Founder Sabrina Perry moved to Perth-Andover, New Brunswick in July of 2020 and was met with the news that the local free after-school music program had recently closed leaving a large gap in the community for quality orchestral music education as well as after-school communities for children and youth. She immediately began to research the needs of children and youth in the community, and, after discussions with community members, she began to envision a music academy that could meet these diverse needs.
Drawing on her previous experience working for various social music programs across Canada, Sabrina founded Grace Notes Music Academy to meet these needs. The mission of Grace Notes is to ensure that every child and youth has access to a quality music education so that the power of music can be used to create a community in which all children can grow into healthy and thriving adults.
The heart of Grace Notes is the after-school program which seeks to meet the need for a safe and joyful community where students ages 5-12 are empowered to grow not only into excellent musicians but also confident, caring, ambitious, and thriving adults. The whole health and development of each student is nurtured through music, nutrition, movement, and community.
To meet the needs of students who are not within the age range for the after-school program or who would prefer a different format of music education, Grace Notes also offers group violin/fiddle classes and individual lessons. Group classes allow for both the formation of community and lower tuition costs as students of all ages can split the cost of the class to learn and make music together. Individual lessons offer one-on-one instruction for students with personal music goals.
Finally, to meet the need for affordable music education and to ensure that every child and youth has access to the life-changing benefits of a quality music education, Grace Notes Music Academy incorporated as a non-profit. This allows Grace Notes to offer partial and full scholarships to students who would not otherwise be able to participate in our programs.
Grace Notes believes in the power of music to create community and change lives and looks forward to using the power of music to serve the community of Perth-Andover and surrounding areas as well as online students from across Canada.
