Kathleen

Certified Tutor

Hello! I am Kathleen Rivera and I'm so excited and honored to be teaching music with Varsity Tutors.

My background: I was born in Brooklyn and started playing guitar and piano from a very early age. Now I am a composer, performer with a B.A. in music from CUNY Hunter College. While there I studied the electric guitar, as well as jazz and classical history and theory, piano performance, music composition, orchestration, and vocal performance. I've mentored student bands and taught electric guitar and bass to children aged 9-15 at the very inclusive and nurturing atmosphere of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. In addition, I have also been on several east coast tours in the past two years with well-received and reviewed rock bands. The past three years, I have also been working as a research associate with the Global Jukebox Project, a free archive of streaming world folk music.

My view on music: The act of picking up any instrument can change a person's life for the better. Sure, musical performance takes time, effort and patience to gain technical skill... but there can be immediate positive yields. I've seen it so many times before that plugging into an amp and learning four chords can boost a child's or teen's confidence and communication skills in literally no time. It's technical but also deeply emotional, expressive and intuitive.

Current Associated Acts:
Amor Prohibido: Latin-Punk-Meets-Selena
Doctor: Word-Rock-From-Brooklyn
Hegemonics: Classic-Indie-Rock-With-Shredded-Guitar

Links:
Amor Prohibido in the Village Voice-
https://www.villagevoice.com/2015/12/15/baila-esta-mosh-amor-prohibido-put-a-punk-spin-on-selena/

The Hegemonics EP-
https://thehegemonics.bandcamp.com/album/deusdaemoneum

Doctor featured on Radio Free Brooklyn-
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/thebrooklynconversation/episodes/2018-02-19T08_08_07-08_00

Piano Composition Entitled "Strange Approximations"-
https://youtu.be/6duXOsvKhz8

The Global Jukebox Project- https://theglobaljukebox.org/