Yesterday, July 27, 2018 the Pfafftown Piano Facebook Page hit 100 likes. One year ago at the same time I was drumming up business, hoping for enough students to fill the studio. I have been teaching and performing music, piano, voice, handbells and organ since I was 13, but never in my OWN studio in my OWN home as the OWNer of the business. This is, truly, a dream come true in every sense of the word; a dream I thought would never be a reality. Teaching music was, for me, typically in a church, a music school, a college, a community center, but never in my own studio.
I taught a large crop of underprivileged kids in South Bend, IN at an inner city community center, offering them a chance at creativity for 30 minutes each week, building skills and talents their parents couldn't afford to nurture. I taught little ones, adults, and even the blind in Raleigh, NC at a freshly opened music school owned by someone trying to get his dream business off the ground. I taught children's music in countless churches as internships and jobs in college, with my bag-o-music-tricks with me in my car. In Mill Creek, IN my husband and I started the first children's choir our tiny church had ever had, discovering amazing talent among the handful of children who attended. I have taught organ lessons to college students at Notre Dame University; students who wanted an elective session to get their minds off Psychology, French, or Engineering.
But never, ever, have I had my OWN place.
