They’re Making Sweet Music All Around the Piedmont
By Leonard Shapiro
The Community Music School of the Piedmont (CMSP) began humbly in 1994 with two teachers and six students in one modest building in The Plains. It was born out of necessity. Long-time Middleburg residents Martha Cotter and Shannon Davis simply wanted their children to learn how to play an instrument without having to add even more car-pooling miles to their respective odometers.
Now, more than 20 years later, it has more than 400 students, and recently said goodbye to an 86-year-old gentleman who took up the piano several years ago and recently moved out of the area. There are 23 instructors who give private lessons on virtually every instrument in a symphony orchestra, and several conduct sessions so that itty-bitty babies can start developing their own sense of music appreciation at the earliest age possible.
On Sunday, Jan. 24 at 5:30 p.m., critically-acclaimed American soprano Rosa Lamoreaux will perform at the school’s ninth annual Candlelight Concert Fundraiser at Barton Oaks in The Plains. She’ll sing a program from The Great American Songbook, including works by George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Duke Ellington.
CMSP is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization offering a wide variety of individual and group lessons, ensembles, and community outreach programs. It’s a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education, with a mission of providing high quality music instruction and performance opportunities for all members of the Piedmont community.
It uses a number of facilities, many in churches donating space, stretching from Aldie all the way to Stephens City, to provide venues for its students. What Cotter, CMSP’s executive director, likes to call “our world headquarters” are located at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville. In fact, Trinity’s own Rev. Robert Banse takes saxophone lessons.
“We all think music is so important, and we are so grateful to Trinity for sharing their wonderful space with us,” Cotter said. “On a long-term basis, what music does for the quality of life, what it does for your brain is so invaluable. When you have children stay with it, it carries over to their schoolwork, math, science, everything else. And it also teaches perseverance and discipline, things that practicing an instrument give you.”
Over the years, CMSP has forged a close working relationship with Shenandoah University’s nationally acclaimed school of music. Some instructors are graduate students at Shenandoah, but 65 per cent of CMSP’s teachers have at least a Masters degree in music, and more than a few are renowned performers themselves, soloists or members of bands or orchestras.
Cotter recalled interviewing a potential cello instructor several years ago who also was a well-known performer.
“I told him that many of our students also have a lot of other interests—horses, soccer, art—and I didn’t want to give him a false image of what we were trying to do,” she said. “I’ll never forget what he told me. He said ‘you know, we’re also training future audiences.’ I thought to myself ‘wow, we’re definitely on the same wave
length.’ And he took the job.”
Lessons run $35 per session, but the school also can offer financial assistance. Over the years, thanks to several grants, an annual concert and a yearly fund-raising campaign, CMSP has awarded over $65,000 in scholarships to assure that its school is an equal opportunity operation.
In addition to conducting student recitals, CMSP runs the strings programs at Middleburg Community Charter School, Hill and Wakefield and offers after-school lessons at Banneker, Lincoln and Powhatan. CMSP runs a summer chamber music camp, and there’s also a music therapy component.
One of the more innovative outreach programs is an instrument petting zoo. Instructors will take various instruments around to local pre- and kindergarten classes and encourage children to touch the instruments and also pull a string or blow into a flute or horn.
Though she once dabbled in guitar many years go, Cotter doesn’t play an instrument. But Christian Myers, director of music at Trinity who first invited CMSP to use the church as its base, recently asked her to join the bell choir.
“They put up with me,” she said. “I just enjoy good music.”