Music To Our Ears -Winter 2015
by: Lindsay Pykosz
photography by: Cary Hazlegrove
On any given day, the sounds of a piano, violin, guitar or people signing can be heard inside 56 Centre St.
On the second floor, instructors teach lessons in private rooms, and in the basement, high-school students learn the basics of how to record their own music.
Nantucket Community Music Center executive director Barbara Elder moved to the island in 1981 to become the organization’s director. After a career as a music teacher in the school system, she retired and is back at the NCMC.
The building, which has been home to the Nantucket Community Music Center for the past year and a half, has become a place where all types of music can find a home under one roof.
Coming back to the island to teach at the NCMC has been a dream come true for Greta Feeney, a Nantucket High School graduate who teaches voice lessons, is a lyric soprano opera singer, music scholar and music educator. The organization has always been a big part of her life, she said.
“Teachers don’t have to work as hard on recruiting because the building has raised awareness in the community that private lessons happen and they happen in a way that works for parents. Before, it would be one lesson here, one lesson there, and it creates a level of disorganization that can be frustrating for parents. Here, we have a sense of flow,” she said.
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