Mathew Joy, Ltcl
Dean
The founder and dean of Jam who is an inspiration with his abundant passion, having an experience of more than 2 decades in the area of music education. With his mentorship, he leads the community with his selfless approach in guiding, tutoring and promoting the upcoming generation of musicians. A very straight forward and down to earth personality who is well-known in the music community as one of the most successful drum educator with the track record of making his students achieve the National Award, PhD in music, Masters in Music tehnology, Masters in music business, international performers and educators by his endless dedication. Being a versatile musician, he also made his mark by conducting the first ever drum clinic, the jazz band and the music conservatory in the history of Kerala.
Mathew is determined and has made great efforts to preserve the value of true music by protecting the music education purely away from the commercial aspects. An LTCL qualified musician, his years of contribution in the music education as a mentor are being reflected through hundreds of musicians across the world.
Frijo Francis
Senior Faculty - Piano
Frijo Francis is a Jazz/Experimental Pianist and Music Composer working in the field of experimental music. His compositions are mainly based on progressive instrumental music with an essence of Indian classical music, jazz harmony and contemporary style.
Born to a musical family, Frijo grew up listening to various Indian forms of music. He underwent rigorous western classical music training under the tutelage of Fr. Thomas for 12 years and earned his ATCL diploma from Trinity College of Music, London. In the recent years, Frijo has been working with maestros like Dr.L.Subramaniam, Sri Trilok Gurtu, Jeno Lisztes, legendary Gipsy violinist Roby Lakatos, Grammy Winner Vikku Vinayakram, Ernie Watts, Patri Satish Kumar, Gino Banks, Rhythm Shaw, Anindo Chatterjee and played for various acts including The Woodshed Musicians, Infusion, Big Band and Blue Rondo all over the world.
Frijo, being a versatile pianist has his own band named ‘FNYJ’, promoting experimental jazz fusing multiple genres from traditional to Nu-Jazz. His harmonically advanced playing is influenced by several legends like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Steve Smith, Jojo Mayer and Tony Williams to name a few.
Jeet Paul
Head of Audio Dept.
Jeet Paul MM in Music Technology is a Sound Engineer/Producer/Composer/Performer. In association with Synergy Audio Productions, New York, he provides freelance audio recording, mixing, mastering, producing, photography and videography services to bands and artists. He is also associated with Engine Room Audio, one of the top large format studios in New York City, having worked there as a sound engineer as well as operations manager. With 2 platinum plaques and 2 gold plaques in his name, his credits include Fergie, 50 Cent, Trey Songz, Ester Dean and Ryan Leslie.
Elisheva Goldschmidt
Vocal
Elisheva Goldschmidt was born in 1986 in South Africa. In 2007 she completed her DASA Ballet Teacher’s Diploma and in 2008 she completed BMus (Performance), at the University of Pretoria (Piano first instrument) under Prof Ella Fourie, Opera second instrument under Dame Lorraine du Toit Havemann. In 2009 she completed level 1,2 & 3 in Trauma and Abuse Counseling. In 2011 Dip ABRSM (Opera) and received masterclasses from Russian Soprano Evgenia Grekova. She is trained in Classical dance performance, classical music and received numerous master classes from directors world wide.
Elisheva works as a ballet teacher, piano and voice coach, choir conductor and music director. With the teaching experience of more than a decade, she has been the music director of “Get me to the show on time” stage production, "Single and double Webber" stage production. She was a adjudicator for DMASA Dance Competition and many other competitions and eistedfods.
Her Performeamces include The Phantom of the Opera, Really Useful Group, London (SA, Korea, Philippines), Cats, the Musical (SA), Arsena - Der Zigeuner Baron (SA), Zerlina -Don Giovanni (SA), Susanna - Le Nozze di Figaro, Muzetta - La Boheme (SA).
