Educators
Rossella Florio, Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten
Italian native from Puglia-Trani
Born and raised in San Giovanni Rotondo, a small town in southern Italy, Rossella decided almost two years ago to come to San Francisco. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Science of Communication and during the years spent in Italy she tutored Italian, Science, Math and Psychology. Rossella has a formal background in child development: she has been a childhood educator for seven years in a non profit organization. During those years she was involved in direct care and educational training of children. She supervised after school programs assisting children with homework and school projects and every summer she spent two weeks in camping activities, planning activities of music, art and sport for personal and interpersonal development.
Children of all ages have always been part of her life: as the eldest of a large family from southern Italy, Rossella helped raise younger brothers and sister, spending also a lot of time especially during family summer vacations, entertaining siblings and younger cousins.
She enjoys cooking, playing volleyball, hiking, reading and travelling.
Benito Brusselli, Italian Music
A native of San Francisco with a great Italian heart, Benito teaches our classes in Italian Folk Music. Children love Benito and with him are learning how "to play" the Mandolin and Violin, and most importantly, learning to sing lots of Italian songs. Benito also teaches private and group lessons for Violin, Viola and Mandolin to children from 5 to 18 years old, here on campus, at our school. For more information email: benb@bennybemusic.com.
Benito has been an active professional music producer, composer, band leader, vocalist, violinist, and session and concert mandolinist for over 18 years; based in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles, California. His focus as an instrumentalist has been to create a unique and powerful voice for the classical and ethnic mandolin.
Benito' s musical background is in classical music where he has studied trumpet, violin, viola, piano, classical voice, composition, and mandolin. He studied violin and viola with the San Francisco Symphony's Leonid Gesin and Daniel Kobialka and holds a Bachelor's degree in viola performance and musicology from San Francisco State University. Ben is a graduate of the Master's Level program in film scoring composition at the University of Southern California. There, he studied with film composition legends Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, and David Raksin.
Benito's love for the mandolin and violin has a deep family connection along with a prolific musical heritage. His grandfather, Max Gralnick, performed on violin, viola and was "the call" for mandolin in Hollywood film sessions from the mid 1920s through the early 1980s. His grandfather's mandolin performance is featured in major Hollywood film classics such as "the Godfather I" and "the Godfather II," "Zorba the Greek," "Spartacus," and "Dr. Zhivago," to name just a few. He also played with Dean Martin with his signature mandolin solo in the recording of "That's Amore." Here is his web site:http://bennybemusic.com/about.htm.
Silvia Cossich Goodman, Art
Italian native from Trieste-Muggia
Silvia Cossich Goodman was born in Newburgh, New York, daughter of Italian immigrants. After 10 years in the States her parents returned to their native country and settled in the small village of Muggia in the N.E. corner of Italy, bordering with what is now Slovenia. Growing up in Muggia provided Silvia with an environment quite different than the one in New York. Her home was a small farm where she helped tend crops and feed small animals.
Silvia was influenced by her father, who was a skilled tile setter. Watching her craftsman-father was Silvia's first exposure to the world of ceramics, porcelain, cement and plaster. Silvia moved back to the States in her twenties and enrolled at the Otis Parsons School of Art in Los Angeles and graduated with certificates in Illustration and Textile Design. She worked in the fashion industry for 6 years and opened her own studio and produced a line of hand painted ceramics. She exhibited her work in group shows in the Los Angeles area.
Life took a different turn after she married and started a family. Even though most of her energy was spent raising her two daughters she always found time for sculpting and painting. Today she lives in Marin County California with her family and works out of her studio. Her work can be seen at: http://silviacossichgoodman.com/scg/bin/SilviaGoodman.html
All of our educators are Child/Adult CPR and First Aid certified