Mark Hasbrouck – guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass

Mark Hasbrouck (Hazzy) was born in 1963, in Olivia , Minn. By the time he was seven he had lived in Marshall and Fargo before his family moved to Champlin in 1972. He graduated from Anoka High School in 1982.

Hazzy started playing music as a youngster on his grandmother’s organ, sitting at the keyboard improvising. Around age 14, he started fooling around on his dad’s four-string ukulele. By the time he was 16, he finally took up the guitar. His teacher, Randy Berg, got him excited about playing guitar which fueled the desire to learn and play well. Hazzy said that during those first months, he would go home after school, lock himself in his room and just play his dad’s old Sear’s classical guitar for five to six hours every day for the next five or six months. His influences in those early days included the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Segovia, John McLaughlin and others.

One of Hazzy’s favorite things about teaching is when he sees the excitement on a student’s face when they “get it” for the first time and realize at that very moment, they are learning something new and making progress. He also feels it’s very important for a student to have fun while learning. If they are only practicing because someone told them they have to, something is wrong. Mark likes to figure out what the student’s musical influences and interests are and incorporate that into the learning experience making it fun for them. He also integrates music theory and musical concepts that help them understand how the fretboard of a guitar works so that what they are doing makes sense to them.

One of the highlights of Mark’s summers for the past years has been working as an instructor at the School of Rock summer camp. Hazzy plays in a few local bands such as Blimp (a tribute to the music of Led Zeppelin), & Stearns County Pachanga Society. He graduated from St. Cloud State in the spring of 2007 with a degree in Elective Studies, with an emphasis on Music and Special Education. In addition to teaching guitar at WCPA and playing in gigs around town, he works at the St. Cloud Children’s Home as a counselor.