Connor Hawthorne began singing at age 11 when he joined his middle school choir. Connor immediately fell in love with singing and jumped in headfirst – Making the Alabama All-State Choir in 7th grade, and continuing to participate in the ensemble for the next 6 years until he graduated high school. At the encouragement of his middle school choir director (and growing up in a family of guitar players), he then began his journey of learning to play guitar and piano. Throughout junior high and high school, Connor became involved with anything he could at Auburn, including: Show choir, musicals, jazz band, and marching band! Over the past two years, Connor has been studying music and music composition at Chapman University in California. He had some incredible opportunities at Chapman, among which were music directing two musicals, directing an all-men’s a capella group, and performing in choirs and jazz ensembles. He is thrilled to be teaching at Spicer’s after working with their Rock Camps for several summers. Connor believes in a holistic but individual based approach to teaching – Every student has their own strengths that need to be played to. Connor looks forward to passing along his knowledge and skills, and engaging students with all genres and types of music!

Brennen Reece has been playing guitar for nearly 40 years, and studied with legendary Philadelphia jazz guitarist Steve Giordano, as well as Pat Martino, Bruce Forman, and Tim Lerch. In addition to jazz, he has a deep love for traditional American music such as delta blues, ragtime, country, and rockabilly. His influences include a diverse range of guitarists such as Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Page, Jerry Reed, and Mississippi John Hurt. In addition to teaching fundamentals and effective practice techniques, Brennen focuses on developing the student’s creative self-expression through a no-nonsense approach to theory, improvisation, composition, and ear-training. Brennen performs with his wife Britt in The Secret Sounds, a duo whose repertoire includes mid century jazz, classic blues, soul, and old-school country!

Tom received his first instrument at age four - a ukulele, which he still has! At age seven he got a set of Ricky Ricardo drums, and by ten he played trumpet in the school band. When he entered high school, Tom switched to valve trombone, baritone, and euphonium. While in college, he was exposed to harmonica and bought all the records he could find with a harmonica in the production. Since harmonicas are in a specific key, Tom learned guitar to tell what chords were in each song so he’d know what harmonica was needed to play along! Tom loves all styles of music and has played in folk, country, bluegrass, jazz, and contemporary music groups - His latest being a Jazz grass band for 30+ years. Besides the harmonica, Tom's main instruments are mandolin, ukulele, upright bass, autoharp, and the Appalachian lap dulcimer. He loves inspiring students to learn their favorite songs while emphasizing technique, theory, and sound fundamentals.