Gary & Jason have a remarkable chemistry on stage, and with it, they bring their exceptional technical and artistic skills to their educational activities as well. They have long experience in this area, having given workshops and lecture/demonstration presentations for all ages while on tour. While there are excellent duo workshops, the individual musicians are also available for workshops devoted to flutists and to guitarists. For example, as an example of his workshop for Junior High School students, Gary Shocker writes "I briefly demonstrate the instrument, following with a piece. If the audience is warm, I do another -most likely my music at 100 m.p.h. After this I get volunteers to join in a group improv session. An easy way to diffuse the nervous wall is to give each person an animal's personality to imitate instrumentally. We might end with an impromptu National Anthem (no music, please) or some other piece everyone knows. This all works well in small and large groups. So we can be in a school auditorium setting with 700 kids and still get volunteers to come up with their instruments for an improve session on stage (any instrument is fine, there are usually flutists, but everyone is encouraged).

Jason writes: This workshop for teenagers presents a facet of the guitar about which most young people are not usually aware. It features an introduction to the classical guitar in comparison to other forms of guitar construction, sound and study. Examples of guitar music's various global influences help to illustrate the guitar's expansive repertoire:

• Ian Krouse's "Variations on A Moldavian Hora" (Middle East)
• Yuquijiro Yocoh's "Sakura Variations" (Japan)
• Francisco Tarrega's "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" (Spain)
• Stepan Rak's "Voices of the Deep" (Czechoslovakia meets Alfred Hitchcock!),
• M.D. Pujol's "Prelude #5" (West Africa, Argentina and American Blues) and "Prelude #1" Argentina meets Jimi Hendrix!)

The session offers insights on the life of a young, practicing classical musician and on some aspects of performing in public that one can't practice for (such as performing in a pitch-black Indian concert hall after the power has mysteriously gone out, or continuing a piece in Phuket, Thailand after a thumbnail has decided to fly off). Also introduces young people to great concert performers (Segovia, Bream, Williams, etc.) that have come before and brought the classical guitar to international attention.