Our Team
Cindy Spell
Co-Founder
Cindy Spell grew up in the mountains of North Carolina and spent her college years near the coast. Cindy holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from East Carolina University, where she studied with Dr. Elliot Frank.
While living in Utah from 2013-2021, Cindy was instructor and guitar coordinator at Utah Valley University and the Gifted Music School, and served as president of the nonprofit organization, Utah Classical Guitar. She once had the amazing and rewarding experience of joining the Salt Lake Symphony for an arrangement of Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5. Cindy has served as guitar instructor at several schools in North Carolina, including Barton College, Pitt Community College, Coastal Carolina Community College, Mitchell Community College, the Music Academy of Eastern Carolina, and the Community Music School at University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
She has appeared as guest soloist with the Wilson Symphony Orchestra, PCC Symphony Orchestra, and the Symphony of Hope. Cindy also worked with the East Carolina University Summer Guitar Festival, where she was Administrative Director from 2003 to 2024. As a Creative Activation Partner with the City of Greensboro, she regularly participated in First Friday events as a performer and educator. Cindy has been fortunate to continue her own training with William Kossler, co-author of the Suzuki Guitar Method. Motivated by her passion for lifelong learning, Cindy continues to seek opportunities to bring people of all ages and experiences together through music.
Outside of the studio, she can be found walking in the woods, planning art and craft projects, and spending time with family, friends, and cats.
Kate Oliphant
Co-Founder
Born in Agana, Guam but a native of Northern Virginia, Kate Oliphant’s musical journey started at the age of three when she began insistently begging for a drum set. Her mother decided to preserve the family's sanity with a compromise: one year of piano lessons to earn a drum set. This sparked a lifelong relationship with music for Kate.
After learning to play piano and drums, her guitar career started at the age of 12 when she began learning under the tutelage of Joseph Ikner. Kate quickly fell in love with the instrument, continuing her studies through high school with Sam Wong and into college with Jason Pickard. In 2014, Kate graduated with a double major in History and Music Performance from Gardner-Webb University where she was voted the Most Outstanding Female Graduate by her professors. Kate graduated from East Carolina University in 2016 with her Masters in Music Performance with the esteemed Dr. Elliot Frank. While at ECU, she was the Humanities Graduate Oral Winner of the Research and Creative Achievement Week.
Kate has taught at various North Carolina community colleges and served as the Assistant Director for the ECU Summer Guitar Workshop. She enjoys working with large guitar ensembles and has served as a guest conductor for the ECU Guitar Ensemble, ECU Summer Guitar Workshop, Queens University of Charlotte Guitar Symposium, and Loudoun County Public Schools. In addition, she has worked as a guest clinician and adjudicator for middle and high school guitar programs in Fairfax County and Loudoun County, Virginia.
Although she began teaching private music lessons in 2006, Kate transitioned to running her studio full time in 2022 through the creation of Happy Tails Music, LLC. Since then, Kate has taught countless lessons for students of all ages in classical guitar, acoustic/electric guitar, piano, electric bass, drums, ukulele and music theory. She was honored and humbled to see Happy Tails Music, LLC voted Platinum in the Best Music Lessons category of CommunityVotes Greenville 2024.
Currently, she resides in Greenville, North Carolina with her husband and three perfect dogs.