From advising our youth section leaders, to working out difficult passages, and so much more, our coaches are invaluable to the growth of AAMSD. 

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In addition to working with the orchestra, our coaches offer private lessons for:

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• violin          

• viola

• cello

• bass

• flute

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All levels, beginning to advanced, are offered.

Contact Mary Gerard for more info.

• oboe

• clarinet

• bassoon

• brass

• class percussion

Eric Hagen

Eric takes 7th grade beginners and transforms them into 8th grade virtuosos year after year. By the time they've graduated from middle school, they have performed and competed in multiple concerts and competitions throughout Southern California.

Many of his students have gone on to professional careers after continuing their education at such renowned institutions as Berkley School of Music in Massachusetts, UC San Luis Obispo, Long Beach State, UC Berkley, and San Diego State University.

Ron Fox

Ron is a native San Diegan who studied oboe and English horn with Paul Popejoy – 1st SDSO, Carlos Mullenix (Juilliard), and Bert Gassman – 1st LA Phil.  He received a BA degree from the University of California with a double major in music and chemistry, and has pursued a dual career in both science and music.

He has held positions of principal oboe with SDSO, SD Opera, La Jolla and San Diego Chamber Orchestras, S.D. and Calif Ballet, S.D. Comic Opera, La Jolla Civic Orchestra, Classics for Kids, Starlight Musical Theater, Moonlight Theater – Vista, and Orchestra de Baja – Tijuana.  He was featured in Mozart Synphonie Concertante, Haydn Synphonie Concertante, and Bach Brandenburgs on several occasions.  He continues in retirement playing with several community orchestras and a quintet.

He has been a featured soloist, which included a premier performance of the Concerto for Oboe & English Horn and Orchestra by R.W. Jones; the J. S. Bach Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin; Concerto Da Camera for Flute and English Horn by Honegger; the Concerto in A Major for Oboe D’Amore, Strings and Harpsichord by G. P. Telemann; and, Concerto in E Major for flute, oboe d’amore, and viola d’amore by G. P. Telemann.

He teaches oboe and English horn privately and holds clinics on instrument adjustment and maintenance, reed making, history of the double reed family, orchestral performance, tuning skills, musicianship, and career guidance.

He has applied his chemistry toward treating, reacting and thus modifying the cellulose of cane in order to improve reed life.  And finally, he is a perennial student of musical acoustics of woodwind instruments and has constructed an oboe of mathematical design.

Kiko Cornejo Jr.

Kiko Cornejo is native San Diegan and attended Saint Augustine High School through his junior year. In his senior year Kiko attended Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA), now Idyllwild Arts, as a member of the International Chamber Orchestra, in which he played Tympani. After graduating high school from ISOMATA Kiko attended California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) where he continued his music education with an emphasis in multi-focus percussion and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1998. 

Between 1996 and 2006 Kiko was a faculty member for Community Arts Partnership (CAP) at Plaza de la Raza in Los Angeles and Amelia Earhart High School in North Hollywood, CA. Between 2000-2004 Kiko also taught for Los Angeles Center for Education Research (LACER). Kiko taught recording arts at Gabrielino High School, San Gabriel, CA between 2004 and 2006.

Kiko toured extensively with world music group Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca and East Los Angeles based band, Quetzal.