Brian Vaccaro, guitar teacher

Q: What were you doing before you started working at GCAA?

A: “I have been teaching music at the college level, and I still do, but I’ve split my time now to the point where I’m teaching half time here and half time at Lindenwood University.  I have to be super organized to stay on top of it, because it’s a totally different environment and the scheduling works differently here with the block scheduling, so that makes scheduling around it a little bit tricky, but I have a flexible enough situation so I can…mold my schedule there around what I have here.  I have to be a lot more structured [at GCAA], especially with middle schoolers. With college students they’re on their own in a lot of ways. They’re held accountable to do their own thing, make sure they have their stuff prepared, and meet deadlines. Here I have to be a lot more structured with how I work with the students.”

Q: What is something that you want people to know about you?

A: “I’m most interested in the idea of as many students as possible learning about the arts, in this case music.  I’m a music specialist, but I think it’s important to integrate a heavy dose of the arts in education, which is why I’m here, I think it’s important that students get a heavy dose of, be it visual art, music, photography, or whatever else…if they have the opportunity to study that in a place like this, I think it’s important to promote that.”

Q: What’s your long-term goal for your students or class?

A: “I think, it depends on the student, but I think that they take from an arts education all the things that you can get from it, like what it’s like to rehearse with a group, how to negotiate parts with a different person, how to give and take practice habits, things that are necessary to be successful in this particular endeavor, that applies not only to playing guitar, but everything you do in life”

Q: What are you looking forward to at GCAA?

A: “I’m looking forwards to seeing…,short-term, what these kids sound like the end of the semester, then at the end of the year, and then a couple years down the road seeing how the program grows and what I can develop this into”