Maurice Arenas, studio musician, performer, and educator, will be the featured speaker at the FCC Moving Mountains speaker series on Wednesday, May 17, starting at 7 p.m. in the JBK Theater on campus.

The monthly series is for teens and young adults and features inspiring professionals who share their life experiences. 

During the event, Arenas will speak about his musical experience and give advice to young musicians on overcoming hurdles to succeed in the music business. He will also lead numerous performances with other musicians, including:

Laurie Arenas - Vocals
David Fanning - Piano and Keyboards
Howard Burns - Sax and Flute
Bill Ryan - Drums
Ted Jenkins - Bass

Arenas is a veteran studio musician with decades of playing, performing, and teaching experience. After earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in performance and composition, he spent time in New York City playing on Broadway and doing recording sessions for radio and television. 

After a move to the Washington, DC area, Arenas created his music instruction school, the Maurice Arenas Guitar Academy (MAGA), which provides musical training in Frederick to students at all levels. MAGA alumni have graduated from prestigious schools like the Berklee College of Music, San Francisco Conservatory, Mannes School of Music, and the Juilliard School. Arenas has also coached Grammy nominees and musicians who have made it on the Billboard charts.

In addition to MAGA, Arenas has been an advisor for various college guitar programs and teaches in his own classroom at TrueFire, an online guitar lesson website that provides interactive videos.

Moving Mountains sessions are free and open to the public and take place in the JBK Theater, located inside the Visual & Performing Arts Center on campus. 

Arenas is the final speaker of the 2016-2017 Moving Mountains series. Past speakers include Eric Kruszewski, National Geographic Creative photographer; Danny Farrar, U.S. Army Veteran and CEO of SoldierFit; Kristine Yaroschuk, Maryland State Police Helicopter Pilot; Jason Lee, business owner and community leader; Amelia Draper, NBC4-Washington meteorologist, and Mia B. Russell, a youth financial education expert.

For more information about the series, contact Mike Pritchard by email or 301.846.2417.

Frederick Community College makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities for College-sponsored events and programs. If you have accommodation needs, please call 301.846.2408. To request a sign language interpreter, please call 240.629.7819 or 301.846.2408 (Voice) or email interpreting. Sign language interpreters will not be automatically provided for College-sponsored events without a request for services. To guarantee accommodations, requests must be made at least five workdays in advance of a scheduled event.