Mr. Scheetz, and experienced performer and teacher, serves on Grayson’s faculty as a music instructor. He holds a Masters of Music in Music Theory and Composition, which he earned with summa cum laude honors from West Chester University’s Wells School of Music. For his master’s thesis, Jared wrote a musical based on the lives of female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Jared also holds an undergraduate degree in Classical Guitar and Double Bass from West Chester University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Trained in both the Kodály and Orff-Schülwerk teaching methodologies, he plays piano and violin in addition to the guitar and double bass.

Prior to joining the Grayson faculty, Mr. Scheetz taught music in multiple school districts and to a wide range of grades. An enthusiastic instructor whose pedagogy centers on finding and developing intrinsic motivation in his students, Mr. Scheetz is committed to the idea that once found, each student’s desire to learn music can be boosted and nurtured into a life-long love of music. In this vein, he has taught classes on a wide variety of topics to spark students’ connections to music, including African drumming, blues composition, and analyzing a Beethoven symphony, to name a few.

His passion for music has also fueled his performance in several venues, notably as principal guitarist and soloist in the West Chester Guitar Ensemble, a group which performs classical guitar music from the Renaissance to the present day; this ensemble performance experience develops musicianship in a way that solo playing alone does not. He has also participated as a volunteer with the Philadelphia Folk Music Festival and the “Good Times Get Down” Music Festival.

Mr. Scheetz spends his free time escaping to the woods or the mountains for hiking and camping, engaged in woodworking projects, or composing music in styles ranging from classical to rock and from country to jazz.