Meet Our Teachers

Biography

Ian Westerbeck is a guitarist and teacher based out of Huntington Beach, California.

He grew up around blues guitar legend Walter Trout (John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat, John Mayall), took lessons in his youth with Dave Nassie (Kip Moore, Suicidal Tendencies), has studied jazz improvisation with greats such as John Hart (Maria Schneider), John Daversa (3x Grammy-winning artist) and Brian Lynch (Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, 2x Grammy-winning artist), and played in ensembles led by innovators such as Melissa Aldana and John Yarling (Mike Stern, Dave Liebman), to name a few. He has also studied rhythmic independence with Dafnis Prieto (winner of the MacCarthur Fellowship "Genius" grant). He has studied composition, arranging and improvisation with renowned “Real Book” composer Richard Niles (Paul McCartney, Pat Metheny, Ray Charles). His musical influences include modern guitarists such as Ben Eunson, as well as jazz greats such as Red Garland.

Ian graduated from the University of Miami in the spring of 2023, where he received the Presidential Scholarship in 2019 for a Bachelor’s of Music in Jazz Guitar. He was also the inaugural recipient of the Recording Academy’s Dan Warner Music Scholarship in 2022 for excellence in guitar performance. He has performed in various venues throughout Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and in the California Bay Area.

Ian is fluent in Spanish, and believes that music teachers can learn a lot about optimal music instruction practices by studying second language acquisition.