Educator Of The Month: George Evans

Music echoes through the halls of Bach to Rock in Severna Park. Some students come hoping to learn a favorite song. Others are simply looking for something new. To director George Evans, they’re all beginning the same journey, one that often ends up teaching far more than music.

His own path to that lesson wasn’t a straight one.

Evans picked up the drums at 14 before realizing a guitar was more practical in a college dorm room. After the switch, a classical guitar course introduced him to music theory and changed the way he thought about music entirely.

Although music remained a lifelong passion, he spent more than 20 years working in information technology before returning to it full-time. These days, he can often be found performing at local venues, including Severna Park Taphouse, while staying closely connected to the area’s music scene. When Bach to Rock opened in Severna Park, the opportunity to teach felt like a natural next step, and he eventually became the school’s director.

“It literally is living a dream,” Evans said.

The years he spent performing continue to shape the way he teaches today. Experience taught him that mistakes are inevitable, but they are also some of the best teachers. It’s something he tries to pass along to students as they develop confidence in themselves as musicians.

Children often arrive with a favorite song already in mind. Lately, Evans said, that usually means Taylor Swift. Adult beginners, meanwhile, are often more interested in understanding the theory behind the music they’ve listened to for years. No matter what brings them through the door, he enjoys watching students realize they’re capable of more than they expected.

“It’s just really cool to see students gain that confidence of wanting to perform in front of people, wanting to play a song for a spouse or wanting to play a song for mom and dad,” he said.

That confidence often grows inside the recording studio, where students can listen back to their performances and hear how much they’ve improved. The experience also introduces many of them to recording, producing and sound engineering, opening the door to parts of the music industry they may never have considered.

For Evans, those recording sessions have become some of the most rewarding moments of the job.

“Seeing parents’ tears of joy over what their kid is accomplishing is just one of the most amazing things of the job,” he said.

While many of his students are children, Evans also teaches adults who are picking up an instrument for the first time. He enjoys watching those students realize there’s no deadline for learning something new.

“I’ve yet to have someone who’s a little bit older, just getting started, not thoroughly enjoy it,” he said. “To a person, they have all really loved it.”

That belief comes from his own relationship with music, one that continues to evolve after decades of performing.

“Music is just a never-ending process,” Evans said. “Even playing guitar for as long as I have, there’s still something else I can learn every day.”

Evans hopes more people discover that music isn’t reserved for professionals or lifelong performers. Whether someone picks up an instrument at 10 or 70, he believes there’s always something waiting to be learned. He also hopes students leave knowing there are many ways to be part of the music community, whether they’re performing onstage, producing a recording or working behind the scenes.

After years as both a musician and teacher, Evans often finds himself thinking about something Keith Richards said about silence being like a musician’s blank canvas.

“Maybe you fill it in,” Evans said. “Or maybe not. Maybe you leave some of the canvas empty to breathe.”

To Evans, music has always felt like more than notes and rhythms. “Music’s a great metaphor for life overall. Oftentimes what you don’t say is every bit as powerful as what you can say,” he shared.