Popular Danvers center for music classes celebrates 30 years
Reading resident Darren Muise, owner of The Music Connection in Danvers, is celebrating the business’ 30th anniversary.
DANVERS — Though The Music Connection has been teaching students how to play instruments and sing for 30 years, owner Darren Muise doesn’t consider his business a school.
“We are a cooperative of teachers,” he said, sitting in front of a piano students regularly use inside of the two-story High Street business. “When I hire a teacher, I let them bring their own things into what and how they teach. I think the teachers are more comfortable that way.”
That method has worked for three decades, a milestone the business has been excited to celebrate over the last half year.
First opened on Enon Street in Beverly in April 1995, The Music Connection was a way for Muise to share his love of music on his own terms.
Originally from the Midwest, Muise moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music. He began teaching music at a studio in Medford shortly after graduation, and took over the business when the owner decided to sell.
That agreement lasted a whole two days before the original owner decided he didn’t want to give up the studio after all.
“For two days, I owned my own business, and I thought that was kind of cool. So I said, ‘I think I want to do that.’”
Muise opened The Music Connection a few months later. He provided lessons on piano, guitar, drums, saxophone, clarinet and more, along with vocal lessons.
Soon, he was married, a father, and inspired to teach young children.
Muise moved the business to a 5,000 square-foot space in Essex in 2003. He expanded it to become a multi-art center called Kidsworks with his then-wife, where they offered music lessons as well as preschool gymnastics programs and dance classes, even operating a hair salon out of the space.
The location ended up being too far away for many of their clients. So they moved to a spot next to the Liberty Tree Mall in 2007, but had to downsize again when the recession hit in 2008 and many could no longer afford music lessons.
Muise has been at 67 High St. since. He now employs 16 instructors and offers lessons in both private and group settings. Kids, teens and adults can take vocal lessons and learn instruments fit for classical music, jazz tunes and rock bands.
His Rock Band program is especially popular with the business’s young learners. Usually held during week-long sessions in the summer, kids who have never played together learn rock songs as a group and perform as a band by the end of the week.
“Some kids are a little more advanced, so they’re a little more comfortable. Some kids are just learning. We work with them all,”Muise said.
The business commemorated its anniversary with a celebration in November, but the spirit of turning 30 is lasting into this year.
Some of his staff have been with him since nearly the beginning, like Randy Leventhal and Erinn Brown. Others started out as students at The Music Connection, including his son, a 28-year-old Beverly High School and Salem State University graduate also named Darren Muise.
“I’ve been teaching for 11 years, so I base my lessons now off of my personal experiences,” his son said. “It’s very cool being on the other side, seeing my influence on them so that they can grow to become musicians themselves.”
Muise senior is confident The Music Connection will be around for another 30 years. By that point, it’s likely the grandchildren of former students will be coming through the business’s doors, ready to learn.
“Thirty years on, there’s lots of students who now have their own kids and are bringing them here for lessons,” he said. “It’s been great to see that, the difference that we’ve made for people by bringing music into their lives.”
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.