, Always Patsy Cline, and for many of the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus shows.

Dave is also the music director and teacher for United by Music North America, a non-profit that teaches non-neurotypical musicians and finds them high-profile performances. Dave’s taught music for decades, including composition, film scoring and music theory classes on the college level. documentaries and short films.

Luciana Proaño is a dancer and percussionist from Peru with an extensive career as a in Europe, Mexico, South America and the US. She performs solo and with Inka Jam, whose music includes originals from the band members and some traditional covers in a variety of styles with an Andean flare. Many of the pieces also include a dance performance in traditional costume. In her teaching, she takes a student-led, Montesorri-style approach oriented towards getting her students to understand music. She also focuses on developing growth-mindset and strives to create an environment where students feel OK to make mistakes and learn to grow from them. She also may include dance in her lessons if she feels it appropriate or the students are interested.

Izabella Bravo is a Berklee-trained musician with over 13 years of experience in music. She teaches violin, voice, ukulele, viola, and beginning piano to students of all ages. As a performer, she’s worked with theaters, orchestras and choirs around the Northwest.

Sami Ravindra has years of experience teaching music in California an Oregon. She holds a BA in Piano Performance from Mills College, where she won the Flora Boyd piano performance prize. Sami has studied with noted teachers such as Belle Bulwinkle, Svetlana Elenkova, Natallia Lobenberg, and Ruzanna Farmazyan. In addition to music, Sami is passionate about animals and animal welfare. She volunteers for PMR horse rescue in her spare time and studies dressage horseback riding. She also holds an MBA in marketing from Mills College.

Dustin Silva is a composer, singer/songwriter and poet. He studied at Musician’s Institute in LA as a teenager and won a summer scholarship to Berklee College of Music. His interest in Indian music led him to study at the Ali Akbar College of Music. As a teacher, Dustin specializes in injury prevention and recovery with an emphasis on proper body mechanics. His expertise in this area comes from 7 years of study under somatic educator and Body Mapping expert, Lisa Marsh.

Bex Nicholes is a multi-instrumentalist best known for their multi-genre violin and finger style guitar playing and storytelling lyricism. Bex studied music performance and recording/production at Willamette University and have toured Europe extensively. Bex enjoys exploring different genres of music; performing with everything from Irish bands to math rock to performing electronic music with an electric violin. You can find their first solo album, “One Holy Sound” at https://thianix.bandcamp.com/album/one-holy-sound and they’re working hard on their second. They have a real joy for playing with sound and an excitement for music that is contagious.