About Ed Kopp

I feel very at home here in Oregon where nature abounds in all of it’s beauty and the mindset of many people here is one of respect not only for each other but for the land as well. My wife and I have been living here since late 2003 and we are very happy here.

I originally grew up on Long Island where I began playing guitar at the age of eight, studying with Bill Sheedy. I rememberBill had this beautiful jazz guitar with flat wound strings that had a beautiful warm sound which I enjoyed listening to very much. With some help from my Mom to keep practicing I eventually became competent on my instrument and formed my first band with my brother and some friends that would end up becoming a very successful band playing at churches, parties, country clubs and even my own High Schools first dance of the year (one of the best gigs of my life to this day!)

I originally went to school to study journalism and joined the Jazz Band under Red Reynolds who took a liking to me and drove me three hours to take a lesson with Steve Brown of Ithaca College. A year later I auditioned with Steve and got into the Jazz Guitar Program where I crammed four years of music studies into three years. In a lesson towards the ned of my senior year I walked a bass line during one of Steve’s solos and he liked what he heard and offered me ten gigs that summer if I could learn to play the bass. I did learn and became his bassist for the next two years learning on the bandstand more than I did on the three years of formal education.

I moved back to Long Island and was in several other bands and eventually moved to NYC where I played bass and guitar for several bands as well as my own, and did a fair amount of recording in several studios. I also formed a production company with Heidi Marshall where we produced multi-media events in clubs around NYC.

During my tenor in New York I backpacked across Europe for six months and had one of the most incredible experiences of my life meeting many fascinating people and learning about different cultures and aspects of European life. It was a transformational experience that inspired a screenplay and an album’s worth of material.

Several years later I moved to Wilmington, N.C. where I wrote, produced and directed my own film “Deadbeat”. It was an incredible experience that allowed me to understand the filmmaking process. While in Wilmington I traveled to Hawaii where I met my wife Carol and about nine months later Carol came to visit and we were married a year later.

Carol and I put everything we could into our GMC Jimmy and drove across the U.S. and eventually settled for a short time in Medford before moving up to the Portland area. 

I began working at Portland Music and then quickly began teaching privately and have been since since 2005. I led my first band camp in 2008 and in 2012 I began to teach at Lake Music. In 2013 I became the bassist for the local band The Insensitivesone of Portland’s premiere cover bands who performs all over the Pacific Northwest. I continue to perform solo acoustic gigs at local farmer’s markets, pubs and cafes as well as continue to record my own original music.

I thank you for checking out my site and look forward to the possibility of connecting to you through music in whatever form that may be.

Oregon rocks!

Ed Kopp