Hitting High Notes with Low Costs

CONNIE HO
Staff Photographer

At any given time of day, there is guaranteed to be music played from the many rooms drifting down the staircase and filling the foyer of the old Victorian house that the Neighborhood Music School calls home.
Synonymous with the idea of a house being a home, the students who attend equate their relationships with the staff and each other as being a family.
“Ever since I was little, I felt that way,” Bernard Leon, a former student and now office manager at the school, said. “I like to tell the students: You just made a new friend.”
The Neighborhood Music School is staffed by teachers who hold either undergraduate or graduate degrees from music programs at schools such as Stanford, CalArts, USC and UCLA. Teachers are hired based on the needs of the students.
“Every lesson that I have with my teacher is a special lesson that makes me not only really love music, but also allows me to enjoy music,” student Julie Johnson said.
Without sacrificing quality, the school aims to provide affordable music lessons in Boyle Heights. An array of programs from private lessons to group keyboard, violin, guitar and choir lessons are available, with choir starting at two dollars and fifty cents per lesson.
Not only is it a small community within itself, the school often reaches out to the surrounding community by playing shows at youth centers, city sponsored events and holding its own summer concert that features performances by students.
“At the very basic level, music is made to control people’s emotions,” Leon said. “There are many things you can do with music and it is worth noting that many would not be able to do so without our prices, without our caring and professional teachers teaching [them] how to be the best musician.”