July Studio of the Month – The Catoctin School of Music

Our interview with The Catoctin School of Music of USA

SH: Tell us about your studio.

 The Catoctin School of Music is passionate about music, education and how we share that in our community. Our rooms are spacious, climate controlled, comfortable, quiet, well-lit, with plenty of room for teacher, student, and parents. And if you wish to not sit in the lesson, we have several waiting rooms with comfortable seating and lots to read and do while your child is learning. We strive to make our studio feel like home and we hope clients are comfortable studying here. Our school is comprised of 15 teachers plus one full time administrative person- seven full time teachers with salary and benefits and eight part time teachers– and about 450 students. We currently teach about 256 hours of lessons a week in all disciplines (strings, woodwinds, brass, voice, piano, guitar and percussion).

 CSM’s philosophy in a nutshell is that the study of music is a lifelong pursuit. Our mission is to support our lovely Loudoun County (and the world beyond) by training wonderful musicians: savvy students who crave learning and teachers who inspire and collaborate with us to create beautiful music. We believe if you can imagine and immerse yourself in music, together we can apply the right tools to grow and nurture your craft and soul. Then out into the world you go with excellence and purpose; using music to inspire the very best out of everyone and everything you encounter in life! Each day we are blessed with the privilege of introducing students to their dreams…our dreams: music and education!

SH: What is your experience, and the style you teach?

“Wayne’s World Music” (the former name of CSM) was officially created as an LLC in 2003 with the 40 or so students Wayne (husband/owner) had “collected” and the small studio Jennene (wife/owner) maintained. Wayne worked full time in the business of teaching lessons while Jennene worked part time teaching and full time for a local land developer. Simultaneously, Jennene was also pursuing her doctoral degree in Higher Education Administration (GWU) and in the fall of 2004 Jennene came on board full time and the studio steadily grew. We added new teachers (2005-2007), new commercial space (2007) and in the spring of 2011 we had grown to the point that we thought we needed to rename the business and step out on faith for future expansion. The Catoctin School of Music was officially born! Thank God!

 Each of our faculty has degrees in music, many having completed Master’s and Doctorate coursework and degrees. We focus on classical note reading, theory, and disciplined practice while also incorporating modern repertoire and techniques. We pair enthusiastic, passionate, exciting and knowledgeable artist-teachers with each student, resulting in highly creative private lessons, classes, ensembles, summer camps and special events.

 
SH: Why Choose CSM?

(In no particular order because we think these are all EXCELLENT reasons and equally important for our diverse client base)

•  Accreditation – National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC), Music Teachers National Association, American Choral Director’s Association and Suzuki Association of the Americas. We are also now a founding school in the Achievement Program by Royal Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Hall!
• We welcome every student! Our diverse faculty is equipped to handle varied learning styles! Full time education specialist onboard!
• Specialties like Suzuki and Sassmannshaus!
• Exceptional faculty with Masters and Doctoral degrees who are well trained and student friendly! Our faculty puts 110% effort into each student with individual expectations tailored to each student’s needs and abilities!
• We offer continuous 12 month learning straight through the summer with a flexible makeup policy for accommodating summer vacations!
• We offer Parent Education Classes for our new families to make their experience here at CSM an enjoyable one.
• Fantastic central Loudoun County location in Leesburg!
• Faculty members are performers as well as teachers. Visible in the local, regional and national arenas!
• Cohesive/coherent methodology and pedagogy that is well established and continually evaluated.
• Dedicated, full time office staff to handle all scheduling/communication and administrative needs of our clients.
• Philanthropy efforts! CSM actively supports the local Salvation Army! We are proud to be the largest single supporter of Angel Tree program and Tools for Schools in our local region, offering hands on volunteer opportunities. Internationally CSM supports the Mbaka Oromo Primary and Secondary Schools in Maseno, Kenya where we provide direct financial support to their music program at that school!
• Community Outreach – students and faculty perform at a variety of venues in the local area: public schools, private schools, community theatre, Very Special Arts, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, area churches and synagogues, and ECHOworks (Every Citizen Has Opportunity).
• Close ties with the Loudoun Symphony and the Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestra!
• We have a terrific makeup policy! Best in the area! Just try us and you’ll see!
• We work alongside our public and private school music colleagues to provide a seamless transfer of learning back and forth between private lessons to classroom learning.
• Our private instruction rooms are large and comfortable and have excellent technology in each room, that benefits learning!
• We offer multiple student recitals per year (included in tuition), ensembles, summer camps, classes and ensembles, some of which are merit based and some fee based.
• For the convenience of our clients, we carry in house the basic supplies for students. Books, Tuners, Metronomes…
• We also offer client portals through Studio Helper so our clients can see their accounts and class schedules 24/7 online.
• We have a rental guitar program for our young classical guitarists.
• We have long and established relationships with many vendors such as Potters Violins in Bethesda! An excellent source for renting violins, violas, cellos and basses! And Melodee Music here in Leesburg! A wonderful place to purchase your Rock gear!
• Our pricing is a great value! We are right in line with our competitors but clients of CSM get way more value for their dollar!!
• Our large size (500+ weekly students) and our cross discipline atmosphere gives our faculty and students an edge! We regularly roundtable with our faculty, parents and students on strategies and methodologies that can be applied cross discipline! A unique way and innovative way to study music!

 
SH: How do you manage your studio?

We manage our studio with Studio Helper, our custom built website and our Chief Happiness Advocate (our full time administrative employee). Also each full time teacher has 10 hours of administrative duties that they are responsible for each week. We use a variety of programs such as Naxos Music Library, Media Fire, Spotify, Smartmusic and other technology to provide the best in music education.

The Catoctin School of Music is proud to partner with several vendors, organizations and teaching methods whose services and methodology we use in our studio. See below for more information on some companies and groups that make CSM’s greatness possible!

 
 Professional Organizations

 CSM is a member of The National Association of Music Educators, American Choral Director’s Association, Suzuki Association of the Americas, and Music Teacher’s National Association.

 Special Curriculum Offerings

 CSM is pleased to offer you Suzuki Guitar taught by our registered Suzuki Association of the Americas teacher Patrick Fritz and Sassmannshaus Early Childhood Strings taught by our certified Sassmannshaus teacher Marc Powell.

 The Achievement Program

 CSM is proud to be the only founding school in Virginia for the Royal Conservatory Music Development Program, a syllabus based music assessment that fits right in with our CSM philosophy.

 Web Host

 InMotion Hosting is one of our proud affiliates. We have tried several other web hosts but no other service gives us the quality, support and features for our dollar.

 
SH: What are your plans for the future?

 At CSM we don’t wait for the future…we are an agile company who is constantly reeducating, retooling and revamping as needed. We believe strongly in teacher education and training and offer Alexander Technique classes to our staff and faculty as well as an annual Teacher Summit day of training. At CSM we also roundtable regularly with everyone to toss around ideas and suggestions that we can put into immediate use. Some of our newest things on the table are Skype lessons which we piloted last summer, 100 & 365 Day Practice Challenges, brand new CSM Parent Mentor/Buddy Program for new clients, Parent Education classes, March Music in the Schools Month (partnership with our local school district), Music Together Program for early childhood music and Bring a Friend to Lesson Day.

 With a more long term view we are looking to continue to increase our overall enrollments and help build our strings program here in Loudoun County. We also hope to continue to build our newest studio (brass) in house. Finally we are also looking for a larger permanent home for CSM with recital space (outdoor and indoor).