Today we’d like to introduce you to Apt 4 Music .
Hi Apt 4 Music, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Apt 4 Music started with a chance phone call between DJ Villegas and Rice Enright. They had met in 2019 while both working for a music school that was located in Liberty Station, became friends, and had kept in touch since. During Covid, both had transitioned to working from home teaching their students via Zoom. Rice had reached out to DJ about students that he did not have the schedule availability for, and after chatting on the phone for a short time, realized they had a shared vision of keeping the musical arts alive through education. The music school they worked at together was located in Liberty Station had gone under during Covid, and they saw this as an opportunity to pick up the torch where it had left off. So many individuals and families were suddenly without access to music education, and DJ and Rice felt confident they could take their teaching skills and methodology and establish a new organization that would benefit the entire community. A few months and several meetings later, they had signed a lease and opened Apt 4 Music, a non-profit music instructional organization whose mission is to create opportunity in the musical arts by making music accessible and achievable for anyone with an aptitude for it. It is their goal to transform communities globally through music centered programs, services and education.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge was obviously opening a business during Covid. Both Dj and Rice had streamlined the Zoom lesson environment, but there is no substitution for in-person lessons when it comes to music education. It was their hope that Covid would not be permanent, and with careful planning and safety protocols in place, decided to move forward with establishing a brick and mortar teaching facility that would be ready for when people sought out in-person lessons again. Their planning worked! Apt 4 Music opened their doors when the Covid mandate was lifted in June of 2021, offering a mix of in-person and Zoom lessons. The public was still trepid with the idea of in-person lessons, so enrollment was slow at first, but steady. Fast forward to today, Apt 4 Music for music has expanded to offsite schools, including Dewey and Washington Elementary, as well as after school programs in the South Bay Unified School District.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Apt 4 Music doesn’t necessarily specialize in anything, and that’s what sets them apart from others. Whereas many music instructional programs are audition based or a specific discipline, like jazz or symphonic, Apt 4 Music simply wants to give people the opportunity to experience music, regardless of their level of experience. So long as the individual wants to be there, Apt 4 Music will provide the experience. One of their programs, The Music Makers Club, will take a class from never having picked up an instrument before, to composing and recording their own song. The program has not only been successful in their facility, but in the public schools and after school programs around San Diego, and can be tailored to different ages and different lengths of time. For example: The program could be as short as a holiday camp over the course of a week, or over an entire semester.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
For Rice, it was probably getting his first guitar which ushered in his love of music and set the course for the rest of his life. For DJ, it was his father doing plumbing work for a musician down on his luck. That musician paid his father with DJ’s first piano lessons.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.apt4music.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apt4music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Apt4Music
Image Credits
Apt 4 Music Tea’ Renee
