Meet Our Musical Directors!
-
Bob Elliott
Founder and Owner of Music Makers
-
Evan Macaluso
Music Programs Director, Workshop Music Director
-
Sharon Heller
MM Workshop Musical Director
-
Kate Victor
MM Workshop Musical Director
-
Terry Foley
MM Workshop Musical Director
-
Deidre Struck
MM Workshop Musical Director
-
Alex Goldberg
MM Workshop Musical Director
Bob Elliott
Founder and Owner of Music Makers
Bob Elliott is the founder and President of Music Makers NY. Bob is an accomplished guitar player and vocalist. He created the Music Makers Method of ensemble instruction which has helped thousands of recreational musicians experience the love and joy of playing with others. Bob also developed a system whereby anyone with basic chord knowledge can easily play songs with others. He has produced Performance Shows debuting the talents of thousands of Music Makers students at The Bitter End for the last 20 years. Music Makes is home to the largest and most diverse music community in New York City, with students ranging in age from 8 to 80.
Bob's love of music was the driving force in creating a music complex where kids and adults could not only take lessons but learn how to play with others in a band setting. He was drawn to the enthusiasm of non-professional musicians of all skill levels. “Since 1997 I’ve lost count as to how many musicians I’ve taken to the stage with our live shows.”
Bob is also the inventor of GuitarDocks, a small portable guitar stand exclusively distributed by D’Addario.
Evan Macaluso
Music Programs Director
and Workshop Music Director
Evan Macaluso is a graduate of The New School's School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and is Music Maker's new Music Programs Director. He has played violin since the age of 4, but majored in Jazz Guitar, while picking up any other string instruments he could along the way. His musical interests are deeply varied, and range from pop to experimental electronic to jazz fusion. These myriad influences are reflected in his catalogue of composition work for ensembles of every size--from string quartet to sixteen-piece big band.
Evan has worked as a Substitute Music Instructor at Larchmont Music Academy, and is also the lead guitarist and musical director of Summer Fling, a seven-member funk-rock band based in Westchester, NY, and NYC.
Sharon Heller
MM Workshop Musical Director
Sharon is a passionate music teacher with extensive knowledge of the music industry in relation to performance, appreciation, and recording. Well versed in songwriting, vocal performance, and vocal training, Sharon is comfortable exploring multiple musical styles including classical, pop and commercial music. "I am motivated to help students learn the value and opportunities that come from singing and expressing one’s self while realizing the need for patience and positivity."
Sharon teaches group and Individual lessons providing vocal technique, music theory and composition as well as piano and saxophone. She graduated from SUNY Binghamton with a Liberal Arts degree and received her Masters in Performance and Education from Hunter College.
Kate Victor
MM Workshop Musical Director
Kate Victor is a Brooklyn-based singer and multi-instrumentalist. She earned her bachelor’s degree in jazz performance and music education at William Paterson University. Over the past decade, she has performed as a singer, cellist, keyboardist, guitarist, and bassist in many Brooklyn-based acts, more recently with Emily Jeanne Brown, Ashni, Caroline Kuhn, Tucci Swing, and Pink Flamingo Rhythm Revue. Kate also has more than a decade of experience as an educator and band coach, working at several studios such as Shamrock School of Music, Performers Theatre Workshop, and Replay Music Studios. Kate writes and performs her own original music and has plans to release an EP in the coming year.
Terry Foley
MM Workshop Musical Director
Terry Foley is a musician and composer from New York City, where he studies Music and Computer Science at Columbia University. As a musical theater writer, his shows include Redacted, XMAS!18, and Explaining Elizabeth. He has also Music Directed, arranged music for orchestras, and performed as a pit musician for numerous productions. Having played for more than 20 years, he performs professionally on piano, guitar, bass, drums, and saxophone. He also works as a freelance composer for film, TV, video games, dance, and podcasts.
Deidre Struck
MM Workshop Musical Director
Deidre Rodman Struck started her NYC career by moving from Idaho in 1997 to play keyboards in the Big Apple Circus.
Since then, she has Music Directed an all-female Orthodox Jewish production of Wicked (with Stephen Schwartz’s blessing), toured with all-girl band The Lascivious Biddies, co-produced and composed music for two musicals performed in a backyard, released three jazz piano albums on the Sunnyside label, and helped dozens of mothers in prisons, shelters, and hospitals write lullabies for their babies through Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project. Elvis Costello called her “a wonderful pianist and a delicate composer with a truly unique voice”.
Deidre recently finished writing her first musical, “Fun Spot”, about her coming-of-age in Idaho, involving a Mormon faith crisis while working at a seedy carnival.
Her latest album, released in 2024, “The Year of Lost and Found”, is a song-cycle co-written with bassist Byron Isaacs (The Lumineers) based on the 2020 pandemic.
Alex Goldberg
MM Workshop Musical Director
Alex Goldberg is a drummer, composer and producer, originally from New York’s Capital Region. Alex studied percussion and composition at Vassar College, where he received a degree in Psychology. Since graduating, Alex has performed across the United States and Europe with groups ranging from singer-songwriters to avant-garde jazz, and writes and records his own music. Alex brings this variety of experience to his teaching, and encourages his students to learn many different styles of music, in addition to their favorite songs. Alex has been teaching drums at Replay since 2013, and now also leads the Recording Workshop and Recording Camps.