Michael Simpsonelli

Professional Work

Sacha Levin is a Vancouver-based percussionist and educator with over 20 years of experience performing, recording, touring, and teaching. Her work has taken her across Canada, the U.S., Europe, and West Africa, where she has explored traditional and contemporary percussion and developed a deep appreciation for rhythm as a form of creativity, expression, and connection.

Sacha has performed with artists including Julian Marley, Ron Sexsmith, Celso Machado, 5 Alarm Funk, and Queer as Funk, and toured extensively with the international interactive percussion ensemble Drum Café. She has also performed hundreds of school shows and worked as a dance accompanist with organizations including SFU’s School for Contemporary Arts, Arts Umbrella, and the Shadbolt Centre.

Teaching at East Van Music Lab

At East Van Music Lab, Sacha teaches percussion and leads hand drum circles for kids and adults, including dedicated women’s drum circles. Her teaching emphasizes groove, improvisation, creativity, and community, creating a supportive space for people to explore rhythm, connect with others, and experience the grounding side of making music together.

Sacha studied in the contemporary music program at Vancouver Community College, and at the Academy Of Music in Ghana, Africa.

Find Sacha online

www.sachalevin.com

Sacha Levin

Professional Work

Michael Simpsonelli is an award-winning music educator, professional musician, composer, producer, and audio engineer with nearly 30 years of experience. Named Best Music Teacher in Vancouver in the Georgia Straight’s 2023 Best of Vancouver awards, he is also a proud father whose son has grown up around East Van Music Lab.

A multi-instrumentalist specializing in guitar, bass, and drums, Michael has worked with Grammy Award winner Terry Townson, Juno Award winners George Leach, Shad K, and Raven Kanatakta of Digging Roots, and Juno nominees Burnstick. His wider credits span Vancouver’s rock, metal, jazz, folk, theatre, and recording communities.

Michael has also worked as a technical collaborator with Canadian rock legend Jon Mikl Thor, most recently engineering his vocal contributions to the Cleopatra Records project Nuclear Messiah. He has worked extensively with Jessie Award-winning composer Joelysa Pankanea, contributing musical performance, sound design, and live audio production to award-winning theatre projects.

As a composer, Michael has created original music for film, documentary, theatre, and immersive media. His credits include Network Entertainment’s I Am Chris Farley, Shenpenn Khymsar’s Lhasa Blues, Perspective Films’ VR360 Aurora Borealis experience, and original compositions for Fallen Hero Productions and filmmaker Derek Kwan.

Teaching at East Van Music Lab

Michael teaches guitar, drums, bass, band classes and workshops. Michael believes that learning music should be enjoyable, and there is rarely a shortage of humor in his lessons! The atmosphere may be relaxed, but the work always gets done! Many of his former students have continued making music long after their lessons ended and still keep in touch. Students learn from someone who actively works in music and understands how to build both real musical ability and a lasting connection to the instrument.

Michael studied contemporary music at Vancouver Community College, Recording Arts at Columbia Academy, and Music Composition for Multimedia at Vancouver Film School. He also completed advanced training in Unity, C#, and XR/Game development through Circuit Stream, extending his work into interactive music, spatial audio, and immersive media.

East Van Music Lab brings these areas together in one teaching practice: professional musicianship, thoughtful instruction, studio production, and a genuine love of helping students make music.

Find Michael Online

Simpsonelli Productions - www.simpsonelli.ca

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/simpsonelliofficial

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SimpsonelliProductions

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/michaelsimpsonelli