Sarah Smith Music Lessons
Bakersfield Vocal Coach, Instrument Lessons and Early Childhood Music Classes
Meet Our Piano Instructors!
Hello! I'm Bryce Putnam. My musical life started in the fourth grade by taking up the viola and playing through my junior year of high school. I started the piano at nineteen years of age. Richard Ellis of Whittier was my first piano teacher. In 1977 I graduated from Cal State college of Bakersfield with a bachelors degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in piano. Sonija Behrens was my piano instructor at Cal State Bakersfield. After graduation I became a piano tuner and piano rebuilder. During this time I also taught piano to many students both children and adults. In 1980 my wife Dona and I moved to Fresno to attend Bible school. After Bible school we pastored a church in Monterey California for thirty-three years. We moved back to Bakersfield in 2018 and in 2019 I taught piano lessons mainly to children and teens for four years. We became full-time missionaries to Uganda in 2023 and I gave up teaching piano. We retired from missions work in 2025 which in enabled me to start teaching piano again.
My name is Eva Porter. With over 30 years of piano experience, I began playing at the age of four and have spent more than a decade taking formal lessons that built a strong musical foundation. I completed a two-year worship internship in Colorado Springs, where I expanded my skills, deepened my musical knowledge, and grew in my passion for worship leading. Today, I serve on my local church’s worship team, playing keys and singing. I especially love teaching beginner piano students — there is nothing more rewarding than helping someone learn to read music and discover confidence and joy through playing the piano.