“Private music lessons at our Lutheran school? Would we have what it takes to pull it off?”
If these questions are on your mind, be encouraged! With practices already in place like regular chapel and with faculty who are often trained in or familiar with excellent musical experience and skill, Lutheran schools are one of the most ideal places to establish and operate a center of music education.
Yet even if ideal, you may face concerns regarding parent/student interest, busy schedules, and a fundamental rationale for establishing a music conservatory at your school.
First, parents and students are definitely interested in private music instruction! Having teachers of piano, voice, guitar, or organ teach from your school campus provides a great resource for these parents who otherwise look outside of the school for private music instructors. Private music lessons housed at your school mutually benefits the lesson teachers, since many of the necessary resources (e.g., instruments, space, word-of-mouth interest, etc.) become immediately available and can potentially expand their own studios.
Second, providing private music instruction at your school helps ease the burden many families face with managing increasingly busy schedules. Many Lutheran schools allow music lessons during the school day or during before/after-school care hours, even as this requires wider cooperation among school staff. Fortunately, Lutheran schools uniquely have loving, cooperative faculty and administrators who are willing to pursue what is best for their students.
Finally, one of the main reasons David’s Harp encourages the establishment of centers of music within Lutheran schools is to equip the students to proclaim the gospel clearly and beautifully through music, wherever their skills may take them. Besides opportunities to play in chapel, there will be a natural outgrowth of performances in your community, such as in bakeries, museums, churches, and nursing homes, leading to greater interest both in your school as a music center and in the gospel. But the most powerful reason to establish a center of music instruction within your school is due to evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in the children have been baptized and confirmed after studying at a parish-based music conservatory, and for the families have been brought into church membership. God is at work!
Stay tuned for more information on this page about specific schools that are actively establishing centers of music.