Debbie Gold Flutist from Oakland, CA

Debbie is a flutist, composer, and music educator in the Bay Area. She grew up in Metuchen, New Jersey and began singing and playing flute at the age of 9. While in high school, she played frequently with orchestras, wind ensembles, and local choral groups. She began composing at the age of 11 and went on to study composition at the University of Southern California with Frank Ticheli, Morten Lauridsen, Donald Crockett, and Stephen Hartke. As a flutist, Debbie is classically trained, but she has enjoys playing many genres, including Jazz, Contemporary, Rock, Funk, and Klezmer. Most recently, Deborah has been exploring the ways in which music can be used as a vehicle for social change. At USC, she was involved with USC Thornton Outreach and Remedy Through Music (Rthm), a student-run organization that produces musical performances at hospitals, convalescent homes, and other health sites around Los Angeles. After graduating from USC, she went on to pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) from the Longy School of Bard College with an emphasis on the El Sistema model of music education. El Sistema is a global movement in music education founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Jose Antonio Abreu that provides intensive, ensemble-based instrumental education for hundreds of thousands of the world's neediest students. Debbie currently teaches flute, clarinet, trumpet, and trombone at an El Sistema-inspired program located in Sonoma.