Studio Teacher Fellowship Award winners share their experiences

American Music Teacher, Feb-March, 2005

Each year the MTNA FOUNDATION FUND selects one recipient to receive the Studio Teacher Fellowship Award. This award is designed to assist independent music teachers in developing and enhancing a newly established music teaching studio. The award is presented to the candidate who most clearly demonstrates a strong commitment to the music teaching profession.

Joanna Grace of Madison, Wisconsin, reports, since receiving the Fellowship, she's been "talked up around town" and now has fifty-one private students and a waiting list as well. The equipment she was able to purchase enables her to make CD recordings of her students playing to further their critical listening skills and give them a sense of achievement by recording their musical progress over the years.

Grace's receipt of the Fellowship has offered opportunities that benefit her colleagues as well. "Attending the MTNA conference helped me make some contacts with clinicians that I've invited to Madison for various workshops and presentations.

"Receiving the award has really put my career in the upswing and opened doors of opportunity that would have been difficult to open otherwise," she states. "I am really happy that I am running such a successful studio and now have the income to take a vacation when I need it."

Klondike Steadman, whose Orpheus Academy opened a year ago in Austin, Texas, was eager to express his gratitude for the Studio Fellowship. "At this moment, we have nearly 130 students and ten teachers," he tells us. "And we expect to reach our goal of 200 students by the end of this semester." The academy offers lessons in multiple instruments, theory classes, programs for both adults and young children, master classes, chamber music and festivals. Steadman stated he finds running the academy and teaching "incredibly exhausting, but nothing could possibly be more rewarding."

Steadman also addressed an unexpected benefit of the award. "The importance of the Studio Fellowship Award cannot be overstated. At the time that we opened this school, I had just graduated from the University of Texas with my D.M.A. and nearly $50,000 in student loans and no savings or property assets. Convincing a bank to loan us an additional $60,000 to start a music school seemed next to impossible. However, the requirement of putting together a business plan for the Studio Fellowship gave us a leg up on the application process, and the award itself was a major factor in convincing the Small Business Association that we were a legitimate gamble for them. The award was also very meaningful in convincing new students that our organization was an excellent place to learn music."

Through the contributions of MTNA members, the FOUNDATION FUND iS able to administer the Studio Teacher Fellowship Award, and encourage and enable members of the profession to engage in lifelong learning and embark on creative projects that benefit both their students and the profession as a whole.