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Our Faculty - Ashburn SOR

Many of our faculty teach more than one instrument and work with students in more than one of our schools. Our listings below cover primary roles within our school.

Paul Ottinger
Paul Ottinger is the Music Director for SOR Loudoun. In this role Paul leads all music activities at the Ashburn School and is responsible for the quality of our music instruction and performance.

Paul grew up in Alexandria, VA. A product of TC Williams High School, he is a combination of classical training and self-taught multi-instrumentalist/songwriter. He received a scholarship to the University of Miami School of Music for Classical Double Bass and studied Music Theory/Composition. In addition he spent a year living in Vienna, Austria where he studied at the famed Hochschule for Musik with a focus on the symphonic works of Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart. In addition to the String Bass, he maintains an excellent proficiency in Electric Bass, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Banjo, Vocals, Songwriting, Drums, and Percussion. He is also really neat.

Paul is a founding member and keyboard player of the band Virginia Coalition (www.virginiacoalition.com). The group, known as “VACO” by their fans, started in Alexandria, VA in 1998. Built around friendships rooted in their common high school experience, VACO began to methodically amass a rabid DC area fan base through a carefully executed grass roots campaign. This potent combination of wicked, frenzied live shows and expertly managed fan network created an intense word of mouth that landed the band in the offices of one of the top regional booking agencies in the country. More Music Group, formally Cellar Door Entertainment, saw a lot of promise in the band and quickly began to tour them up and down the east coast and out into the mid-west to the tune of at least 250 shows a year.



VACO used the time time in between tours (and sometimes during) to write and record 3 independent self-released records. The second of which, Townburg (2000), saw the band seize on an opportunity to work with Mitch Easter, the production genius behind REM’s early work. The third CD, Rock n Roll Party (2003), cracked Billboard’s top 200 Album Sales for the week of it’s release without any record label support whatsoever. During this time the band’s regional expansion was being recognized and appreciated back home as well. VACO, in 2001 with their newly acquainted DC area comrades, the band OAR, made the risky move to book a co-headline gig at the legendary 9:30 Club in DC. Failure to deliver would have been a real setback for both bands, as it took a lot of people to put their names on the line to even get the chance. The gamble paid off in a big way. After that night VACO went on to sell out the 9:30 Club thirteen times in a row over a 5 year span from 2001-2006. During this period the band also won the Reader’s Choice Award for “Best Band” in Washington, DC from the Washington Post 2 years straight (2003, 2004).

Buzz for the band remained in full swing as sell outs started to accumulate, not just in DC but in NY at Irving Plaza, Chicago House of Blues, the TLA in Philadelphia, Paradise in Boston, Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC, Atlanta, Nashville, St. Louis, and the list kept growing. In addition, invites to tour with established acts started to pile up. Sister Hazel, Gavin DeGraw, Maroon 5, Blues Traveler, The Roots, Counting Crows, Blondie, Dispatch, The Black Eyed Peas, Edwin McCain, and many more. These national tours took the band, for the first time, across multiple cities in 48 states, from Miami to Seattle, LA to Portland, ME and everywhere in between. Industry word of mouth started to catch up with fan generated hype and before long VACO had serious A&R interest from MCA/Universal, Columbia Records, and a brand new subsidiary Bluhammock/Red Distribution/SONY.

After a few writing sessions in LA and Nashville the band decided to sign with the label where they felt the most genuine connection, Bluhammock. VACO inked a 3 album deal and quickly started work on 2004’s OK to GO, produced by Matt Wallace (Maroon 5, Third Eye Blind, Train, The Replacements), whose recent work with Maroon 5 had gone multi-platinum. Followed by 2006’s Live @ the 9:30 Club with Grammy winning engineer Jeff Juliano (OAR, Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Bruce Hornsby, Jason Mraz). And finally with producer Marshall Altman (Matt Nathanson, Kate Voegele) on the band’s 2008 and most recent CD Home This Year. To date, the band has toured 11 different countries including stops in Egypt, Turkey, England, Germany, Mexico, and Jamaica. Played to crowds as large as 50,000 people. And now shares a roster with artists such as Alice Cooper, Bootsy Collins, Sum 41, GWAR, G. Love and Special Sauce, Pink Floyd, Heart, and The White Stripes, amongst others, at international booking agency, The Agency Group.

Robert Caporal
Robert was born in Columbus Ohio and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. Starting on Piano at 5 years old and playing until 12 years old laid the foundation of a life of Rock! After being heavily influenced by his Dad's record collection of Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, he switched to drums. Five years of drumming contributed to a strong rhythmical sense that would later help his guitar playing. Robert took up guitar at the age of 17 after listening to his sister play guitar to the classic rock hits of the 70's. His sister was his first of many teachers through his life. The love of rock lead guitar came after hearing and learning the classic double stop riffs of T-Bone Walker and Chuck Berry. Now 30 years later, Robert's passion for guitar is stronger than ever. With a love of learning, playing and teaching; a guitar will be by his side until the end. For those about to Rock he salutes you! Robert favors: PRS Guitars, Fender and Marshall Amps, Fulltone effects, GHS Strings and Dunlop Jazz III picks.

Carl Schmeig
Carl has played in a variety of bands around the DC area and is currently a member of Bob - a rock band based in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Carl is influenced by virtually all genres of music, but he has found his home in Bob's familiar yet refreshingly different approach. Since the formation of the band in 2004, Bob has developed a reputation for producing music that resonates in your head and leaves you wanting more. Combining undeniably moving phonics with a stage show that is unsurpassed, Bob is a band you have to see live to fully experience. Bob will blow you away each and every time they perform. Carl is on the road with the band every weekend and he is delighted to be able to work with rock music's next generation of incredible bass players.