AGL Hall of Fame
Former students of Gordon Kahan — where the work led them
✦Mark Lettieri
Guitarist for Snarky Puppy since 2008 and a five-time Grammy winner — Best R&B Performance for "Something" featuring Lalah Hathaway, and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for Sylva, Culcha Vulcha, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, and Empire Central. Co-founded The Fearless Flyers with Cory Wong, Joe Dart, and Nate Smith, and has released ten solo records, earning a Grammy nomination of his own for Deep: The Baritone Sessions, Vol. 2. His session and touring credits include Erykah Badu, David Crosby, Kirk Franklin, Snoop Dogg, and 50 Cent. PRS builds his signature Fiore guitar. He has named Gordon Kahan publicly as his primary guitar teacher through high school.
✦Russell Henson
Los Angeles composer, producer, and session guitarist/bassist, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. After Musicians Institute and twelve-plus years touring and recording with acts including X Ambassadors, Big Data, Thomas Rhett, Kiesza, and HOLYCHILD, he moved into trailer and advertising composition — co-writing trailer music for Warner Bros.' The Suicide Squad and landing placements with HBO, Netflix, ABC, NBC, and FOX, with a Platinum single and over 120 million streams to his credit.
✦Scott Henson
Bay Area bassist (Russell's brother) and Musicians Institute graduate, where he took the Bass Institute of Technology's Outstanding Student award. He played bass in Santa Barbara pop-rock band Loomis & the Lust before becoming the on-screen bassist in the New Directions band on Fox's Glee, appearing across the series' run.
✦Will Loomis
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist who formed the indie-rock band Loomis & the Lust in Santa Barbara in 2007, fronting the quartet as lead vocalist and guitarist — with Scott Henson on bass. The band broke through with the EPs Nagasha (2009) and Space Camp (2010), and their track "Bright Red Chords" was featured by Filter Magazine and Urban Outfitters. Loomis made national headlines taking on the majors: he sued Jessie J and Universal Music Group in 2012, alleging her hit "Domino" lifted the melody of "Bright Red Chords," carrying the fight to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He has since released solo material and remains an active artist, composer, and producer, still recording and mixing new music.
✦Josh Robbins
Founder, guitarist, and bandleader of The Invincible Czars, Austin's premier silent-film-score ensemble, which he started in 2002 and still leads on national tours performing original live scores for Nosferatu, Faust, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The Austin Chronicle called him an "eruptive axe killer." His work spans avant-rock originals, small-band arrangements of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, film and commercial scoring, and music-industry education through the Austin Music Foundation and Soundfly.
✦Blake Richardson
Touring drummer for indie-pop artist Jordana (Grand Jury Music). He anchored her band opening for TV Girl, drummed on the national Lively Premonition album tour, and played the Jordana on Audiotree Live session recorded in Chicago and released in 2025 — a working pro on the national indie circuit.
✦Kenny Ames
Member of Shacklebone, the Austin rock outfit whose lineup — Scott Holden, Kenny Ames, Patrick Durrett, and Ken Kokel — bills itself as the "same rock-n-roll garage band since 1978," still playing and posting performances after four-plus decades together. Gordon Kahan was his guitarist in the mid-2010s.
✦Tony D'Amato
A fixture of the Austin punk scene. He fronts The Clastic, his current Austin punk project, playing rooms like Indy Brewing and 1808 Annex and self-releasing new songs and EPs. Before that he played in Vacancy, an Austin punk band formed with ex-members of Riot Scene and Captain Bringdown — a working DIY musician who's kept writing, recording, and gigging in the scene for years.