Given her first guitar at the age of 17, Teacher Lucy Barna has been singing her story through song ever since. An artist by nature, music was self-taught and her songs quickly became stories of her cross-country journeys and the deeper experiences of the human heart. Lucy’s passion lies in songwriting and in sharing herself through her lyrical storytelling. She enjoys inspiring and guiding others through the process of song-crafting, including lyric composition, arrangement and various instrumentation. Lucy’s background also includes experience working in education supporting various age levels from elementary-school years to adult students. With a homebase of Madrid, NM, Lucy performs locally and regionally as a solo singer-songwriter, as well as a duo or with her full band. Past band projects include Hot Honey, Hitchhike Honey, and High Hippie Associates. Outside of writing and performing music, Lucy can be found running her gallery, Alchemy Studio, in Madrid, designing and fabricating art jewelry for Votive Designs, and spending time with her twin teenage boys.

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Teacher David Bronstein (the grandson of a Cantor, son of a Klezmer Pianist) has been finding home in music for a while now.  Growing up in the suburbs of Washington DC, he got to travel around the country and beyond singing in the Children's Chorus of Washington. In college at St. John's in Santa Fe he started an acapella group called the Soul Miners and he's been leading others in personal empowerment, collective belonging, and cultural repair through music in song circles, voice lessons, and community ritual ever since. David is also a forever student in the piano, guitar, and more recently banjo. He moved back to Santa Fe three years ago and is looking forward to serving the folk music community here at Queen Bee this year.

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Teacher Sarah-Jane Helvey is a musician, writer, director, clown, activist, and mother.  She’s toured with numerous music projects over the years on lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica, and percussion. Since 1996, she has worked with the social circus company Wise Fool as the lead physical theatre coach and performer, and she’s a graduate of the
Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Some project highlights include writing and directing a rock opera about labor organizer, Emma Goldman, co-founding the band The Dolly Ranchers, and working with Clowns Without Borders in Latin America, bringing comic relief to war-torn communities on several tours. Lately, she is really loving this opportunity to sing with children via Queen Bee.

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Teacher Jules Hoffman (they/them) is an eclectic artist and visionary based in Northern New Mexico. As a singer-songwriter, Jules has toured, opened for major acts and performed at the SXSW music festival. Jules’ passion for music extends to teaching, taking them all over the world and all over YouTube. Jules uses videography, production and visual art as a way to connect beyond their music. When Jules isn’t making music they are usually cooking for friends or hiking with their dog. 

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Teacher Michael Micucci is a bassist, composer and educator living in gorgeous Madrid, New Mexico. Born in New Hampshire, Michael began his music career as many do: he bought a bass and joined a band! Working with funk, rock and jam bands before falling in love with jazz in his early twenties, he gigged and saved cash for private lessons with the best musicians he could find: Don Williams and George Westbay. He moved to Boston and sharpened his chops in the scene around Berklee at the time, and continued his path of finding a way to afford the best education he could manage by studying jazz privately with Bruce Gertz. Earning his living as a full-time musician in Boston was an enormously beneficial influence on a young bassist: there were so many gigs with so many musicians for so few bassists that Michael found himself constantly playing with more experienced musicians who pushed his boundaries in a multitude of styles: jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk, rock, post-rock, blues, musical theater- and everything else you could imagine.

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Teacher Tito Rios was born in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, South America. He recognized the guitar as his musical instrument at the age of 8 years old, and has worked with this instrument ever since. At 12 he began his classical guitar training in San Francisco, CA, with guitarist Paul Binkley. Throughout his career he has won numerous awards, both in Bolivia and the USA, including an original composition award by Ballet Repertoire Theater of New Mexico, in 2010, where his music was choreographed and performed live. He has toured in Bolivia, the USA and Asia. In addition to performing, he shares his love for music with the community, in the form of presentations, workshops, group classes and private lessons.

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Teacher Karina Wilson has more than 15 years experience teaching violin and fiddle music. After starting as a Suzuki kid at the age of 5, she studied classical music through her mid 20s, and has since appeared on stages and in dance halls around the world. Her time is now spent teaching private students, small string orchestras, fiddle classes, freelance recording projects, and collaborations with local musicians. She is currently performing and touring with the New Mexico music group Lone Piñon, Glorieta Pines, and songwriters Bard Ederington V, and David Berkeley, and the occasional dance weekend with the Gaslight Tinkers, Pianist George Paul, and guitarist Larry Unger. 

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Administrative + Marketing Assistant Violet Briggs first joined the Queen Bee team as a Movement Instructor for Queen Bee's 2022 summer camps and couldn't stay away. Since then, she has been assisting Sarah-Jane at the weekly Kids Sing Along classes and providing administrative and marketing support, including running Queen Bee's social media channels. She has been inspired by all of these music-learners around her and is excited to finally learn to play guitar.