Hi, I'm Mr. Alfaro.

I'm from Fresno, CA. I started on clarinet in 4th-grade at Manchester G.A.T.E. Elementary, with Mr. Hull. (He makes me call him "Ed" now; it's weird.) I started on clarinet, but the next year I branched out to the bassoon (that thing I'm playing in the second picture).

That same year, I got to play in Mr. Hull's jazz band, which I would later learn was not like most jazz bands. I got to play with other clarinets, along with flutes, French horns, baritone horns, tubas, and even an oboe! I fell in love with jazz and improvising, and Mr. Hull suggested I start saxophone so I could keep playing jazz in the middle school and high school big bands (which only took saxophones, trumpets and trombones). So in 6th-grade, I was regularly practicing clarinet, bassoon, and alto saxophone--at least 30 minutes each, every day.

I played regularly in various non-school groups: jazz bands, pop cover bands, even a metal rock band that miced my tenor sax through  a distortion pedal like an electric guitar! Some of these groups performed and traveled around and outside of California, and even went to Europe and China.

In college, I majored in bassoon, and still took saxophone lessons. You see, I didn't want to be a teacher, at first. I wanted to perform and teach private, one-on-one lessons. If I couldn't "make it," I planned on going to law school and be a lawyer and gig on the side. Law schools like music majors, by the way. It wasn't until I got thrown into instructing saxophones at Lake Sequoia Symphonic Music Camp as a 17-year-old counselor-in-training  that I realized that not only could I handle group instruction, but that I LOVED IT! Sure, private instruction is great, but there's nothing like bringing a whole group together and watching everyone learn and grow with and from one another.

I finished my bassoon performance major, but added music education classes, and a minor in Spanish. And after far too many years, I finished my BA in Music  (and immediately after, my teaching credential) from CSU, East Bay.

Today, I continue to play up and down CA--when the school calendar allows it. Many of my friends call me for all sorts of work: jazz bands, cover bands (Radio Gatsby and The Cheeseballs), orchestras, as well as other symphonic groups, chamber groups, musical theater... It keeps my torch lit, so I can better ignite my students.

Since everyone asks: I don't have kids of my own. My family's all back in Fresno. I am the oldest of 3. My sister and my brother-in-law have 5 crazy fun kids that I call my "monkeys." My brother is starting his career in accounting, and still plays his trumpet. My parents are both retired.

Since shelter-in-place: I'm on an over-1300-day streak on Duolingo. I'm taking Italian (in both English and Spanish), and brushing up on German.