Music Instructors | Music House | Overland Park, Lenexa, & Olathe School of Music

Every aspiring musician needs mentors

Our well-trained teachers are highly experienced and work together as a team to help students reach their individuals goals. At Music House, you'll have access to some of the best musicians and instructors in Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe and the Kansas City metro. Our entire team of educators works together to bring a diverse range of perspectives to each and every student.

Little-known fact: Our teachers are full-fledged employees of Music House, not just independent contractors like at every other music school in the Kansas City area. What does that mean? It means consistent instruction across the board, fully vetted music teachers, and an incredibly strong music community. We can't wait to meet you!

Administrators

Alex Doolittle Location Manager - Prairie Village — **Alex Doolittle**
*Location Manager - Prairie Village*

Growing up in a musical family, Alex gravitated toward the drums to help round out the family band. His passion for drum set and percussion grew in middle school and high school when he joined conc...
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Briley Patterson Location Manager - Lenexa — **Briley Patterson**
*Location Manager - Lenexa*

An active freelancer and musician in the Kansas City area, Briley Patterson is a drummer/percussionist with a love for contemporary chamber music. Briley was introduced to the drum kit at a very yo...
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Eric Hayslett Location Manager - Overland Park — **Eric Hayslett**
*Location Manager - Overland Park*

Eric Hayslett is a teaching artist, workshop facilitator, musician, and mentor with more than 25 years of experience in arts education and community enrichment. A versatile multi-instrumentalist, E...
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Kyle Maddox Community Assistant — **Kyle Maddox**
*Community Assistant*

Kyle is a life-long learner from Overland Park, KS. Coming from a family without musicians, he never had a music lesson growing up. However, from a young age he could always be found in the company...
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Mia Garrett Community Assistant — **Mia Garrett**
*Community Assistant*

Mia Garett is from Paola, Kansas, where she grew up singing in choir, dancing, and performing in theatre. She graduated from Pittsburg State University in May 2025 with a major in Marketing and a m...
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Robin Cottrell Community Assistant — **Robin Cottrell**
*Community Assistant*

Robin grew up in Mission, Kansas, where her childhood was filled with all mediums of art. From Thursday night dead hour, to the next door neighbors' band practices, music has been an integral part ...
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Kay Pritchard Assistant Location Manager - Prairie Village / Senior Instructor — **Kay Pritchard**
*Assistant Location Manager - Prairie Village / Senior Instructor*

Kay Pritchard is a multi-instrumentalist from Northern California that specializes in drums and percussion. Kay graduated with a Bachelors in Music with a Jazz Performance concentration from Califo...
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Kinsey Belgeri Operations Manager — **Kinsey Belgeri**
*Operations Manager*

Born in Overland Park, Kansas, Kinsey’s love for music came out of her early experiences as a dancer. Her parents influenced her love for classic rock, and she is now the self-proclaimed number one...
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Rachel Cross Marketing & Events Coordinator / Vocal Instructor — **Rachel Cross**
*Marketing & Events Coordinator / Vocal Instructor*

Rachel Cross is a midwest based singer, actor, harpist, voice teacher, and musical director and is excited to join the Music House team! She holds an MM in CCM Voice Pedagogy and Speech Science and...
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Becca Kephart General Manager — **Becca Kephart**
*General Manager*

As a popular independent music lesson teacher, Becca brought a whole fleet of students with her when she began teaching at Music House in 2014. It was the focus on community that had attracted her ...
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Brian Kephart Director of Technology / Guitar / Bass — **Brian Kephart**
*Director of Technology / Guitar / Bass*

A veteran of many rock, funk & jazz bands from southern Illinois to the Colorado front range, Brian has a diversity of musical experiences that he loves to share with students and fans of all t...
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Brass & Woodwinds

Justin Brown Winds / Piano / Guitar — **Justin Brown**
*Winds / Piano / Guitar*

Justin Brown is a multi-Instrumentalist from Blue Springs, Missouri with a passion for classical, jazz, and rock music. He has a Bachelors of Music Performance from the University of Michigan, and ...
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Aaron Dunlap Brass / Piano — **Aaron Dunlap**
*Brass / Piano*

Aarron is a brass and piano instructor, with trumpet as their primary instrument. They have a Bachelor's of Music with a focus in trumpet performance from Louisiana State University. They have perf...
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Ross Valenzuela Piano / Voice / Saxophone / Flute — **Ross Valenzuela**
*Piano / Voice / Saxophone / Flute*

Ross Valenzuela is a graduate student at UMKC for Music Education, and has graduated with his Masters in Music Therapy and is a licensed CBMT music therapist. He earned his BM in performance for bo...
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Jessica Alvarado Brenes Piano / Woodwinds — **Jessica Alvarado Brenes**
*Piano / Woodwinds*

Jessica Alvarado Brenes holds a Master’s of Arts from Truman State University, and a Bachelor’s in Music from the University of Costa Rica. Originally from San Jose - Costa Rica, Jessica has develo...
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Tori Venske Woodwinds / Piano — **Tori Venske**
*Woodwinds / Piano*

Tori Venske is a passionate music educator and performer with a strong foundation in classical music and a love for helping students discover their unique musical voice. Originally from Oklahoma an...
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Drums

Nicholas Mendoza Piano / Guitar / Drums — **Nicholas Mendoza**
*Piano / Guitar / Drums*

