Build better music skills.
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Our Story
We started Picardy for purely selfish reasons - we wanted to make our classrooms and lecture halls more engaging by making our students work outside of our teaching more meaningful. We built Picardy out of our experiences and by listening to our students, both their wants and needs, and continue to do so today.
Our Mission
We strive to provide engaging, high-quality, and easy-to-use learning technology for music students of all levels. We believe that the role of the teacher is crucial to student success and that no technology can ever replace them. We develop content that allows teachers to focus on deeper-level problems in the too little and too valuable face-to-face time they have with their students.
Our Pedagogy
We introduce content in smaller, manageable chunks, with an emphasis on carefully sequenced repetition. We employ very basic game elements to help promote a greater level of interest and engagement. We increase difficulty level in smaller increments, allowing for more long term interactivity and practice without becoming overwhelming.
Our People
We are teachers, composers, theorists, and musicians. We earned masters and doctoral degrees in music theory and composition and have years of experience teaching young beginners through college music majors. We are passionate about education and are committed to fulfilling and surpassing the wants and needs of teachers and students.
Meet the Picardy Team
Our incredible team of composers, theorists, educators, professors, engineers, and all-around nice people work tirelessly to put together the best experience for instructors and students alike. Not to brag, but all of our content is written and edited by advanced degree holders, most of whom have a PhD or DMA.
James Palmer, PhD
CEO and Vice Chairperson
Lanky Canadian. Music theorist, birder, long distance runner. Explorer of distant lands and local coffee shops. Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College. McGill and University of British Columbia alumnus. Musical humour, Classical music, Punch Brothers, Balinese gamelan.
Paul Marbach
Co-Founder and CTO
Software engineer, web architect, and technical lead. Composer of acoustic and electronic music, as well as music for the stage. Rarely has time to sleep. Loves penguins. Degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.
Hermes Camacho, DMA
Co-Founder and Chairperson
Director, coffee addict, and a terrible fantasy footballer. Lecturer in theory/comp at UIW (San Antonio). Program manager at Austin Soundwaves and board director at El Sistema USA.
Cassie Shankman
Co-Founder and Board Secretary
Special Products and Marketing. Makes people's lives better (mostly through her music) while searching for the broader meaning of life. Film composer, jazz pianist, travel wiz. Degrees from UT-Austin and Berklee College of Music.
Tucker Bickler
Senior Full-Stack Engineer
Full-stack engineer, cyclist, all-around nice guy. Camping dude and all related issues a must. Proud middle school choir alum. B.S. in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin.
Jaclyn Wiggins-Camacho, PhD
Co-Founder and Board Treasurer
Handles all financial and legal issues. The main (only) voice of reason. Makes the world's best chocolate chip cookies. Chemist and edtechie by trade. Recovering violist.
Alex Newton, PhD
Strategy/Design and Board Director
Musician: theorist, pianist, and guitar dabbler. Writes on film about music and sound design (or really anything else that comes to mind) with a masters and doctorate from UT-Austin.
Katelyn Horn, MM, MA
COO and Board Director
Support lead, content specialist, music theorist, cognition expert, pianist. Board games required. Areas of expertise in theory and cognition, with degrees from The University of Texas at Austin and The Ohio State University.
Dom Cerminara
Engineering
Front end software engineer. Ex-athlete. Has seen 'Stop Making Sense' over 100 times. One of those annoying guys who moved to Austin. B.S. in Information Systems and Philosophy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Scott Schumann, PhD
Senior Content Developer
Senior content developer and all-around nice guy. Music theorist by trade, weekend outdoor warrior by everything else. Has run marathons without training...twice. Chicago Blackhawks for life.
Paulo Camacho
Intern
Music enthusiast, Tenor Extraordinaire, Sports Vlogger. Will talk your ear off if you dare talk sports with him. UC Davis, San Diego State, and TCU alum with degrees in sociology and journalism.
Rachel Lockerbie
Senior QA Lead
Singer/pianist from Seattle who likes to think she is reaching mediocrity at guitar and percussion. Can and will quote The Office at you. Has too many books and not enough dogs. Obtaining a BM specializing in Music Therapy with a minor in Music History.
Mariana Barron Esper
Technical Writer
Content guru, composer, singer/songwriter. Believes that it's pessimistic to believe optimism is too optimistic. Graduated with a double major in music and international relations and affairs.
Zackery Wilson, DMA
Content
Content developer, composer, and pianist. Golfer by day, chiptune dude by night. The only acceptable penguins are the ones from Pittsburgh. Degrees from West Virginia University and The University of Texas at Austin.
Zack Stanton, DMA
Content Developer
Content Developer, composer, conductor, pianist, banjo enthusiast, and eminent wise-one. Wishes golfing was as easy as composing while wishing composing was as easy as golfing. Lecturer in music at the University of Iowa, teaching music theory and composition, and assists the New Music Ensemble.
Mala Kumar
Design
User Experience Designer, interaction designer, and creative technologist. Enthusiastic about diasporic disco and bikes. Makes zines about minutia, Parsons MFA Design + Technology graduate.
Christine Boone, PhD
Content Advisor
Music Theory Content and Advisor. Singer, cat expert, and WBOM. Beatles, duh. Assistant Professor of Music Theory at UNC-Asheville, specializing in pop music, with a focus on mashups.
Sydney Fowler
Senior QA Lead
UIW Music Therapy 2019. Pianist. Both a dog and cat person. Ice-T is 100% the best detective on Law and Order: SVU .Played the oboe in middle school kind of.
Andrew Davis, PhD
Content Specialist
Baltimore Ravens fan and highly-recruited intramural flag footballer. Composer by day, asleep by night. Degrees from Yale, Texas, UPenn, and Stanford.
Lucinda Esquivel
QA Specialist
Loves cats and hates running. Knows all the lyrics to "I'll Never Break Your Heart" by the Backstreet Boys. Agrees that the perfect date is April 25th-not too hot and not too cold. Got a degree in singing from UIW.
Josh Barrios
QA Specialist
Just a young boy whose dream is to become a web-slinging crime fighter in New York City. Dabbles in playing guitar and recently graduated with a degree in Music Industry Studies from UIW.