How to Discover Music and Art at Any Age

This article is sponsored by Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts.

Life is looking pretty different these days, but at Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts, students are still learning, exploring, and creating!

Through an innovative blend of virtual and in-person classes, Executive Director Chris Duncan and her team continue to offer first-rate instruction and a great variety of artistic experiences. The result has proven to be a win for Frisco families – a safe and flexible way for students to grow and interact at a time when the connection is needed most.

Best of all, Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts offers an exciting curriculum for all ages and skill levels. The school offers professional instruction in music, dance, art, and theater, beginning with preschool age students and continuing to adult learners! Every member of the family can make the most of this most unusual season.

For children:

Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts is a magical place for children! With dancing princesses, puppet shows, rainbow paint, and joyful music, FSMPA encourages kids to learn, imagine, and explore.

It is the home of Frisco Creative Arts Preschool, a real arts preschool with daily high academics, music, art, dance, and theater. This integrated curriculum provides students with a great academic foundation, as well as daily art experiences.

Several times a week, the FSMPA also transforms into a faraway kingdom for Around the World Fairy Tale Ballet, an “enchanting” class that blends dance instruction with an introduction to world cultures. All of the preschool-age offerings at FSMPA combine professional instruction with imaginative, interactive teaching techniques to nurture and inspire young learners.

The School also offers a wide variety of music, art, and theater lessons for students ages four and up. These experiences are designed for elementary-age children, with choices for every skill level and interest. All of the classes are taught by professional artists and teachers, with the highest level of expertise and technical skill.

But, at FSMPA, excellence is also fun! Offerings are thoughtfully designed with age-appropriate themes (like Disney music or The Greatest Showman) and include lots of moving around, laughter, and interaction. They understand the hearts and minds of children and have designed a creative curriculum to challenge, inspire, and delight!

Chris Duncan, founder executive director of Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts, is passionate about the benefits of the arts for children. She says,

The research is clear and reveals that music and arts activities enhance the higher brain functions of abstract reasoning as well as spatial and temporal conceptualization in children. What we see every day at our school is that students learn success, self-confidence, and leadership throughout repeated opportunities for movement, singing, and instrument playing. We also see first-hand that vocabulary and speech are greatly increased and expanded in children who can explore music, art, dance, theatre, and enhanced academics.

For teens:

At FSMPA, teens are heard, inspired, and celebrated! Participating in the arts offers teens opportunities for social and intellectual growth.  The arts are proven to help teens grow and connect, which is more important these days than ever before. The arts also encourage interpersonal interaction, boost maturity and empathy, enhance logic skills, and build confidence. Chris Duncan explains,

Our wonderful tweens and teens here at FSMPA grow socially through music and the arts. Being successful at something we can personally hold close is HUGE. This we can carry through the rest of our lives, learning to be successful and have self-confidence in personal relationships and our career.  It is very profound.

She adds that private lessons can be especially beneficial to teens. Working with a professional teacher one-on-one who can offer the student their complete attention can help them feel important. In fact, this may be one of the very few times each week that the student is really heard by an adult.

Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts offers weekly music, art, and musical theater selections for teens. Chris notes that musical theater classes, in particular, offer a very accepting place for students who may be shy or not ready for a larger show or spotlight.

For the performing arts, the school holds three yearly stage shows in their Frisco Performing Arts Center. For visual art (like mixed media and drawing), students participate in three judged art gallery shows, complete with awards and certificates.

For adults:

And let’s not forget adults! FSMPA offers a variety of lessons for adults, including piano, guitar, violin, voice, and ukulele. Adults even have the opportunity to perform! Chris says,

We have an Adult Musicale Performance once a year for students 18 years and older, by special invitation, and held in our Frisco Performing Arts Center. This is a special time when friends and family are invited to cheer on our brave adult students!

We have many adult students in lessons who are amazing! Adults who are starting an instrument for the very first time that has been on their wish list forever, and adults who are coming back to lessons they may have put aside for college or to grow a family or career. If you ask me, we never forget the positive feeling of conquering a skill and the feeling of deep-down pride that comes along with it.

Flexibility and Creative Learning:

Flexibility and creative instruction have always been priorities at Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts, with classes offered seven days a week through innovative instruction techniques. These days, flexibility and creativity are more important than ever before.

Chris and her team have responded to the current challenges with energy and optimism, continuing to offer first-rate instruction through a variety of formats. Teachers are on campus, but families can choose to participate in online lessons or on-campus lessons.

Chris says this has been working very well and notes the school’s dedication to health and safety procedures for in-person instruction.

We are following all current guidelines for health and safety. Our procedures currently include masks, taking temperatures of all who enter the building, students only in building [parents can view lessons online if they wish], hand-washing, complimentary hand sanitizer and masks upon request, LOTS of social distancing since our group teaching rooms can expand with folding walls – no other school in the area has this option. And our Summer Camps have reduced student/teacher ratios according to the state guidelines (sold-out by the way)!

This fall, FSMPA is dedicated to continuing to offer high-quality arts education to our community. With that in mind, the school will offer a wide variety of in-person and virtual experiences.

Frisco Creative Arts Preschool will be held on-campus with expanded classroom spaces, while music and art lessons will be offered both virtually and on-campus.

Right now is the perfect time to try a new experience! Frisco School of Music and Performing Arts is ready to help budding artists of all ages grow, discover, and connect.