Who I am:

I am a husband, father, teacher, musician, composer and very recently, began working in Project Management. In 2002 I married my beautiful wife Melissa and am the very proud father of two wonderful daughters - Ella and Ariana.

About my music career:

I’ve been learning music since I was approximately six years of age. I vaguely remember starting on the piano but soon after fell in love with the guitar. By the time I was fifteen I was working as a musician playing in Latin American dance bands. In 1997, I graduated from the Conservatorium of Music Sydney and completed a Bachelor of Music Education.

My main instrument is guitar, but I can also play a bit of bass, ukulele, drums, some piano and I sing (not well, but I have a go!).

I’ve been involved in a wide variety of musical styles and have performed in Latin American, Jazz, Rock and Pop bands, as well as in Musicals and in classical guitar ensembles. After all these years, I still love playing music and occasionally perform in clubs throughout Sydney as part of various production shows and bands. However, in recent years, I’ve been focussing more on composing and writing songs.

About my teaching career:

I started tutoring guitar students when I was fifteen and began full time high school music teaching in 2001. Up until May 2023, I was the Creative and Performing Arts Coordinator at Cerdon College Merrylands.

I love that as a teacher, I have the opportunity to share what I’ve learnt. I’ve been very fortunate to have had some amazing music teachers. In particular, Steve Flak (Liverpool Academy of Music), Mr Ken Leeson (my senior high school teacher), Greg Pikler (previous Head of Strings at the Conservatorium of Music) and my first ever music teacher, Marcello Muñoz (currently performing with Latin Addiction). Each of these teachers were incredibly passionate, loved what they did and loved sharing what they knew. I’ve been forever thankful and it’s these same attributes that I aspire to in my teaching.

In May of 2023 I chose to have a career change and began working in education project management.

About my books:

From the time I began working as a music tutor, I had always had the thought of creating my own book, but had never done much about it. As a high school teacher, I would constantly write up great lesson ideas on the whiteboard only to rub them off at the end of the day. Eventually, I started typing up my ideas and in 2009, I decided to write my first book aimed at junior high school music students. The result was ‘Introducing: The Guitar!’ I decided to publish the books myself so I created Melmarvi Publications. You can check out the website at melmarvi.com.au

The feedback from my students and other teachers was fantastic so in 2010 I wrote my second book ‘Introducing: The Keyboard!’