Welcome to The Foxgrove, where we believe that everyone has the potential to create music. On the one-year anniversary of our founding, meet our latest class of newly minted electronic music makers.

Rachel Benaroya is a finance professional, with a background in investment banking and credit risk assessment for high risk cities, local governments and sovereigns. She is an avid skier and photographer, and has lived in NYC for over ten years

What’s your relationship to music?
As far back as I can remember, I have always been drawn to music. I guess the reason is quite simple: music, to me, is the best form of expression. Or, put another way, I find that music is the best way to experience or communicate emotion. For others, that connection might come from something physical or visual, like dance or painting, but ever since I was little I have always related to, and been most influenced by, sounds and song lyrics. A good song, more than anything else, has the ability to energize me, make me think, or make me cry.

This attraction to music didn’t translate to a career in music. Instead, it resulted in a really intense hobby as a listener.

What music do you listen to?
Given the 800GB personal music database, it might not be surprising to hear that I listen to pretty much everything.

What I choose to listen to has never been a question of what I like so much as what I am in the mood for or feel like I need. It’s not really genre or artist-specific for me, but I definitely have a tendency to go through phases. I spent one winter listening entirely to 60s R&B, and there was a summer when I was really into country.

What brought you here?
With my love of making old school mixes and my elaborate music collection, DJing was always something I had in the back of my mind. It seemed like something I would like to do and the logical extension of my hobby. I’d always assumed that learning the fundamentals would require considerable effort and time, especially since I had zero background in actually playing music.

I held off until I was desperate for technical help with some esoteric music software. Then my curiosity got the better of me and I started to ask questions about the DJ equipment. That led to a quick demo, which made me realize that technology has made music really easy to work with. You can add sounds, mix sounds, cut them, merge them, time things, all without much difficulty… I signed up for the DJ class right then and there.

What’s it like taking classes here?
It’s been the perfect place for me to learn about music production. Everything from the little design details of the space, to the example-based method of teaching. As someone coming from a field widely stereotyped as “non-creative,” your philosophy of “anyone can create music or DJ” resonated with me.

Who or what inspires you?
People.

Any future musical projects?
In the short term, I am hoping to take the electronic music production class. In the long-term, I would love to mix music into my video and photography work.

What else do you love besides music?
Skiing. Photography. All the dogs.

Tell us a fun fact about you.
I managed an 80s and 90s cover band for my friends for several years in Manhattan.

Get in touch with your inner creativity, join the new breed of music-makers by taking a class with us at The Foxgrove.

This gem is brought to you by The Hunt, The Foxgrove's blog that looks into the electronic music and DJ world in the lenses of fashion, lifestyle, art and culture. If you'd like to contribute, find us at info@thefoxgrove.com.