From Provost to pianist: Learning at all ages and levels is embraced at the Athens Community Music School

OHIO students in the School of Music aren’t the only ones receiving a musical education from the University. On the top floor of Glidden Hall is the Athens Community Music School (ACMS), founded in 1979 and continually committed to providing “organized and qualified music instruction in southeast Ohio and portions of West Virginia.” 

Community members can study and take private lessons on piano, stringed instruments, guitar, woodwinds, brass, percussion and voice, either in group or individual lessons.

Wendy Blackwood has been the director of the ACMS since 2017 and is responsible for organizing registration, advertising, fundraising and mentoring instructors, as well as teaching some lessons herself. Among Blackwood’s students is Donald Leo, OHIO’s Executive Vice President and Provost, whose role as a University leader hasn’t stopped him from returning to learning, this time as a music student.

Leo began teaching himself piano about four years ago during his time at the University of Georgia, where he began taking lessons at its Community Music School. After arriving in Athens in 2024, Leo was quick to enroll in the ACMS. 

“I was really appreciative of the fact that I was able to work with (Wendy),” Leo said. “She's very calm and supportive and teaches resilience. I think she understands that my interest in playing at this stage of my life would be different than somebody who's much younger…She understands what I want to accomplish in the lessons and is really, really supportive and just a great person all around.”

The ACMS teaches approximately 400 students each semester, most of whom are children. However, Blackwood said she sees a decent number of adults, like Leo, who are looking for an outlet or personal challenge. 

“Adult students are choosing to participate, that’s what makes it really special,” Blackwood said. “They all come with different reasons. There's one student I know who enjoys the quiet of coming in and practicing here in the building and just having a time to really focus on something that is not related to her work. We have another student who has been a part of community choral programs for their whole lifetime, and this is just another way to get involved in that. We have other adults that are just seeking a challenge.”

As a life-long guitar player, Leo engages with the ACMS as both a way to hone his musical abilities and as a creative outlet. 

“It takes your mind off other things,” he said. “In an interesting way, it's very relaxing.”

At the end of every semester, the ACMS hosts recitals for students who wish to showcase what they have learned over the course of the semester. Leo performed on Dec. 7, along with 119 other students throughout the course of the day. 

“I play a lot at home,” Leo said. “I have a piano at home and have some electric pianos, but doing the recital makes you focus and sort of gives you a goal to set, and that's been fun for me to try to set those, try to make sure that I come as prepared to those events as I can.”

Leo has been able to practice other goal-setting techniques through his piano lessons and is able to combine his many disciplines with his keyboard and a sheet of music. 

“I haven't done much of it, but I want to keep trying to compose things because I'm an engineer and I have dabbled in that a little bit,” he said. “It's interesting because you recognize, first of all, how hard it is, and the similarities between some of the problem solving you do as an engineer.”

Community members like Leo aren’t the only ones benefiting from the program. Over 40 of the current instructors at the ACMS are OHIO students, mostly upperclassmen or graduate students in the School of Music. 

“It’s a way for them to make money, but it’s also a way for them to get incredible experience while they’re here by directly applying the things they're getting in their classes with their own students here in the Community Music School, and they are constantly in conversation with each other about how to improve and what they're learning from their own students,” Blackwood said.

“It's just really rewarding to see the impact that the program is having on the community,” Leo said. “Seeing the young people challenging themselves and learning…I think it's just another great example of how the University really serves its community.” 

For those looking to challenge themselves and exercise creativity through music, registration for the spring semester will open on Dec. 15, you can learn more at www.ohio.edu/acms.