Professor

Growing up in a family of teachers, my father was a high-school business teacher and my mom taught Health Sciences at a community college, I knew fairly early on that I wanted to teach in some capacity, and after discovering music I quickly followed that path. Right from my first year of learning to play, I was giving lessons to the kids down the street and showing my high school friends tricks that I had picked up along the way.

Not long after moving to Montreal in 1998 to study music at McGill University, I began teaching full time in order to pay my bills and prevent myself from having to work a “day job.” I ended up building a studio of 20-25 students each week, which was good for a college student, and that led me to believe that I could actually make a go of it as a professional guitar teacher, alongside my performance career. I took my first teaching job at the Montreal Academy of Music, where for 2 years I taught guitar lessons and music theory. It wasn’t a great paying gig, but I got a lot of experience that would pay off down the road.

When I enrolled at Western Michigan University for my Master’s degree in 2003, I was awarded a teaching assistantship where I was charged with giving undergrad private guitar lessons, a weekly guitar studio class and teaching seven sections of classroom guitar lessons each year. I really loved teaching in a University setting, the fast pace of the students, the interaction with other grad students and music majors. This is when I made up my mind to pursue a career in higher education.

Matt Warnock Teaching at the Federal University of SJDR, Brazil

I continued my teaching path during my Doctorate degree, when I was the jazz guitar Teaching Assistant for the School of Music at the University of Illinois. During these three years I taught undergrad, graduate and Doctoral level private guitar lessons, directed the jazz guitar ensemble and taught jazz improvisation and listening classes at the University’s summer music camp. But, not being content with a full teaching load at UIUC, weekly gigs and 21 Doctoral credits each semester, the same year that I began my Doctorate I accepted a faculty position at Western Illinois University. This is when my real teaching experience began.

Starting out as a half-time faculty member, teaching classroom guitar and one private guitar lesson in my first semester, I was able to recruit enough guitar majors by the end of my first year at WIU that I was promoted to a full-time Associate Faculty, a position that I held until May of 2011 when I moved to Brazil (but that’s another story). During my six years at WIU I managed to grow the guitar program into an internationally known department, founded the WIU International Guitar Festival (which featured artists from all across the U.S., Canada and Brazil) and developed the Community Music School Guitar Program (which raised funding for two Graduate Assistantships in the School of Music).

During this period, I was also fortunate enough to teach at one of the most prestigious, if not the most prestigious, music prep school in the world when I spent two summers in Michigan as the Guitar Instructor for the Interlochen Arts Camp. My time at Interlochen was amazing. I got to work with some of the best music teachers and young artists in the country, and often from many other countries as well, and I grew more as a teacher during those two years than in any other time in my career. I was able to branch out and teach classes that I hadn’t had the chance to before, such as Jazz History, and I worked with some amazing faculty that really pushed me to be a better player and a better teacher.

At Interlochen I met Dr. Brad DeRoche who is one of the most talented performers, and I have to say, best guitar teachers I have ever met. For someone who had always worked at schools that had only one guitar Professor, it was great to have another faculty member to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with. Oh, and he loves great coffee so I was able to steal his to avoid the swill in the cafeteria a few times a week.

As someone who loves to travel, I have also given guitar clinics and workshops throughout the U.S., Canada and Brazil since 2003. Most recently I have worked with several Federal Universities in Brazil, where I gave clinics and private lessons to their students, as well as the Pro Music Academy in Belo Horizonte, where I have given a series of workshops on jazz improvisation and blues music during the 2010-2011 academic year.

After living in the U.S. for eight years, and teaching at Universities for that entire time, I will be moving to Belo Horizonte, Brazil in May of 2011 to work as a Guitar Instructor at the Pro Music Academy, as well as continue to give clinics and workshops at Universities and music schools throughout the country. I am excited for this new opportunity and am looking forward to working with my new students in Brazil.

Matt and the Interlochen Guitar Ensembles with their Awesome Blue Uniforms

******

Full-Time Teaching Experience

• Western Illinois University (Guitar Professor 2005-2011)
• Interlochen Arts Camp (Guitar Professor 2008-2009)
• University of Illinois (Teaching Assistantship 2005-2008)
• Illinois Summer Youth Music Camp (Jazz Instructor 2005-2007)
• Western Illinois Summer Jazz Camp (Jazz Instructor 2006-2007)
• Western Michigan University (Teaching Assistantship 2003-2005)

******

Selected Workshops and Clinics

• Algoma University (Sault Ste. Marie, Canada)
• Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada)
• Chicago High School for the Performing Arts (Chicago, Illinois)
• College of Charleston (Charleston, South Carolina)
• Concordia University (Montreal, Canada)
• Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Juiz de Fora, Brazil)
• Federal University of Ouro Preto (Ouro Preto, Brazil)
• Federal University of Sao Joao Del Rei (Sao Joao Del Rei, Brazil)
• Merit School of Music (Chicago, Illinois)
• Oakton Community College (Chicago, Illinois)
• Pro Music Academy (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)
• Quincy University (Quincy, Illinois)
• University High School (Tucson, Arizona)
• University of Stevens Point (Stevens Point, Wisconsin)
• Wisconsin Conservatory of Music (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)