Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Wagner and Steven Kramer.
Julie and Steven, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Steven and I met at a summer music festival while pursuing our graduate degrees in music at Yale and at the University of Maryland. After graduating, we spent a few years teaching and performing around the greater Washington D.C. area, before deciding to move back to Steven’s home town of San Diego in 2013. After moving to San Diego, we began to gradually grow our teaching studios a little at a time, teaching in people’s homes and in shared classrooms at churches. Eventually, we had enough students that we were able to open our own studio location in Rancho Bernardo where we are today. It was a slow process at first, but we’re very happy with where we are today, and we love the Rancho Bernardo community where we are located.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We took a pretty big risk when we left our established performing and teaching careers on the east coast to move across the country and start from scratch. We gave up a lot when we left, and I think we expected that it would be a quicker start once we settled in San Diego. We didn’t have a lot of money saved or any funding to start a business quickly as some do. Rather, we started very small, with very little expenses, and were able to grow gradually to where we are today, but it definitely didn’t happen overnight.
Please tell us about Muse Academy of Music.
We teach private music lessons to children and adults mainly in the Rancho Bernardo community and surrounding areas, although we do have students who come to us from as far as Chula Vista. Steven teaches piano and winds, and I teach strings. We love that we have a great group of dedicated students who stay with us for a long time, and we are able to build great relationships with those students and their families. It makes it a joy to go to work every day! One thing that sets us apart is our credentials. We both have advanced degrees from some of the best music schools in the country, and we are happy that we are able to use our experience to help the next generation of young musicians.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Julie: Some of my earliest and favorite memories of learning music as a child would be my dad teaching me to play piano (he claims I could read music before I learned to read.) He also played guitar for us all the time, and I specifically remember him singing us the “Chattanooga Choo Choo”!
Steven: I remember my first concert with the San Diego Youth Symphony at Copley Symphony Hall. I had never played in an orchestra before, and I was playing principal oboe when we performed Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, which has a very famous difficult oboe part. I was so nervous the entire concert, and then after the difficult passage had passed, I remember the great feeling of satisfaction and pride. I think that’s one thing that kept me pursuing music all these years.
Contact Info:
- Address: 11828 Rancho Bernardo Rd.
Suite 213
San Diego, CA 92128 - Website: museacademyofmusic.org
- Phone: 856-495-7773
- Email: info@museacademyofmusic.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Muse-Academy-of-Music-152215111627273/
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