Anthony Plant – Acoustic Guitar
Instructor at iThinkSmart
Anthony Plant has been playing in the rich music scene of Dallas/Ft Worth since his early teens. His guitar playing has given him the opportunity to play with many legends, such as Michael W Smith, Antonio Sanchez (of Pat Metheny Group), Randy Brecker, Ronnie Laws, the Temptations, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Snarky Puppy to name a few. He studied guitar on scholarship at the University of North Texas with Fred Hamilton and Joe Lee, and in Dallas, TX with the masterful Jason Bucklin. Equally at home playing Brazilian bossa nova on classical nylon guitar, playing bebop lines in a straight-ahead acoustic jazz setting on his archtop, or playing soaring leads on electric guitar, he is in high demand in the Dallas/Ft Worth studio scene and has recorded on well over 100 albums. His own solo album, The Colour out of Space, was released in 2012 with his original compositions and arrangements. He keeps a busy schedule playing locally in DFW, touring nationally with the Dallas String Quartet, recording in studio sessions, teaching a select group of students, and is the Musical Director at St John Catholic Church. When he doesn’t have a guitar in his hands, you might find him playing soccer or walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
Rodrigo Garcia – Piano
Instructor at iThinkSmart
Rodrigo Garcia is a pianist with more than 30 years of experience as a freelance musician and 20 years of experience as a piano teacher. He received his formal musical education with emphasis in classical piano at the Conservatory Antonio Maria Valencia in Cali-Colombia, his native city, under the tutelage of teacher Marjorie Tanaka. Mr. Garcia grew up in a musical household where both his parents were renowned folk musicians who used to tour all over Colombia and would often appear in the leading Colombian musical TV shows of the moment. With his dad a prolific composer of Colombian folk songs and a guitar player, and his mom an accomplished singer, Mr. Garcia acquired a passion for the popular styles of music from an early age, and, is now a specialist in the styles of jazz, rock, pop, ballad, folklore, fusion and electroacoustic music. To further his studies, in 1997 Mr. Garcia went to The Bruckner Conservatorium of Jazz in Linz Austria for an intensive year of studies in Piano jazz and Piano Ensemble where he studied under the guidance of Dean Pechenko.
Mr. Garcia’s professional highlights include being faculty at the INCCA University of Colombia from 2005 to 2016, where he served as professor of undergraduate piano students teaching classical and jazz piano, and also served as collaborative faculty. He also taught at private music schools such as Fernando Sor School of Music, the Youth Orchestra of Colombia program in Bogota, where he taught students from pre-K to high school age, and the Conservatory Antonio Maria Valencia in Cali Colombia, from the years of 2000 to 2005, where he also served as piano and collaborative faculty.
As a freelance pianist and composer, he has toured through the major cities of Colombia and South America with renowned groups and companies such as Azul Trabuco, a group with jazz, salsa, and fusion flares, Tribu Perdida, an integrated company of artists, where Rodrigo served as pianist and composer of its film, circus, and dance music, and Rapsoda, as pianist of famous Latin American singers such as Sabú, Elio Roca, Manolo Galván, Nicola Divari, Tormenta, Los Ángeles Negros, Los Pasteles Verdes, Los Terrícolas, Los Demonios, Tania, Claudia de Colombia, among others.
Mr. Garcia also worked as the accompanist for the Santiago De Cali City Ballet from the years of 2000-2003, and 2006. As a composer, his music has been featured in films such as Colombian film “Entre Cuartos” by Luis Merino in 2001, and Colombian film Riverside by Harold Trompetero in 2009, he has also composed jingles for Colombian TV commercials for local channels.
International performances include playing with Colombian singer Beatriz Arellano at Colombia’s embassy in South Africa in 2004, and as keyboardist of Azul Trabuco at the 2019 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin TX.
Mr. Garcia enjoys teaching students of all ages and his teaching philosophy focuses on building upon the strengths of students to continue unlocking their limitless potential. He moved to Coppell TX in the summer of 2018 and has been faculty at Coppell Conservatory in Coppell TX and Center for Musical minds in Frisco TX since the summer of 2019.
