Woodwinds (Youth Only)

CMSD Group Music Instruction

CMSD welcomes students our youth students ages 9-17 to study woodwind instruments in a group setting.

Our classes are structured to welcome complete beginners, intermediate players, and advanced students through a flexible and sequential curriculum that allows students to explore music that is meaningful to them!

Registration

Meet our Woodwinds Faculty

Steve Wood

Saxophonist/flutist Steve Wood has been performing in the Detroit area for more than four decades and is considered one of the region’s leading players and teachers. After studying with Marvin “Doc” Holladay at Oakland University and Marcus Belgrave in the Jazz Development Workshop, Steve began performing and recording with Detroit’s top jazz artists including Paul Keller, Johnny Trudell, and Ed Nuccilli. He has released two CDs of his own, Unanswerable Questions(Alembic Records) and Deep Woods(Corridor Records) and toured Europe twice with the Paul Keller Orchestra. In 1990 he won the Hennessy Cognac Jazz Search and in 1991 and 1992 was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship to study with George Coleman in New York City. He is currently teaching at Cranbrook Schools and Michigan State University Community Music School in Detroit.

Kasan Belgrave

Multi-woodwind-instrumentalist and Detroit native Kasan Belgrave holds a unique stance as one of the young torchbearers of the next generation of jazz. Belgrave takes pride in his position within Detroit’s rich pedigree of musical mentorship, as he strives to continue passing down the knowledge and exposure of jazz music to the youth, just like his father, late trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. Kasan is a recent graduate of University of Michigan and is finishing a graduate degree under the direction of Rodney Whitaker at Michigan State University. Belgrave has shared the stage with many greats such as Barry Harris, Benny Green, Rodney Whitaker, Theo Crocker, Robert Hurst, Karriem Riggins, DeeDee Bridgewater, and recently toured with Jazz @ Lincoln Center w/ Wynton Marsalis.

James Russell

James Russell is a jazz flute player from Detroit, Michigan who has studied flute for 15+ plus years. He graduated from The Detroit School of Fine and Performing Arts in 2012 and The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for jazz performance in 2016. He is the leader of his group called The James Russell Project and performs throughout the city in different venues including Baker's Keyboard Lounge and Cliff Bells. As well as performing, he has tutored students of varying skills since 2014 and continues to hold tutoring sessions to this day.