Meet Rogerio Peixoto

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rogerio Peixoto.

Hi Rogerio, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in inner Brazil, where my first active interest was visual arts (I used to draw and paint from infancy). That gave way to music as I started playing guitar at age twelve. By the end of my first guitar lesson, I had no doubt that I had found my calling, and that belief hasn’t changed since, though life took its turn.

Music was not seen as a viable career at that particular place and time, and I became an architect (although I continued to study music throughout college). I was also teaching guitar at the time and hoped to take higher level music education after my bachelor studies were concluded.

Shortly after graduating, I was invited to join as a professor at the University where I studied (which I accepted) and my genuine love for teaching kept me happy enough at the time, but my true calling remained. I was twenty-three years old.

Within a couple of years, I was hired as a federal government architect. Though this was a highly coveted position for most, it clashed against both my musical education project and my university teaching. I had a long-term relationship, and family pressures from both sides, paired with the prestigious nature and financial stability of that position, contributed to my decision to take the job.

I was twenty-five years old then. It was a very limiting line of work in terms of creativity, and although there were good things about it, not pursuing my guitar playing as a career turned me unhappy, while on the other hand, I got engaged. The split between the life I wanted and the one everyone else wanted me to have was more and more clear.

After having saved enough to buy an apartment in the city, there was nothing else holding back the wedding other than my belief that despite both our best intentions it would be an unhappy life of mutual resentment. I made the decision to leave the country and come study at my dream guitar school. My then-fiancee didn’t want to come along as she had her own dreams of a different life.

I came to California to attend Musicians Institute in Hollywood in 2005 and stayed for four years. I had never left my country, even on vacation, and adapting to Los Angeles was a difficult process but a rewarding one, and I would have stayed, but I hurt my left arm from overuse. It was time to return to Brazil and unable to play music, I took my architectural career back.

Learning to let go of the one thing I wanted through my whole life was hard, but I made it through that process of redefining my identity. Still, I didn’t want to settle and found purpose in a secondary interest I had developed while in LA: languages (I had learned Spanish during that first stay).

I found a Master’s program that attracted me. It was offered by the University of Granada in Andalucia, Spain, and I moved there to attend. It was a great year, and I found an internship in Paris, as I had been studying French on my own and wanted the opportunity to immerse myself in the language.

While in Europe, my arm got much better, and I noticed I could play again. During that time, a music company from Thousand Oaks, where I had lived before, offered me a position and I decided to return to California. I arrived in 2013 and have been living here ever since, teaching and playing music.

It has been a windy road with many endings and new beginnings, and I feel blessed to have been through those many changes.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was not a smooth road in any sense. Challenges from early age, family pressures, decisions to move country and adapt (several times) and health issues that brought me to my knees, making me have to basically be born again (no relation to the religious meaning) and being able to take it back. Thinking back, I find myself happy for never having given up.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am primarily a music teacher, and my instrument is guitar. Within that, I am known for being a specialist on several sub-genres, and my strongest skill is my aural recognition of music (transcription). This allows me to learn most music instantly to a very high level of accuracy.

Having had so many different backgrounds (architecture, arts, college teaching, languages and multi-national experience) I am known for creating different ways of transmitting knowledge to best suit the learning profile and experience of each student. When I teach, I am providing a service and it is all about my student. I try the best I can to help in the most objective, fast and complete way considering each student’s goals.

Secondarily, I am a composer and performer. I am currently working on a record ranging from Jazz and Flamenco-influenced nylon string solo guitar music to electric’guitar music. On that regard, I have designed and patented an instrument, which has been built by a talented luthier, and I will use the music to promote that design (and vice-versa).

What does success mean to you?
My definition of success changes with time. I believe there are levels of it, ranging from being able to answer one’s calling and sustain a career in it, up to obtaining worldwide recognition. I like to listen to philosophy and, having been through the need to let go of my life’s ambitions to later on taking them back, I see relativity in everything.

Pricing:

• Weekly online guitar lessons: $45(30 min), $60(45 min) and $80(one hour).
• Weekly in person lessons: $45 (30 min), $65(45min), $85 (one hour).
• Longer lessons available. Discounts for more frequent lessons (twice a week etc.)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rogeriopeixoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rogerio_guitarist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GuitaristRogerioPeixoto/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXY9Efl6zzq0YLBqV4IDAsg
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/album/1LO33QwL11iXiPc5iza4um

Image Credits
Alexandra Bilham