School changes course with virtual summer classes

CORNWALL — In 1986, musician and entrepreneur Kevin Dolan started a small music education venture, providing lessons to children and adults.

The venture became Musical Associates, owned and operated by Dolan and a staff of professional musician teachers. His wife, Josephine Cannella, taught music in the Avon Public Schools. Eventually, Musical Associates became the Village Music School. When Cannella retired in 2019, she joined her husband and became the school’s director.

Since the founding of the Village Music School, Dolan’s focus has always been simple: To provide music education to children in first and second grade using a system of letters, not notes, to encourge the child to become comfortable with the keys of piano or the strings of a guitar. They quickly learn simple tunes, like “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

By continuing lessons and practicing at home with their parents, by the time the children reach third grade, they are ready to learn to read music. Dolan has also established a Village Music School Foundation, to provide funding to children whose families can’t afford lessons.

Changing course

Before the pandemic hit Connecticut, the school, which has no physical location, brought lessons to aftercare programs in local school districts.

“The business model we use is that we partner with aftercare programs, and provide group instruction into groups of four to eight children,” Dolan said. “School ends at 3 p.m., and if a mom works until 5 p.m., she’s looking for vendors such as ourselves to provide enrichment programs.”

Dolan would sometimes partner with a parent-teacher organization, which would subsidize the music lessons for students; or directly with a school district.

After the state closed public schools in March this year in response to the coronavirus, the Village Music School had to change its method of teaching, and chose a virtual format with the same teaching approach.

“With the pandemic, aftercare programs aren’t on the map anymore,” Dolan said. “This year, we also decided, since we have the foundation, to offer reduced cost lessons, recognizing that music classes might be a burden to families.”

This year the school is offering scholarships to families who are enrolled in the state’s free or reducedcost lunch program for low-income families. “We were going to partner with an educational program (like EdAdvance in Litchfield) but that didn’t work out, so we decided to do it ourselves,” Dolan said.

The need-based scholarships come through the foundation. Scholarships are determined using a sliding scale to Litchfield County families who participate in free and reduced lunch programs.

The Village Music School is now offering four-week, small group online summer music instruction sessions to beginner musicians, ages 5-12. Registration for the weekly lessons in guitar, violin and piano is now open. At the end of the

Village Music Center / Contributed photo Village Music School guitar student Brody M. plays “Ode to Joy" in a video filmed for the center in Cornwall.

Kevin Dolan / Contributed photo Village Music School founder Kevin Dolan and his wife, co-owner and instructor, Josephine Cannella. The school is located in Cornwall.