Elizabeth City State University’s Community Music School (CMS) is in its fifth week and organizers say they are encouraged by the progress. Seven teachers from local school systems and an instructor from Virginia are leading the 22 students enrolled. The students are taking applied lessons in piano, voice, guitar, percussion and strings.
CMS students range in age from 6 to 60-plus, with the largest number enrolled in piano. Most also are entry-level students who are enthused about the private lessons, which are held in the practice rooms at the Mickey L. Burnim Fine Arts Center on the ECSU campus.
The Community Music School is a community outreach effort of the ECSU Music Department. The department received professional accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Music in 2007. In order to satisfy NASM’s recommendations and to be consistent with long-term expansion of community outreach initiatives, the department agreed to begin a community music school.
CMS Director Rae Newson said the students arrive each week eager for their one-on-one lessons, which are held between 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
CMS students can select a 30 minute session or an hour long session.
“It’s good to enroll elementary aged students while their interest is high and they are willing to learn. Their minds and hearts are open for a new challenge when they are young,” Newson said.
She said she is pleased with how the program is progressing.”We realize that some parents needed more time to save money for these lessons. There are so many expenses related to the start of school in September that it wasn’t convenient for them to enroll last August,” when the program originally was slated to start.
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