Noah and Nico Luciano, Mark Kennedy’s students, strum their guitars as they play a tune together. (Courtesy photo)

Kennedy Music Studio will be holding a student showcase on Sunday, June 26 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. The showcase will feature group and solo performances by guitar and bass students from both Mark Kennedy’s Benicia and San Francisco studios, and will incorporate classical, rock, folk, blues, pop and jazz pieces from a variety of artists.
The performance will be held in the Dona Benicia room at the Benicia Public Library. Admission is free.
Kennedy, the owner of Kennedy Music Studios, teaches out of his home in Benicia and in two locations in San Francisco, so when he had the opportunity for his students to perform at the local library, he took it.
“This concert is open to the public, so a theatrical setting gives the musicians a preview of live performance on stage,” he said.
Kennedy believes that as terrifying as it may be to perform in front of an audience it gives the performers a sense of “accomplishment and camaraderie” that is “exhilarating and unforgettable” which fuels the passion they have for their craft that begins with learning to conquer a fear or that comes with accomplishing a new skill like playing an instrument.
“Preparing for a concert is quite different from preparing a weekly lesson,” Kennedy says, as they must practice and memorize a variety of different skills and many diverse selections of music in a limited amount of time.
“They need to have chords, lyrics, rhythms, parts and arrangements ‘down cold,’” he said. “This extra practice and rehearsal gives people the confidence to play at a performance level.”
There are a wide range of composers and genres represented in this concert, including selections by the Beatles, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Irving Berlin and Queen. This diversity is surprisingly due to the students themselves. Kennedy teaches people of all ages, so in order to reflect this, he let the music in the show reflect their diversity in taste and style.
The concert is unique in the fact that the performers, who are anywhere from middle school aged to senior citizens, come together to perform, sometimes without actually rehearsing together. Kennedy teaches each of his students the same arrangements, so that they can come from anywhere and still be able to play together.
“Professional musicians often go to a gig without having met the other players, yet they know the same tunes and arrangements, and they just wing it.” Kennedy says.
The students of Kennedy Music Studio large and small, San Franciscan and Benician, will be coming together to bring us a diverse selection of music. It will be an entertaining and captivating performance you surely will not want to miss.

Mark Kennedy is the owner of Kennedy Music Studio. (Courtesy photo)

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