Guitar, Bass, Piano
A New York native who now resides in Richmond, Olivier Charlas, has spent years honing his skills in many of NYC's most renown clubs including CBGB's, the Continental, and The Knitting Factory, and has toured all over the United States and internationally playing his own music with various groups.
Having grown up in a musical household, Olivier began studying the piano at age 5, and at the age of 13 he decided to pursue an interest in the guitar. The next several years went by in a flurry of chords and scales, rock bands and jazz ensembles, and Olivier graduated high school with the music performance award. He began teaching directly out of high school, and kept teaching the guitar while studying for his Bachelor's degree at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music.
A solid foundation in both music performance and theory allows Olivier, who has been teaching since 2002, to cover a wide range of styles and focus on individual students' interests. Jazz, Blues, Pop, Rock, Punk or Hip Hop - the ability to take almost any piece of music, dissect it, and pull out of it a worthwhile lesson is partly what distinguishes Olivier's abilities as a teacher, as well as the capacity to instill a passion for playing music in his students. His compositional background (both as a guitarist and lyricist) also allows for forays into writing, and many of his students have gone on to become accomplished musicians and songwriters.