CCGS Staff & Teachers – Cleveland Classical Guitar Society

Meet the people behind the organization!

Staff: Operation and Events

Erik Mann, Executive Director

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society is headed by Executive Director Erik Mann, who has led the organization since 2009, a role which combines his love of classical music and education. Under his leadership CCGS has created the International Series, which now presents the finest classical guitarists in the world, as well as the Education Program, in partnership with Cleveland schools. Erik has over 30 years of experience teaching students of all ages, including as a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 2004. He served for three years on the committee for review of stringed instrument applications of the Fulbright US student program. Erik’s performances on the classical guitar include The Cleveland Orchestra, Glimmerglass Opera, Erie Philharmonic, and Erie Chamber Orchestra. Erik holds degrees in music performance from Towson University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2015 he was one of 25 arts leaders nationwide chosen for the Community Arts Education Leadership Institute (CAELI) of the National Guild for Community Arts Education.

Jon Poor, Events Manager

Jon Poor joined the CCGS team as Events Manager in January of 2022. Jon grew up in Sioux City, IA and Portland, OR. He moved to Birmingham, AL in 2000 and in 2005 earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Technology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. He relocated to Cleveland, OH, in November of 2021. As a songwriter and guitarist, Jon has been a part of a variety of performing groups and has released recordings under his own name as well as with bands Feijoada and Willie and the Giant.

Since 2011 Jon has been an owner and Event Director for a music festival in Birmingham, AL, called Secret Stages which brought close to 600 artists, utilized dozens of venues, and garnered praise in publications like The Wall Street Journal, UPROXX, and Paste Magazine. For ten years Jon has been focused on refining and executing events that deliver a stellar experience for all who are involved including artists, patrons, sponsors, and volunteers. Jon is eager to bring his experience and enthusiasm to Northern Ohio and CCGS.

Staff: Education Program

Christopher McDonald, Educator, Training and Data Coordinator, Curriculum Co-Lead

Christopher McDonald received his training at Fulkerson Music Studio with Bryan Rombalski, Central Michigan University with Brad DeRoche, and most recently, the University of South Carolina with Christopher Berg, where he completed both his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. While concluding his graduate studies, Christopher completed Suzuki guitar books 1-5 trainings with MaryLou Roberts. Christopher has given solo recitals at the University of South Carolina, South Carolina State University, and the Mid-Michigan Classical Guitar Society. Christopher has also performed with the inaugural “Spark Collective,” the “USC Graduate Guitar Quartet,” the University of South Carolina’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s “MASS,” and One Voice Chorus’ production of “The Man Behind the DREAM.” As a scholar, Christopher researches the compositional trends in lute music during the transition between the Renaissance and Baroque eras. As an educator, Christopher has instructed guitar, music theory, and aural skills classes at the University of South Carolina. He has taught private guitar and music theory lessons at Carolina Music Studios and the Suzuki Academy of Columbia & USC, where he also directed the advanced guitar ensemble. In Summer 2024, Christopher was invited to lecture on lute music and coach a guitar ensemble at the Shearer Summer Institute. Christopher is excited to join the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society family as an educator in Fall 2024 and looks forward to contributing to Cleveland’s rich and vibrant music and arts community.

Max Shaffer, Educator, Student Event and Media Coordinator, Curriculum Co-Lead

Max Shaffer joins the CCGS as an educator shortly after completing his Master of Music in Guitar Performance at Florida State University, where he was a teaching assistant to renowned pedagogue Bruce Holzman. While studying at Florida State University and the University of Washington (with Michael Partington, BM), Max received multiple awards and honors that include winning prizes at the Northwest Guitar Festival Competition and the Troy University Guitar Competition. He has also been a featured performer in various guitar festivals and institutions around the United States, including the New Mexico Classical Guitar Festival, the Northwest Classical Guitar Festival, and he was featured in a recital series at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As an educator, Max has had the privilege to work with students from across the country. While working as a teaching assistant at Florida State University, Max worked with undergraduate students in lessons and coached multiple guitar ensembles, in addition to teaching the Guitar Literature course. He worked with hundreds of Florida high school students as an adjudicator and clinician for many Florida Music Education Association Solo & Ensemble Festivals. He was also a recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award at Florida State University. Max is excited to bring his wealth of experience as a student, teacher, and performer to the CCGS Education Program.

Max Greenwald, Educator

After studying under renowned pedagogue and scholar Frank Koonce at Arizona State, Max most recently served as a graduate TA at the University of Louisville under the instruction of Dr. Stephen Mattingly and Xavier Jara. Max performs a wide spectrum of repertoire including Bach, Rodrigo, Gilardino, Piazzolla, and Nin-Cumell. His passion for commissioning new music and chamber performance is realized through his membership of the Chimera Quartet. Max has performed across Arizona, California, Kentucky, and Indiana. These performances consist of both solo and chamber ensembles including the GCC Guitar Octet under Chuck Hulihan, and the state-wide Arizona Guitar Ensemble. Max toured throughout Switzerland and Italy with the Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble in 2016 performing and premiering works by European and American composers. After returning he pursued a degree and certification in Music Therapy. Upon certification Max worked full time at an in-patient acute psychiatric hospital; working with children, teens, adult, and geriatric clients treating a wide variety of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive disorders. He has also provided clinical care for veterans and patients with TBI/ABI. Max has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses for incredible musicians such as: Johannes Möller, Paul O’Dette, Xavier Jara, Bokyung Byun, Douglas Lora, Javier Contreras, Andrew Wilder, Gohar Vardanyan, Celso Machado, Massimo delle Cese, Jakob Bangsø, and Frank Wallace. Outside of the classical world Max has recorded and toured with numerous bands performing psych rock, noise, ambient, surf rock, and more.

