Russ Rodgers has been playing and teaching bass guitar professionally for over 30 years and has studied with Kevin Bales, Jimi Haslip of the Yellow Jackets, Oteil Burbridge, Anthony Wellington, John Patitucci, Trip Wamsley, Corey Christiansen and Ted Howe. Russ founded the Bass Program at The Atlanta Institute of Music (AIM) in 1985 and served as Bass Director for its 1st eight years. After leaving AIM in 1993 because of a busy performance schedule both domestically and internationally, Russ returned to AIM and taught classes and private lessons from 2001 to 2013. During this time Russ taught private lessons at Ken Stanton Music from 2000 to 2014, was director of the Bass Program at The East Cobb Music Academy from 1998 to 2005, and The Atlanta Bass Gallery from 2009 to 2014. From 2006 to 2013, Russ was the house bass player at The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Atlanta, GA with jazz vocalist, Theresa Hightower. In 2014 Russ relocated to Washington DC and now has an active performance schedule with some of DC’s finest artist and teaches live online private instruction using Skype with students from all over the world as well as teaching privately at different locations around the Washington DC area.