Isa Rodriquez was signed up for piano lessons when she was 6.
Her family lived in Washington state at the time and as she was homeschooled her mom, Paige, wanted to introduce music into the curriculum.
“At first it was OK,” said Isa, 11. “Then I started to like it a little bit more.” That was five years ago. When the family moved to Brandywine, Isa and her sister, Cecelia, 9, signed on as students of music teacher, Lori Davis.
Isa and others will perform Oct. 16 at Christ Church in La Plata as part of a concert to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Music Teachers Association of Charles County.
Founded by a five piano teachers who met through the area music stores such as Ralon’s, Bullock’s and O’Neil’s, the group held its first meeting in September 1986 for people who wanted to talk about practices and lessons.
“We are pretty lucky,” said Judith Dalton, who served as an officer in the association for 23 years and was the founding president. “A lot of places don’t have music stores anymore.” Charles County has added another music store Island Music Co. in recent years as well, Dalton pointed out.
Over the years the association has grown to 19 members, most of them teaching piano, but there are flute and vocal instructors too. The association, an affiliate of the Maryland State Music Teachers Association and the Music Teachers National Association, established a scholarship in 1988 to honor a founding members, Norma Killen Scott. The award is given to high school seniors who study with an MTACC instructor. In 1993, the association added a festival to its activities with about 140 students participating in adjudicated solo and ensemble recitals. Three years later, it added a Sonatina and Sonata festival which is a competive, adjudicated event.
In addition to the recitals and events, the group also holds workshops, master classes and forums for its members to continue their music education.
A career is born
Dalton, who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, always knew she wanted to be a musician.
“There was nothing else I wanted to do,” she said. But her parents weren’t keen on shelling out for piano lessons. Dalton’s mother was an artist, her father sang in the church choir, but they didn’t really like the piano. So Dalton started taking clarinet lessons in the fourth grade and would steal away to friends’ homes to play their pianos. Finally, she got her wish and the family bought a piano and parked it in the living room. There were many a times Dalton rolled the piano down the hall to her room to escape the bustle of the room where the television was housed.
Her love of music led to a job as an elementary school music teacher. Then, after having children and deciding to stay home with them and playing the organ at church, a friend asked when Dalton was going to go ahead and start her own piano studio.
Her husband, Bruce, came through on his promise to get her a baby grand piano and set it up in the family’s living room and Dalton started giving lessons.
Soon the family was wading through stacks of sheet music piling up in the living room prompting Bruce to convert a room in the basement into a studio that now houses two pianos, an organ and a computer that is used for some lessons.
Pop goes the piano
Amanda Lee, 15, a sophomore at North Point High School, is one of Dalton’s prize pupils.
She, like Isa, started playing when she was 6.
“I saw a program on TV that [featured] a real good pianist and I thought, ‘I want to do that,’” she remembered. The family had a piano Amanda’s mother dabbled in it as a kid but “it didn’t see much action,” she said.
Amanda takes lessons once a week and tries to squeeze in practice about an hour a day. She likes banging out more pop-influenced tunes like those by Journey or Queen.
She will play Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the Peanut’s Linus and Lucy theme at Sunday’s concert.
“Charlie Brown is part of my childhood,” Amanda said of her selections. “Everyone loves Linus and Lucy.”
As a student concentrating in bio-tech studies, Amanda is interested in becoming an anesthesiologist, thinking of piano more of a hobby than a passion.
Unlike a guitar, she can’t just pack up a piano and head to college. But the skills she’s learned will be with her forever.
“I love playing the piano,” she said. “It’s fun for me and everybody enjoys listening.”
staylor@somdnews.com