Additional Teachers

Sam Hooper, Educator

Sam Hooper is a Guitarist, Band Leader, Singer/Songwriter and Educator, whose alluring blend of blues, rock, jazz and funk has thrilled audiences in China, Finland, Japan and around the USA. 2018 WINNERS of Northeast Ohio Blues Association’s Blues Challenge, Sam Hooper Group were Semifinalists in the 2019 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN! They’ve also performed at Tri-C JazzFest, Kent Blues Fest, Canton Blues Fest. They’ve also opened for international artists Shemekia Copeland and Walter Trout, among others. Hooper performed solo at the 2025 Brite Winter Festival as well. An alumnus of University of Miami’s School of Music and Berklee College of Music, Hooper’s original songs have been heard on TV’s “All My Children” and “The Young & the Restless.

Tom Ray, Educator & Director of CCCG Guitar Orchestras

Tom Ray received his Bachelor’s degree in Classical Guitar Performance from Baldwin Wallace University, studying under Dr. Loris Chobanian and has his Master’s degree in classical guitar at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Jason Vieaux and Colin Davin. His musical influences and teaching styles cover a broad cross-section, including shred, classical, blues, jazz, rock, finger style, and more. Tom has taught guitar, bass, ukulele, songwriting, and theory to students of all ages for more than 15 years in Cleveland at Aurora School of Music, in New York City at Encore Music Lessons and Music, Dance & Art School of Douglaston, and in New Jersey at Believe in Music Studio. While in Austin, he was hired to take over a studio at Don’t Stop Rockin’ and helped the studio expand while participating in rock and roll camps designed to give young musicians real-world experience in the field of music performance.

Gabino Flores, Educator

Gabino Flores has been teaching classical guitar for 30 years, bilingually, as he is fluent in both Spanish and English. Gabino studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and has performed in Mexico, Europe, and the U.S.. He has taught for the Harmony Hub program, part of the Mundi Project at the Sorenson Unity Center, and the Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City. His formal classical guitar education includes The Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts (1994-1996), The National Conservatory of Music of Mexico City (1996-2002), the study of classical guitar master techniques with Maestro Fernando Marina from the Cuban School of Music (2000-2002), as well as many master classes with world-renowned guitarists such as David Russell, Denis Azabagic, Ana Vidovic, John Williams, and Leo Brouwer. He placed second in The National Conservatory of Music of Mexico City guitar competition. Gabino has performed extensively in Mexico and the Salt Lake area. Before moving to Cleveland with his wife and four children, he founded the Utah Classical Guitar Orchestra and taught privately in the Salt Lake area.

Adrian Murillo, Educator

Adrian Murillo has 15+ years of experience teaching students ranging from the ages of 5 to adults in a variety of styles such as classical, rock, pop, and flamenco. He has performed as a soloist and in orchestras in the United States and Mexico with groups such as Apollo’s Fire, the San Francisco Opera, Bay Area Classical Harmonies, West Bay Opera, Opera Neo, among others. Adrian also specializes in the performance of 19th century guitar repertoire and instruments as well as flamenco guitar performance. He is currently a student at Jacobs School of Music finishing his doctoral studies in Historical Performance on lute and theorbo. He obtained his Bachelors and Masters at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on classical guitar and historical plucked instruments, having studied under David Tanenbaum, Marcin Dylla, John Dearman, Judicaël Perroy, Richard Savino, and currently with Nigel North. Adrian is excited to join Cleveland Classical Guitar Society and continue to teach the new generation of guitarists.

Damian Goggans, Teaching Assistant

Damian Goggans started playing guitar in 2016 at Citizens Leadership Academy in an after school guitar club taught by Brian Gaudino, the former Director of Education for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society (CCGS). Since then he has accomplished many wonderful things including: being on national television and radio, performing his own composition in Severance Hall and studying with virtuosic guitarists such as Adam Holzman (Brevard) and Mathew Cochran (Interlochen). Damian was an inaugural member, and now a recent graduate, of the Musical Pathway Fellowship where he studied with Erik Mann, the Executive Director of CCGS. He is one of fourteen students from seven countries accepted into the inaugural Guitar Foundation of America Mentorship Program, where he has been studying with American guitarist Christopher Mallett and French guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre. In May of 2020 he graduated from the Cleveland School of the Arts (CSA) high school where he majored in Orchestra under the direction of Dianna Richardson. Currently, Damian is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical Guitar Performance at Oberlin Conservatory with Stephen Aron. Damian believes that his role as an African American Classical Guitarist is to help diversify the field of classical music. He wants to help promote the idea of musical equality and to help make classical music more accessible to everyone no matter what their race, nationality, or religion is. While this is a huge task, he intends to start by performing compositions from more people of color and bringing classical guitar to those of us who wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to take part in the creation of our musical language. He intends to use his music and his new classical guitar, a Glenn Canin that was purchased by Greg Maloney of Gifted Guitars, as a weapon against injustice. All Damian’s performances and accomplishments are dedicated to his brother, and guardian angel, D’King Goggans who passed away in August of 2020.