Nicholas Mendoza is a passionate and experienced music educator dedicated to helping students discover confidence, creativity, and joy through music. With experience teaching general music, choir, ...
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Lisa Mckenzie Drums — **Lisa Mckenzie**
*Drums*

Lisa Mckenzie first made her mark in the music scene touring and recording with Red Decibel artists and Cher UK, Playing venues like First Avenue in Minneapolis, The Limelight in New York, Emo’s in...
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Jacob Bross Drums — **Jacob Bross**
*Drums*

Jacob Bross is a Kansas City-based drummer and educator. He studied Music Education at the University of Memphis and has experience teaching private music lessons to students of various ages and sk...
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Matt Robertson Drums — **Matt Robertson**
*Drums*

Matt Robertson is a drummer and educator in the Kansas City area. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Performance from Missouri State University and a Master of Arts in Music Performance from the...
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Frazier Krohn Drums — **Frazier Krohn**
*Drums*

Frazier Krohn is a seasoned percussionist with 19 years of experience and a diverse musical background, encompassing performances from classical orchestras to punk rock bands. With a double major i...
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Joel Shipley Drums — **Joel Shipley**
*Drums*

Joel Shipley has been teaching drums for years, but what brings him to Music House is his passion for playing music with others. “My goal is to share the joy of drums and music with every student.”...
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Jacob Gregg Piano / Drums — **Jacob Gregg**
*Piano / Drums*

Originally from Lubbock, Texas, Jacob Gregg started playing the drum set at age 14. He always loved music, and at age 18 he turned his musical sights toward piano and composition when he was comple...
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Steve Thomas Drums — **Steve Thomas**
*Drums*

Throughout his over 20 years of teaching experience, Steve has enjoyed sharing his passion for music with students of all ages. His teaching style is often described as “inspirational” and we’ve be...
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Guitar & Bass

Miki Petillo Voice / Guitar — **Miki Petillo**
*Voice / Guitar*

Mikala Petillo (aka Miki P) is a musician, artist, and performer from Kansas City. Her musical roots stem from classic to modern rock and pop, but she loves to explore all genres and believes there...
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Dylan Guthrie Guitar — **Dylan Guthrie**
*Guitar*

Dylan Guthrie is a Kansas City musician and teacher who loves helping students grow on guitar and voice. He studied jazz guitar and vocal performance at KU and later earned a master’s degree in edu...
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Pete Marten Guitar / Bass / Ukulele — **Pete Marten**
*Guitar / Bass / Ukulele*

From the early age of nine years old, Pete knew he wanted to make guitar his life. He started taking private lessons and went on to earn a Guitar Performance degree from Musician’s Institute in Los...
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Lilah Cottrell Guitar / Bass / Ukulele — **Lilah Cottrell**
*Guitar / Bass / Ukulele*

Lilah Cottrell is a multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer from Kansas City. Lilah got her start in education at Kansas City Young Audiences, first as a student, then going on to lead their "...
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Jessie Glennon Guitar / Bass / Ukulele — **Jessie Glennon**
*Guitar / Bass / Ukulele*

Jessie Glennon developed a passion for music after picking up her first guitar at age 14. Since then, she has made a name for herself in the Kansas City music scene by performing at a variety of ve...
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Luis Gonzalez Voice / Guitar / Ukulele — **Luis Gonzalez**
*Voice / Guitar / Ukulele*

"Music has kept me alive through the most vexing winters of my life; it's a first love that has always fed my soul." Originally from Mexico, Luis was trained classically in voice and piano from the...
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Rafael Jeri Guitar / Ukulele — **Rafael Jeri**
*Guitar / Ukulele*

Rafael Jeri is originally from Peru and has lived in the USA for the past 20 years. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Production from Full Sail University. He comes to Music House with o...
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Matt Elton Guitar / Bass / Ukulele — **Matt Elton**
*Guitar / Bass / Ukulele*

Hailing from Kansas City, Kansas, Matt began playing string instruments at the age of 10, and was playing professionally by the age of 12. After graduating from Turner High School, he pursued a deg...
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Kidzrock

Shamika Franklin Voice — **Shamika Franklin**
*Voice*

Shamika Franklin is happy to be joining the Music House School of Music as a vocal music teacher. She has prior teaching experience as an elementary teacher, tutor, teaching artist, and Music Toget...
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Piano

Parker Woolworth Piano / Voice — **Parker Woolworth**
*Piano / Voice*

Parker Woolworth is thrilled to join the team at the Music House School of Music, bringing with him a deep passion for music and years of experience as a performer, collaborator, and educator. A fa...
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Heather Baldwin Voice / Piano — **Heather Baldwin**
*Voice / Piano*

Heather grew up in the Kansas City metro and has been part of its music community for decades. A proud graduate of the University of Kansas, Heather holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education, a ...
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David Olson Piano — **David Olson**
*Piano*

David has been a professional musician for over 20 years, with vast experience teaching piano/keyboard, bass, guitar and voice. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, David was surrounded by music a...
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Andrew Ouellette Piano — **Andrew Ouellette**
*Piano*

Andrew Ouellette is a Kansas City pianist, composer, and educator. Originally from Hannibal, MO, Andrew has taught piano lessons for over 6 years. He had the privilege to study under the world-reno...
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Voice

Emily Lynn Voice — **Emily Lynn**
*Voice*

Emily Lynn is a singer and teacher from North Manchester, Indiana who moved to the Kansas City area for her graduate studies in vocal performance at UMKC. Throughout her academic route, she has gui...
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