WATERVILLE — A community music school will officially open Saturday at its new space at the Playhouse at Waterville Station at 17 Railroad Square.

Elm City Community Music School is a nonprofit offering private and group classes to people of all ages and abilities in strings, woodwinds and brass instruments, piano, vocals and percussion. The school seeks to create opportunities for innovative music experiences, musical skills development and chances for people to make music together in the community.
“We want to have a musical matchmaking service so people can find others who like to play the same kind of music, or the same level, and form a group,” said Rebecca Green, one of the school’s founders.
A pianist who holds a doctorate in musicology, Green founded the school in 2023 with Teresa McKinney, the Diamond Family Director of the Arts at Colby College, and Sue Barre, chairwoman of the visual and performing arts department at Waterville Senior High School, band director for students in fifth through 12th grade, and music coordinator for the school system.
They launched the effort while discussing the growth of music programs in Waterville schools, the opening of the Greene Block + Studios downtown and the need for a permanent space for Pineland Suzuki School. Classes have been held since 2023 at Waterville Senior High School and Waterville Junior High School, as the founders sought to find a permanent site.
The open house Saturday will be held 9-11 a.m. and sample half-hour classes will be offered in Rhythm Rockers, for 5- to 8-year-olds who explore music through movement; Wee Violin; Drums Alive, which uses music as a venue for exercise; and Community Sing. Onsite registration also will be available. The school’s winter session starts Monday.

The Elm City Community Music School will open Saturday in the newly renovated The Playhouse at Waterville Station, 17 Railroad Square in Waterville, shown Wednesday. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
The school has 15 paid teachers, and more are expected to join. Green, who also is chair of the Waterville City Council, said mostly younger people took classes when the school started, but the number of adult students has been increasing. The school is helping not only to bring musical experiences to the area, but also build the creative economy, she said.
“We keep finding people or they find us,” Green, 64, said of teachers and students. “That is just thrilling to me. It’s a win-win.”
Classes are planned for 3-7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Those wanting more information, to register for classes or to donate to the school may visit elmcitymusic.org.
The school operates on class fees as well as donations and fundraising. Donations have included a $3,500 grant from the Oak Grove School Foundation to start an instrument/equipment bank, a grand piano from Emanuel Pariser and Lea Girardin, and an upright piano from Pro Moving Service. Others have donated money and instruments. Russ Danner, a member of the school’s board of directors, donated a large wooden table and has helped in many ways, according to Green.
“He’s been absolutely critical in getting us up and running,” she said.
Many others, including Mid-Maine Regional Adult & Community Education, have been important to the launching and success of the school, according to Green, McKinney and Barre. That office took registrations for the first year of operation.
HARD WORK AND SERENDIPITY
Barre, 58, said this coming weekend is the school’s one-year anniversary of becoming a nonprofit, with Waterville Creates as its fiscal sponsor. Things moved along swiftly toward growing student and teacher numbers, identifying The Playhouse At Waterville Station as a perfect site, and connecting with organizations and individuals wanting to help propel the school forward.
“I think we’re all speechless that we’re here,” Barre said. “It really took us a year to get here, to figure out how this puzzle was going to work.”
McKinney, who is based at both the Gordon Center for the Creative & Performing Arts on the Colby campus and at Greene Block + Studios downtown, came to Colby in 2020 from New York City, where such grassroots efforts also occur for community music instruction and collaboration. She said seeing it in Waterville is a bit different.
“To me, it’s wonderful because it’s a smaller city but you can see a great impact, to have a hub or space for people to make music, develop skills, perform and eventually get to know each other,” McKinney, 52, said.
Randy Jones and his wife, Lisa, developed The Playhouse at Waterville Station in the former Railroad Square Cinema building after purchasing it and other nearby buildings in 2023 after the cinema moved downtown. Their intent was to create an acting playhouse and cultural events center. The music school rents three rooms totaling about 1,600 square feet that formerly housed a restaurant. The floors have been replaced, walls painted, new heating and air conditioning installed and the rooms refreshed to reflect clean, airy spaces with large windows and plenty of light.
The Joneses bought the building as way to find a permanent home for Aqua City Actors Theatre after it lost its space in 2022, when The Center downtown was demolished to make way for the Paul J. Schupf Art Center. Randy Jones has acted in many ACAT productions and for other theater groups. He also plays trumpet, piano and guitar. McKinney sings and plays flute and piano; Green is a singer and pianist and Barre plays French horn and sings.

The Playhouse at Waterville Station owner Randy Jones, left, is shown Wednesday with Elm City Community Music School founders from left, Sue Barre, Teresa McKinney and Rebecca Green at the school located in the 17 Railroad Square building in Waterville. The group is looking forward to the opening of the school Saturday. The school occupies three rooms in the newly renovated building. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
The excitement was palpable Wednesday at the Playhouse as they talked about the music school and what it brings to the city.
Alex Fulton, another member of the board, has a recording studio, Fulton Street Media Group, in the building. A recording engineer and producer, Fulton, 35, helped design a logo and school website and teaches rock band, do-it-yourself recording and songwriting. He also runs a recording studio at Colby College and is teaching a music production course there this month.
Music school board members, besides Danner, Fulton, Green, McKinney and Barre, are Kate Hunter and Hannah Bard, Mid-Maine Regional Adult & Community Education director.
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