create the music that inspires you
Terri Vlist
Student Experience Manager
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Tony Lefaive
Bass/Guitar Instructor
Mack Grout
Founder
Head Piano Instructor
Born in 1985 in Seattle Washington, USA, Mack started playing piano at the age of three. Studying classical piano seriously until age fourteen, he then became interested in jazz and blues music and started studying with Larry Key. Upon graduating from South Kitsap High School in 2004 Mack won the national Louis Armstrong award, and obtained scholarships to multiple schools including Berklee College of Music and Cornish College of the Arts. At Cornish he studied jazz piano performance and composition under his mentors Dave Peck, Denney Goodhew, Randy Halberstadt, Chuck Deardorf and Jim Knapp, graduating magna cum laude in 2008.
Since then, Mack has worked full time as a jazz composer, soloist and band leader, performed nationally and internationally in styles from jazz to pop and everything in between, and also worked abroad for several years as a musical director for international jazz clubs throughout Asia. As an instructor, Mack has taught at colleges in the pacific northwest and mentored a full studio of serious students, over a dozen of which have gone on to continue their music study at high level conservatories around the world. Mack continues to perform as a soloist and sideman in original projects, and in 2019 founded Seattle Jazz Academy, a school for serious pianists interested in jazz and improvisation.
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Monica Parshotam
Director of Programs and Retention
Piano / Voice Instructor
Monica Parshotam is a performer, songwriter, vocalist, and pianist from Seattle, WA. She began studying music at age five with classical and contemporary piano before discovering passions for composition, songwriting, vocal performance, and theater. Monica has performed as a solo artist and in numerous bands for over ten years, playing a vast range of genres from jazz, soul, and R&B to folk, rock, and musical theater. She is currently a band leader, keyboardist, and lead vocalist for collaborative seven piece neo-soul band, Hard Maybe, performing and touring regularly across the west coast.
Monica graduated from Western Washington University with focuses in music, theater, audio technology, and education & social justice. She has coached at multiple youth arts programs such as Bellingham Girls Rock Camp, Bellingham Children’s Theater, and LaVenture Middle School’s Migrant Leaders Club, encouraging performance and music as tools for self-empowerment. Through teaching Monica hopes to instill a sense of curiosity and perseverance in her students while exploring musical possibilities, concepts, and skill building. She believes in a holistic approach to learning music, and seeks to establish within each of her students a strong musical intuition, grounded understanding of music theory, and cognitive flexibility when it comes to playing jazz.
Jason Parker
Director of Enrollment and Outreach
Brass Instructor
Jason Parker is a Seattle-based jazz trumpet player, educator, and writer, renowned for his leadership of the Jason Parker Quartet (JPQ). Praised by Earshot Jazz as “the next generation of Seattle jazz,” the JPQ has released five critically acclaimed albums and performed extensively up and down the West Coast.
Parker’s musical journey began in his youth, inspired by a Dizzy Gillespie concert at his elementary school. After a decade-long career in radio (ending with a stint as Program Director of Seattle’s legendary 103.7FM The Mountain), he returned to his musical roots in 1995, forming the JPQ and establishing himself as a prominent figure in Seattle’s jazz scene.
Beyond leading the JPQ, Parker plays in and collaborates with various groups, including Grace Love, improv-funk ensemble Water Babies and the Nate Omdal Nonet. He has performed with artists such as Tom Scott, Crooked Fingers, and Sarah Shannon, and has shared stages with acts like Elvis Costello and The Presidents of the United States of America.
Parker has taught through many different organizations, including the YMCA, Right Brain Center for the Arts, ArtsCoprs, EMP/MoPOP, Jazz Night School, and until joining SJA was the Director of Jazz Ensembles and Fine Arts Department Chair at University Prep.
Residing in North Seattle with his wife and two daughters, Parker is passionate about sharing his love for music and celebrating life's special moments through performance.
Terri Torseth-Vlist
Student Experience Manager
Terri Torseth-Vlist is a life-long resident of the Pacific Northwest, born on the Kitsap Peninsula in Bremerton, WA and hails from Port Orchard, WA now for over 30 years.
After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington State University, she began her career in international shipping where she honed her management and administrative skills. After a brief hiatus to raise her children, she started a new path as an independent contractor in medical transcription. This new path led her back to the administrative field where her organizational and time management skills proved indispensable. She is a skilled professional with a passion for getting things done! Terri has a natural talent for organization and pays incredible attention to details, ensuring that everything runs like clockwork.
Away from the office, Terri enjoys time with her family, reading a good book, and is an avid sports fan. Her love languages are listening with a focused ear and cooking for her friends and family.
Andrew Friedrich
Creative Education Manager
Head Guitar Instructor
Born and raised just north of Boston, Massachusetts, Andrew Friedrich began performing weekly at church at the age of fourteen. Determined to develop his sound and vocabulary as an improviser, Andrew studied first at Berklee College of music under the guidance of Jon Damian and John Babaion. From Boston, he moved to Austin, Texas to finish his undergraduate degree in music at the University of Texas where he studied with guitarists Joseph Williams, Mitch Watkins and Bruce Saunders. While in Austin, he taught at Temple College and St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. After seven years of performing multiple shows a week in the Austin music scene, Andrew moved to Northern Colorado and began a guitar program at Colorado Academy. During this time, he also composed and released “Human Resource”, his first album as a leader with bassist Richard Mikel and drummer Daniel Dufour. Currently, Andrew is finishing his master’s degree in Jazz/Improvised Music studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also serves as a teaching assistant in the jazz Appreciation and American popular song courses.
Andrew’s teaching style is dynamic and empathic. He stresses the importance of musicianship skills - reading, ear training, theory, technique and rhythm, while also helping students cultivate their own voice through composition and improvisation. Through working with a diverse group of students, Andrew believes that all people are capable of being lifelong guitarists and musicians and knows that developing a long-term rapport with a teacher is critical to that goal.
Bass / Guitar Instructor
Tony lefaive
As someone who grew and developed as an artist in Seattle, Tony regularly participates in the area’s music scene. His creative upbringing began early, and at the age of ten his parents gave him a guitar and with it he taught himself to improvise and write songs. Around the age of sixteen Tony saw an opportunity after the bassist in his high school jazz ensemble quit. Every day before rehearsal he would step up to the upright bass and teach himself to play. Eventually he was asked to officially fill the role of a bass player, a request which set in motion his career as a professional.
In 2016 Tony graduated from Roosevelt High School and humbly received the Waldo King Inspirational Award as a result of his efforts to fill a job that no one else stepped up to do. He went on to study Jazz and Improvised music at the University of Washington with scholarships from the Brechemin Foundation and more. In 2020 he finished his undergraduate education and went on to complete his Masters in 2022 while also working as a Teacher Assistant. At this time he continued to perform and teach music of all genres in the greater Seattle area, solidifying his presence on the scene as a diversely experienced working professional.
Tony’s approach to art has always been to encourage himself and his peers to find their own voice and niche and use it as an escape and form of creative expression. In doing so he hopes to search out roles that need to be filled and do so with integrity and purpose.