TEACHERS
Lauren Bruns
Lauren Bruns, a New Orleans girl, had the love of music instilled in her from an early age. With a pianist/composer father, the sounds of James Booker, Billy Joel, and the Mamas and the Papas, accompanied her childhood. As an early teen, Lauren became the lead singer of an oldies cover band, ‘The Prescriptions’, performing on stages throughout the Quarter. She later attended the University of Texas in Austin, where she began her solo career as a singer/songwriter developing residencies at several music venues on the world-renowned 6th Street. By the time she reached Los Angeles in 2003, Lauren was a seasoned performer with an arsenal of original music. She was signed to a demo deal with SONY Records after winning V05’s Red Hot Rising Star contest in 2006.
In 2007, with major changes in the music industry, Lauren decided to get out of the recording world and forge a new musical path. With a love of children and years devoted to working in childcare, Lauren decided to offer something close to her heart to the kids in Los Angeles – songwriting. Most music schools offered instrument lessons, but none gave kids the ability to express themselves through their own songs. Over the course of two years, Lauren worked with children in homes and schools to develop a curriculum that made it easy and fun to understand the fundamentals of writing a song. In 2011, with demand building, Lauren is opening her first kids-only songwriting studio, Sessions Songwriting and Music, in Santa Monica, where she offers a range of group and private classes in songwriting, as well as guitar, voice and piano.
Lauren lives in Hollywood with her screenwriter husband, Blake, and their yorkie, Austin.
Diba Mesriani
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Diba Mesriani discovered her passion for music as she began to learn the piano from the age of 4. She studied under the tutelage of Sharon Lipman for many years and is currently a student of Edward Francis at California State University Northridge. She is presently pursuing her Bachelors degree in Breadth Studies for Music and Arts, and has had intensive training in Piano Pedagogy.
Diba has played competitively for many years and has been awarded a 1st place and a cash award in the CAPMT Santa Monica Competition and 1st Alternate in the CAPMT Bartok and Contemporary Competition. She was selected a winner in the WLA Branch Bach Festival and competed in the regional audition. She has been a regular participant in the national Guild of Piano Teachers’ Auditions, Certificate of Merit Evaluations’ (where she competed for Panal and passed with a 97% on the theory test), and MTAC-WLA Romantic and Contemporary Festivals. She has also performed as a soloist in many school orchestra concerts, as an accompanist for two school musicals and for vocalists, and in duets with other musicians.
Diba always had an excitement and a passion to teach piano and to work with children. She has been teaching privately for six years now and has worked with students of all ages and levels. Diba also enjoys participating in community service projects, and was recently the organizer and coordinator of CSUN Hillel’s “Repair Our World” day in which murals were painted and planters were stained at Alfred Nobel School.
Emily Bedal
Emily is a Chicago native currently enjoying her first six months in Los Angeles, especially thanks to meeting a kindred soul like Lauren! Born to a professional Jazz musician father and an artist and writer mother, songwriting and self-expression through music and art has inevitably become as essential as breathing. After writing her first song for her eighth grade graduating class, Emily fell in love with the mystery that occurs in those moments when the heart is full of something that only music can express. She believes that songwriting unlocks the many doors within and couldn’t be more excited to explore and encourage the younger generation to dive inward and find the magic!