Sreehari Menon
Carnatic Percussion
A native from Trissur, the cultural capital of Kerala. Sreehari Menon is our faculty for Mridangam, Ghatom and Ganjira with many years of learning experience since 2006, and has achieved his qualifications of MPA in Mridangam from Sri Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Trivandram and BA from the prestigious Chembai Memorial Govt Music College, Palakkad. He has under-gone training on various repertoire from Master Cherthala S Dinesh who is also the principal at Chembai Memorial Govt Music College. Menon is a well-known performer with great experience in accompanying various popular artists in the areas of classical & fusion concerts, (an All India Radio Graded Artist) and a guest lecturer at Kerala Kalamandalam deemed to be university.
Sunil Silvester
Guitar
Sunil Silvester has joined our conservatory in the year 2019 as our faculty for Guitar. He has been playing the instrument since the year 1995 and was only 19 of age when he formed an alternate band 'Evergreen' with his friends. The band released their studio album called " Between and Beyond" which was widely accepted. After spending nearly 12 years with the band, he made the choice to be more innovative by deviating his commitment from the band and decided to initiate an experimental group the '4th Hue' to implement his creative approaches and musical expressions in the new form. Sunil has worked with several musicians and independent artists like VJ Traven, Shahbaz Aman, and Job Kurian and has also played with the band Motherjane as a freelancer apart from playing for recording sessions for many Malayalam movies.
Vinod Sreedevan
Guitar
Vinod Sreedevan, has joined us in the year 2016 and been providing contemporary lessons on guitar. He started learning with hand percussions at the age of 12, and continued on instruments such as guitar, piano and tabla at his school where he got his first taste of performing the instruments on stage. Afterwards though he kept his interest and studies on guitar from London College of Music, he also had the chance to achieve the diploma on sound engineering.
Being an avid music listener his interests span multiple genres and eras from early classical music to the latest electronic music genres. He has played for various bands in the past 10+ years like Pathayam, Spaced Harmonics, Resa and also as a freelance guitarist for many other artists. Currently he is playing for the bands - Pukil, Collective Conscious and Lazie J. He is also a music producer and has done music for various documentaries and short films, by having his own studio - Studio Mystique in Trivandrum, known for specialized studio sessions in music recording, programming, mixing and mastering. His main musical interests are Blues, Funk, Rock, Metal, Jazz and fingerstyle guitar. He believes knowledge should be passed on to anyone who is interested and that anyone can become a good musician if you he/she has proper guidance and the will and ambition to be one.
Anand Narayanan
Vocal
Anand Narayanan, started his journey recently as a faculty at Jam. He is formally trained in Vocal performance from Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, which he pursued after completing Audio Engineering at Muzik Lounge, Chennai. A passionate vocalist and guitarist, he has varied experience in orchestra and band performances with The HeartxP, SAM Collective, Tatkal Band etc. Anand is determined to enrich people’s lives through musical expression. After dedicating years to developing and polishing his sound spectrum, he takes great enthusiasm in writing, composing and performing original material as well as covers. He is committed to growing as a musician and learning new skills, in the area of Music Production and Sound Engineering.
Anastazia Dmello
Vocal / Piano
Anastazia Dmello, a multi-talented personality has joined us since 2019 and continuing her passion by teaching piano and contemporary vocals. Her love for music grew at the age of 14 when she discovered her true potential and learnt the art of teaching music at Taught To Teach Music School, Goa. Ever since, she has grown and broadened her range from Jazz to classical music. Her active participation in Church music and knowledge about Gospel Music helped her learn different ways of experimenting on her music skills. She is not only a teacher but also has shared the stage with various international Artists.
Apart from piano and singing, Anastazia has a strong background on drums and has obtained her Associate in Teaching Diploma and Licentiate through Rockschool London, and has also completed her Grade 8 in Theory, Grade 7 in Piano and Grade 7 in Electronic Keyboard through Trinity College London. She is one of Goa's well known drummers and is currently teaching with us for more than a year. She believes that music is your own thoughts, experience and wisdom which should be imparted to all.
Kumar Shaurya
Guitar
Kumar Shaurya is our new guitar faculty who joined us in January, 2020. He picked up the guitar when he was 15 and hasn't stopped since. At the age of 19, he quit his academic studies to pursue music full time.
