Your Community Music School

Established in 1964, we are the region's leading non-profit community music school, offering high-quality music instruction for all ages in Central Pennsylvania.

Nurturing a love of music for all ages!

Private Lessons

Choose from 20+ instruments at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Our highly trained faculty each hold degrees in the instruments they teach, ensuring you and your family receive the best possible music education. Our goal is to help you achieve your personal best!

Meet the Faculty

Group Classes & Ensembles

We aim to create a nurturing, family-friendly environment where all students are encouraged to acheive their personal best.

Our Location

Performance Opportunites

Each Fall & Spring semester culminates in a Solo Recital, typically hosted at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Waupelani Drive. Hop on stage and share your new skills with friends and family in a supportive atmosphere. Students are also invited to perform throughout the year at community events.

View Calendar

We Serve

All Ages

Did you know that adults make up nearly 10% of our enrollment for private lessons? It is never too late to learn an instrument!

All Experience Levels

We offer beginner, intermediate, and advanced instruction in more than 20 disciplines, with highest enrollment in piano, strings, and guitar.

All of Central PA

While the majority of our students reside in Centre County, we are proud to attract students from a 1,230 square-mile radius, representing 5 counties.

Our Story

For the Love of Music for 60 Years

The Music Academy was established in 1964 by two friends and music teachers, Cinny Schein and Betty Trachtenberg, who lived across the street from one another. After teaching piano lessons out of their homes for many years, Cinny and Betty decided that State College was in need of a more professional setting for music study. They recruited friends and Penn State faculty and formed The Music Academy. Four years later, they had more than 200 students enrolled! The brick house pictured was the home of The Music Academy on West College Avenue for more than 33 years. The burgundy sign still hangs in the lobby of our location today.

Meet the Faculty

Our Faculty

We encourage students of all ages and skill levels to come enjoy music in a supportive, nurturing environment. Many of our students are seeking a professional music career, while others are interested in "playing for fun." Our primary objective is to help you realize your personal best. Our passionate and dedicated faculty members hold degrees (many of them advanced) in the instruments they teach, ensuring that you and your family will receive the highest level of instruction available.

A tradition of excellence

After 60 years of music education, TMA has many notable alumni who have gone on to study at the Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music. Many are professional musicians and have become teachers themselves.

A new generation

We continue to encourage children and adults to pursue music for its multiple rewards: cultivating a new interest, a rewarding educational challenge, appreciation of the arts, pleasure, relaxation, and more.

Find Your Instrument

The true purpose of arts education is not necessarily to create more professional dancers or artists. It’s to create more complete human beings who are critical thinkers, who have curious minds, who can lead productive lives.

- Kelly Pollock, CEO, The Berges Foundation

A note from our Director

Greetings, students and families! We are thrilled to welcome you to this milestone anniversary year at The Music Academy!

As we celebrate how TMA has grown and evolved over the past 60 years, what has been even more striking to me is how much of it has remained the same. The mission printed on our 1964 Charter documents is still our mission today: "to provide young people and adults in our community with an opportunity to broaden themselves and enrich their lives through music." Our goal is not to create more professional artists, but rather to create more complete human beings, who have curious minds, who will lead more fulfilling and productive lives after studying at TMA. I am honored to be a part of this legacy to help ensure that The Music Academy will continue to thrive for generations to come.

By enrolling your children at TMA with our first-rate faculty, you are giving them a gift that will serve them for the rest of their lives. As a fellow parent, I am committed to providing outstanding music education to our students in a safe and positive environment. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at director@scmusicacademy.org if I can answer questions, collaborate on new ideas, or address concerns.

Thank you for the trust you place in us!

Caroline R. Stahl Executive Director, The Music Academy

NON-DISCRIMINATION CLAUSE:

The Music Academy celebrates the diversity of its students and families, faculty, staff and board members. We do not discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, disability or any other characteristics protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.