VOICE, MUSIC ACADEMY MOVES TO BIGGER DIGS
Adriana Zabala’s business now has stage, five studio rooms.
GREENACRES — For Adriana Zabala, a former teacher at Bak Middle School of the Arts, a passion for music sparked a business that has outgrown its confines.
Now, Adriana Zabala’s Voice and Music Academy is in the process of moving from its current location along Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach to a new facility at 5301 Lake Worth Road in Greenacres.
For the past three weeks, students have been transferring to the Greenacres location, and a grand reopening celebration was held Friday.
“It was exactly what we wanted,” said Zabala about the new space, which has five studio rooms and a stage, built by her brother and husband, that allows for in-house performances, group classes and workshops.
It’s a big step for Zabala, who started off small in 2003, offering private instruction to students. By 2005, she saw a significant boost in her business.
“I was teaching private lessons from my parents’ house, and that was all fine and dandy, until it was getting to be (very late) and I was still teaching,” Zabala said. “Students’ parents were sitting in my parents’ living room until nine o’clock at night.”
It was then that she knew she needed to make a change in her business model — she needed a space of her own.
Zabala spent the past six years running the academy from the Dixie Highway location before deciding to relocate to Greenacres.
Chelsea Appel, a teacher at the academy, said that Zabala has become sought after by the arts community, in part, because of her genuine love for music.
“I’ve been to two other teachers in the past and neither of them have the knowledge that Adriana does,” said Charlotte Ostrov, a sophomore at Dreyfoos School of the Arts. “Adriana knows classical music, pop music, musical theater, she knows everything opera, and she knows how to perform them, too.”
“It’s nice to be in an environment where you can tell that it’s not just about the money; it’s (about the) music,” said Appel, who has a degree in vocal performance and was also one of Zabala’s students before becoming a teacher.
“Music teaches you more than just how to perform; it teaches you attention to detail,” said Appel. “For a lot of these kids who are more introverted, it teaches them how to be OK with exploring their emotions and interacting.”