Franco Bello
Musical Architect: Personalized Music Coach, and Songwriter
About me
At the age of 9 I started to take up music lessons and a year later regulalry had to perform 3 times a week in my dad's church in front of 200 people. Very scary at the time yet i t taught me confidence, playing by ear and fitting in with a group of musicians as opposed to shining on my own.
I have been involved with leading groups of musicians throughout my career, from various church bands to accompanying an entire whole school mass (Kindergarten, Elementary School and High School) regularly single-handedly as music teacher in Johannesburg, to being Musical Director in Choir Africa's pop-up showcases in Cape Town.
I am also a professional music production specialist, having done numerous film and TV series scores for the SABC as well as M-Net over the years, hence playing piano and keyboards are at the top of my list. I am also a singer-songwriter and have also taught/mentored numerous singers-songwriters, the most famous locally to be SA Idols winner Sasha-Lee Davids, whilst in Johannesburg. This also predisposes me to be tech-savvy and especially well-versed in Google Classroom, GarageBand and Apple's music production software, Logic.
Currently I am the senior music teacher at a private school in Cape Town and co-ordinate events for both the school and the peripatetic music staff, am helping to creating a Trinity Centre here as well as creating a more fostering music program for students to partake in frequent high calibre music events in and outside of our school.
I believe that purpose and service walk hand in hand, I also believe that part of my purpose is to serve by nurturing greatness in today's young leaders through music and the arts. I use my class music lessons currently as life class sessions where we learn how to be better human beings through lessons from the lives of classical composers, and also current artists. We are creating awareness of real issues in our community (self-efficiency and care for others in the current COVID-19 pandemic, Cape Town's recent water shortage, and self-actualization, kindness, community upliftment, etc.) as well as global equality and human rights issues through music and our creative expression thereof. In terms of practical musicianship I teach various marimba classes in Gr 6-8 and Gr 11-12, as well as ensemble singing (general) and production singing (musical theatre). The school also has a private music centre in which I teach private piano and voice one-on-one to a number of students in our community.
My Virtual Music School extends to Europe currently with students in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Zoom is a great tool as more and more online schooling occurs since 2020, and I have found ways to make online learning fun and engaging for my music students around the globe.
In the past 15 years I have taught class music (IBE Gr 0 to 8) at a private school in Johannesburg, and Foundation Music, IGCSE Music and A/AS Level in Music formats at the British International College in Johannesburg. I have lectured at Wits University in film music history and composition and digital music literacy, as well as instructing in music theory from Gr 1 to Gr 8, and practical examination instruction for Trinity, ABRSM as well as the University of West London in my own two music academies (2010-2015).
Regarding my qualifications, I have obtained a Masters in Music Composition from Wits in 2009 and have commenced independent research for a PhD program in musicology and composition yet have put it on hold last year in order to focus more on my increasing duties as virtual music educator and entrepreneur.
I am thrilled to share my skill sets and experience with students from all over the globe via online courses and one-on-one coaching, and to get to know them and serve them to reach their own personal music goals.