OUR TEACHERS
Michael Benöhr
Michael is the founder and director of London School of Music. He has been a drum tutor since 2004. Michael first started teaching the drums at Drumstudies in Rotenburg, Germany. Since moving to the UK in 2008 he has been a drum tutor at The Rhythm Studio, at All Talents Music School and at East London Drum School. Recently Michael has toured China twice teaching masterclasses as part of a teachers training program for Music Miles.
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Throughout his musical career Michael has performed at international festivals, radio and TV stations such as Lovebox Festival, Kerrang! Radio and MTV. His great musicality, technical versatility and positive attitude have made him the drummer of choice for many UK artists. Michael is an endorser for Sonor, Vater and Remo.
Founder and Director
London School of Music
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Ivan Panella
Headteacher
London School of Music
Ivan Panella is a professional drummer and a very passionate teacher. With more than 10 years of experience both in the studio and touring, he is specialised in many styles such as Rock, Funk, Hip-Hop, Jazz and many more. Ivan has been touring and playing Festivals with various Artists in most of Europe, the UK, USA, Russia, Japan as well as South Africa and other African countries.
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He is currently playing with his own band TheBeanZ who are based in Italy and with local artists such as London singer/songwriter Olly Chamberlain, Rough Stone and London based South African singer Toya Delazy.
Derrick McKenzie
Drums
Derrick McKenzie has been the drummer of British Funk/Acid Jazz sensation Jamiroquai since 1994, recording more than eight albums and touring the world for over 20 years with them.​ Derrick's unique sound and groove has played a key role in Jamiroquai's music and he is considered as one of the finest British drummers.
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London School of Music has the honour of having Derrick McKenzie as a guest tutor. Next time Derrick will be taking a break from his busy gigging schedule with Jamiroquai to teach at London School of Music will be in April 2020 (date TBC).
Glenda is a professional pianist, vocalist & violinist. The process of honing these skills began from an early age as she was awarded a scholarship to study at The Royal College Of Music. Glenda then went on to graduate from Trinity Laban Conservatoire, gaining a BMus Hons classical piano performance degree, where she also continued her singing & violin studies with world renowned professors. During this time, she found that her main passion was ignited whenever she sang & accompanied herself at the piano, as her classical roots allowed her to explore soul, funk, jazz, blues, house & dance music. As an experienced performer, session musician & teacher, Glenda is keen to pass on the lifelong joy music has given her, in fields such as improvisation & songwriting, to her students. She is a regular gigging musician in 2 bands. Previous performance venues include The Royal Festival Hall, Spice Of Life & Ronnie Scott’s.
Vocals & Piano
Glenda Lazenbury
Daniel Bowery
Dan is a session musician and teacher with over a decade of performing and recording experience. Since graduating from the London Centre of Contemporary Music Dan has performed with and recorded for a variety of artists and toured all over the world including three tours in South Africa.
Dan currently plays for up and coming pop singer Olly Chamberlain, multi instrumentalist, electronic jazz artist Leifur James and rock band Don't Feed The Animals.
Guitar, Bass and Band Practice
Tony has been a professional drummer and percussionist since 1976, experienced in all styles of playing. He has been the resident drummer for many top west end theatre productions including Grease, Motown and We Will Rock You, for which he was hand picked by Roger Taylor and Brian May (Queen). He has also played on many tours, undertaken studio work and been in house bands on high profile TV series.
Tony has vast amounts of teaching experience, using alternative and collaborative teaching as well as more conventional techniques.
Drums
Tony Bourke
Antonio Roldao
Drums
Antonio is a drummer and producer from Portugal now based in London. He graduated from The University of Sussex in Music (BA) in 2018 and has since been working as a session musician and teaching privately. Antonio is specialised in a wide range of genres such as Hip-Hop, Afro-beats, Funk, Jazz and many more.
Antonio is at the start of his musical career in the UK but he has already played alongside several artists such as; Desta French, Ella Knight, Sasha Keable, Carla Prata (and more). Antonio has performed at famous venues and festivals around the country such as The Jazz Cafe, Hootananny, Cross the Tracks Festival, Lush Festival and Pitchfork Festival.
