Our Instructor’s Bios

Katy Crawford has been teaching guitar lessons for 10 years. She began playing guitar and banjo while at Scripps College.

Katy was one of the founding members of the female folk group Sugar Mountain Mama Serenade. She helped start and is the artistic director of The Claremont Ukulele Club. She currently plays bass with the indie-pop band Goldenboy. Recently, she has been recording her own songs with husband/drummer Jon Crawford.

Katy Crawford teaches beginning and intermediate ukulele classes at The Folk Music Center on Wednesday nights. Her beginning class includes holding the instrument correctly, proper technique, basic chords and strums and lots of songs.

Katy’s intermediate class is designed around repertoire. Some sessions focus on a theme and other sessions revolve around the songs that students bring to class. Some theory and history are included throughout each of the 4-week sessions.

Private instruction in ukulele, banjo and beginning guitar with Katy is available at The Folk Music Center on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Jerry O’Sullivan has been playing in bands since he was 13 and has been a professional musician since the age of 21 when he wrote and performed the hit song Pomona Queen. He currently plays guitar and is the lead vocalist for the band CVS, (Claremont Voodoo Society.)

Jerry has been teaching ukulele since 2005 when he joined the Folk Music Center. He and Ellen Chase co-teach several ukulele workshops:

Introduction to the Ukulele: a workshop where beginners learn to hold, strum and tune their uke as well as basic chords and lots of easy songs.

Blues Ukulele: a lesson in basic 12 bar blues strums and rhythms, some intros, endings and riffs, and several songs. Knowledge of basic chords is helpful for this workshop.