Owen Heritage, director of Community Music Alliance, also teaches keyboard lessons at the nonprofit’s New Albany music center. The organization is seeking additional funding to support its lessons program. Brooke McAfee | News and Tribune
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SOUTHERN INDIANA — Community Music Alliance (CMA) has seen an increased demand for its free music lessons as it expands services in the Southern Indiana community, but the nonprofit needs additional funding to cover the cost of the lessons.
CMA relies on donations to keep its operations going, and the organization is seeking additional support from the community to keep up with the high demand.
The nonprofit offers a wide variety of music lessons at its community music center at 215 W. Spring St. in downtown New Albany, and recently, it started offering music lessons in Corydon.
Owen Heritage, director and founder of CMA, said if the organization does not receive more funding, it will likely have to cut back on the music program.
“We were in good shape financially because we had a number of large donations that gave us a nice little cushion of a few thousand dollars, but it has dwindled, and in fact, it disappeared completely,” he said. “We were just able to pay the expenses at the start of this month, and it left us with basically zero.”
Heritage said CMA’s goal is to make music readily accessible to everyone in the community, and he feels that music is “so much more than just a hobby.”
“As far as we know, there is no other organization that does quite what we do to try to make [music] available to everybody,” he said.
Angie Moore and her son, Dylan, have been taking music classes from CMA for about a year and a half. She takes voice and ukulele lessons, and Dylan takes keyboard and drum lessons.
“They’ve just been amazing,” she said. “My son has some cognitive delays, and all of the teachers that he’s had have just been incredible about working with him and being patient and working with him at this pace and helping him move forward.”
Moore appreciates that students also have the opportunity to perform in recitals, and students can learn music that fits their own interests and skill sets, she said.
The program has been an accessible way to get her son involved in music, she said. CMA also loans them the instruments at no cost.
“My son is talking about playing the cello and the harp, and who knows what else he’ll end up with,” Moore said. “You can try out different instruments to kind of see what you like, and you don’t have to put in that big investment.”
CMA offers group music lessons for those ages 7 and older. It also offers the “CMA Kiddies” class for children up to 6 years old, which allows them to learn singing and rhythm.
The organization currently offers a broad array of music classes in New Albany, including singing, guitar, drums, harp, violin, cello, double bass, viola, dulcimer, ukulele, flute, saxophone and music theory. In Corydon, CMA is only offering ukulele and the Kiddies classes.
The organization also offers community programs such as an orchestra, choir, free concerts, a recording studio, rehearsal space and jam sessions.
MEETING THE DEMAND
The recent expansion into Corydon has led to increased expenses, especially as the response was larger than expected. CMA pays its music teachers in advance before they receive donations at the classes.
The lessons program is the biggest service offered through the nonprofit, and they are also the most expensive.
Jenny Davis, treasurer for CMA, said the music lessons in New Albany have also seen increased class sizes in recent months.
“So we’ve had to add classes [in New Albany] and classes in Corydon, which is great,” she said. “It’s really exciting to be doing it, but it does come with some expense, and the donations we’ve received with these new classes have not covered that expense.”
The organization has recently faced a shortfall of more than $1,000 per month.
“Last month, we had a budgeted goal of [about] $3,500 in donations, which we did receive; we hit that goal, but our expenses for lessons were [about] $4,500 because our expenses are more than expected,” Davis said.
If CMA does not receive enough donations, it might have to scale back on lessons with smaller class size while maintaining well-attended ones such as keyboard, drum and guitar, she said.
CMA also intends to expand in the Charlestown area but needs space for lessons and seed money to support that expansion. Many people are coming from that area to attend classes in New Albany, Heritage said.
He said most donations are from people involved in the classes and other programs offered through CMA. Although everything is offered without charge, donations are suggested during programming.
“In the past, we’ve traditionally paid about 50% of the cost of the lessons from the people actually taking them, and the rest of it we’ve got from fundraising donations from the community,” Heritage said.
CMA is encouraging support through donations and fundraising campaigns, and on May 18, the organization is partnering with Zesto in New Albany for a fundraising campaign.
Students in the classes can help by attending classes regularly, since the organization pays for their spots in class even if they do not show up, according to Heritage. It also helps if they notify CMA if they are dropping the classes.
CMA is also seeking volunteers to keep the organization moving forward, whether that is helping with administrative duties, promotion/marketing or cleaning the New Albany building.
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