Gary Washington is a classically trained cellist, bassist, banjo and guitar player, and an experienced teacher from the USA. He began playing at age 8 and studied cello and orchestral studies at the South Carolina Governor's school for the arts and humanities, he later attended Loyola University, New Orleans where he studied jazz bass, cello and orchestral studies. Gary has performed in various orchestras and bands throughout the United States and has travelled the world playing music, including at the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC and Opera de Monte-Carlo in Monaco. He has played with Kermit Rufins, Irvin Mayfield, Delfeayo Marsalis, Herlin Riley, Ellis Marsalis and Waterseed, some of the leading names in jazz music.
Gary Washington
Cello, Bass and Guitar
Doug Cartwright
Doug Cartwright is a guitar and bass tutor, specialising in modern techniques, applied harmony and theory and improvisation. As well as teaching over 500 students since 2005 as a private tutor and for schools including The Rhythm Studio, IGF/Ministry of Guitar and ICMP, his instructional material has been published by Lick Library, Guitar International Magazine, The Sound Magazine and others. Doug’s most recent release is the 2018 album ‘Shadow Self Psalms’ by his band Amid the Barren and Lost, which Metal Hammer magazine described as “a new British metal gospel”. He performed all the guitars on the album, as well as recording and producing it.
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Guitar, Bass and Band Practice
Louis Rodney
After playing drums for 14 years, gigging and recording with numerous artists, Louis Rodney is fully immersed in the life of a pro musician. He is experienced playing across all genres including Rock, Pop, Latin, African, Indie, RnB and Hip-Hop. Louis has played at high profile venues including Camden Assembly and The Mandrake Hotel. Louis Learnt drums through the Trinity Classical Grading process and is experienced at teaching the Rock and Pop Syllabus. He has been teaching for several years and has worked with children and adults alike. Louis is passionate about inspiring and supporting learners to fulfil their potential and show how fun this instrument can be, tailoring lessons to students' individual interests.
Drums
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Silvia Fiore
Vocals
Sil Fiore is a singer, song writer, vocal coach and choir director, writes original songs and performs since the age of 17, has a Diploma in Jazz Studies and is is the only certified instructor in UK with The Vocalist Studio, one of the world’s highest recommended and comprehensive modern and rock vocal training program in the industry. She trained with several different teachers through the years and has a wide knowledge of the most known vocal methodologies (Voice Craft, SLS, bel canto). She sang for years with many Choirs and Vocal groups both in Italy and in the UK and performed as a backing vocalist with opera singers Andrea Bocelli and Alessandro Safina and has an extensive studio recording experience and collaboration with high profile artists.
She performed and writes vocal arrangements for independent artists and keeps studying music and new vocal techniques.
Sibel Zeynelova is a pianist with more than 10 years of a teaching experience graduated with BMus in Classical Piano Performance and LRAM (Professional Teaching Specialisation) at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She is a prize winner of over fifty-five awards from international competitions around the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Austria, France, Russia, Turkey and Bulgaria. Sibel has been an active participant in solo/chamber music recitals, orchestral performances and masterclasses given by worldwide established musicians and was invited to perform exclusively in “Musical Treasures from Bulgaria”concert held at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York. Teaching is the most fascinating part of her musical journey so far – she values individual approach combining serious work with laughter and ease, hence her students are gaining highest results in all the different
exam systems/grade classifications and have won numerous contests so far. Sibel is a member of the European Piano Teaching Association and Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain.
Sibel Zeynelova
Piano
Daniel Monaghan
Daniel is a guitar teacher and session musician with over 5 years of performing and teaching experience. As a session musician, Daniel has played numerous venues across London including, O2 Academy Islington, Spice of Life, Camden Assembly as well as contributing to recordings in various genres as a studio musician.
Since graduating from the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in 2019 (BMus) he has been involved in teaching the guitar to people of all ages, dedicated to giving fun, informative lessons that are suited to each students individual wants and needs as developing musicians.
Guitar & Band Practice
Bob Kessels
Bob is a professional drummer and percussionist from The Netherlands, with 10+ years of teaching experiences in Holland, Germany and the UK. During his Bachelor of Music degree at the Rock Academy (NL) he moved to London for an internship at the renowned Urban Soul Orchestra, to then move back after his graduation and join the folk rock band The Gulls. With this London based folk rock band he started touring at the end of January 2020. During the corona pandemic they started their ‘Impossible Tour’; touring during a crisis, in a time when everything was shut down. This tour got picked up by national television & radio (Sky Sports News/BBC Radio) and in between these tours he always kept teaching. Currently, Bob is playing for Berlin & London based soul rock band Steppers Division, London based folk/psychedelic rock band Fire In Her Eyes and does session work for several Berlin and London based artists and bands.