Jeff Christmas

Teaches: Voice, Guitar, Songwriting/Composition

Teaching Philosophy: No genre has a monopoly on good, healthy singing and music making.

Greatest Music Influences: Stevie Wonder, Kate Wolf, The Beatles, Faure, The Kingston Trio, Palestrina, Motley Crue, everybody.

When I’m not making music: I’m spending time with my family, doing word games, trying to read more and be outside.

Current Music Projects: I play with two trios: Yard Sauce (with fellow 317 Mainers Chris Moore and Callie Brennan) and another with Sorcha Cribben-Merrill and Chris Robley in addition to playing, recording, and releasing music as a solo artist.

Favorite place in Maine: Back Cove in Portland at High Tide and the Eastern Prom.

To learn more: To learn more: www.jeffchristmasmusic.com 

https://www.instagram.com/yardsaucemusic/

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/jeff-christmas/209156608 

Jeff Christmas began playing music when he was 6 years old. Since then he has made his way from pop guitar to musical theater to jazz bands to opera to Americana and just about everything in between. Jeff specializes in vocal instruction with experience in a wide variety of genres. He is equally at home on the operatic stage and in a smoky bar. Pedagogically, Jeff believes that no genre has a monopoly on good, healthy, artistic singing and works to nurture that in all of his students. He also is addicted to that connected feeling we can find when playing music together in a room and works to find and cultivate that feeling with students and collaborators. 

Jeff was raised in Burlington, North Carolina and has lived in California, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and South Carolina before moving to Portland in 2015. He got his undergraduate degree in Music Industry Studies (with a minor in Spanish) at Appalachian State University and then went on to get a Masters of Music from the Boston Conservatory. He loves writing songs, playing music with other people, being with his family, hiking, biking, and eating amazing vegetarian foods.