Episode #21: Natalie Frakes, Dan Trahey, Pete Tashjian

Natalie Frakes graduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. She studied violin under Dr. Laura Roelofs and music education with Dr. Wendy Matthews. Natalie has served as a string instructor and conductor for many positions including Wayne State’s String Project@Wayne, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles, Detroit’s Urban Stringz, and the Dearborn Youth Symphony. She was also a teaching artist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s El Sistema-inspired OrchKids program. In addition to teaching, Natalie performs frequently with multiple bands in the Metro Detroit area including NUCLASSICA, Nouveauté, and the Pistons House Band. She continues working the gigging circuit with friends in their group Midtown Strings. Daniel Trahey is a musician, educator, innovator, and social entrepreneur. He co-created Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s “OrchKids” program, and founded the El Sistema-inspired program “Tuned-In” at the Peabody Institute where he teaches creative composition and community engagement. Dan plays Tuba for the Archipelago Project and the Austria based RET Brass Band and has performed worldwide for hundreds of thousands of children, specifically targeting impoverished areas with little access to live performance. Dan is a consultant for programs desiring to use music as a vehicle for social change. He has helped start El Sistema-inspired programs in places such as Charlotte, Chicago, Ft.Worth, Innsbruck, Allentown, Waterbury, Alexandria, Kalamazoo, and Miami. Over the past decade, he has developed a vehicle for nurturing youth voice called Collective Composition, facilitating large-scale compositions with organizations around the world. Dan holds a M.M. from Yale and a B.M.E from Peabody. Earning a Downbeat Award for his High School jazz combo as well as the Louis Armstrong Award, Pete attended the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University where he studied with 7 time Grammy Award winner Paul Wertico, Ed Harrison (Lyric Opera), as well as Reuben Alvarez (LP). Since graduating in 2010, Pete has been actively involved in El Sistema US and music education for social change.  Working with the Tuned-In Program (Peabody Institute) and ORCHkids (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) in Baltimore and El Sistema Ravinia and the YOURS Project in Chicago.  He currently leads a bucket band program at SHIFT: Englewood on the southside of Chicago.