He enrolled in Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, Chennai where he got the opportunity to play with musicians from all over the globe like Denis Stern (Russia), Peter Farell (Brazil), Douglas LasCasas (Brazil), Marcus Almeida ( Brazil), Leo Vrillaud (Portugal) and many more. Playing and exchanging ideas with such phenomenal musicians from all around the world added tons of colours and variety to Shaurya's playing. He is currently working on a solo album along with a few side projects with fellow musicians.
Rajneesh S L
Piano
Rajneesh S L - Bangalore based instrumentalist for 14 years, has joined our institution as one of our contemporary piano faculty since 2017. Have performed various acts across genres like blues, rock and contemporary. Having gone through rigorous Classical Paino training under well-known teachers and as a self-taught guitarist, he adapts to any musical genre and appreciates accordingly.
At Jam, he teaches Piano and also guides ukulele students across various age groups over these years now. Personally, he finds the art of teaching music as a medium to exchange and enhance skills and also makes him interact with so many people that present various perspectives and let’s him learn something new everyday.
Kalesh Chand
Woodwind
Kalesh Chand started his career as a musician in 2004, when he joined the Indian Naval Music department at the age of 17. Hailing from a musical family of classical musicians, he was first introduced and had the opportunity to study the South Indian percussive instrument Mridangam for nearly 10 years. After joining the Indian Navy he was given training to handle various Woodwind instruments such as Bb Clarinet, Saxophone etc. While serving the Naval Orchestra, he has toured across the globe and had the opportunity to interact and share the stage with musicians from various countries. Later on, the instinct of playing rhythm forced him to widen his skill as a musician and studied western drums for a period of more than 5 years.
Being a multi-talented personality, Kalesh is currently teaching the woodwind instruments at our conservatory for nearly an year. He believes and emphasis the importance of having true musicianship among students to help themselves in achieving the greatness and the benefits of being a true musician.
Venkata Shanmukharao
Drum
An engineer turned musician! Qualified from Trinity college London as a drummer, Shanmukha Rao is one of our drum faculty who is still pursuing his higher level drum studies under the guidance of our founder, has been providing his service since 2018. Chosen music as his full-time career, he has gone through rigorous training in Carnatic percussion instrument ‘Mridangam’ under the tutelage of Vid Sri Jayachandra Rao. Having hands-on experience in performing percussion instruments besides drums, he is more passionate about teaching drums to adults and children, especially from beginner to intermediate level.
As a performer, he has played drums with “ASLEEP IN A RIFLE”, an experimental rock band, for their own compositions and played percussions for “MAZTRZ”, a Bangalore based versatile band and involved with Floyd Santimano Jazz Band as a freelancer. Performed world percussions for Arjun Janya, and for the audio launch of his movie “Arjuna”. He says, living with the passion of being a musician is an ultimate feeling and the joy of teaching is an honour.
Anoob Prabhan
Drum
One of our all-time drum faculty, Anoob Prabhan is continuing his dedicated service since 2012. An ex-student of Jam, Anoob was appointed as our faculty as a recognition to his unstinted dedication and commitment. Very honest in his approach who selflessly guide the students in all his best way possible More than performance, he opt teaching as his passion and also advancing his knowledge as a tutor. Qualified from the Trinity college of London, he also spends time in widening his knowledge in the percussive area of Carnatic music.
Also, made remarks in the area of performance by being the drummer of Cochin based band ‘Jus Jam’. Anoob says, being a music faculty is a selfless dedication and its a commitment of life.
Pavan L
Guitar
One of our most dedicated guitar faculty, Pavan L has been inspiring the students by his unique way of approach with an experience of 11 years in the area of teaching. A Bangalore based musician and instrument teacher, who has found his way of life in music ’n’ nature and inspires others by being a non-competitive personality away from the commercial aspects of life. He holds the passion and guides his students without any age barrier, and finds his space as a live musician in the circuit with his fellow musicians. Qualified from the London College of Music, Pavan continues his service and remarks by making his students achieve their best.