For Adrienne Walsh, founder of Canal Music Studios, Hurricane Ida was a blessing in disguise. When her Lambertville school and the instruments in it were destroyed by the flood, Walsh was amazed by the generosity of people in the arts community — in Stockton, Lambertville, New Hope, and Princeton — who raised over $60,000 through GoFundMe to help her rebuild.
That money and the contributions of private donors, enabled Walsh to reopen Canal Music Studios (CMS) at its new location, 16 Bridge St. in Stockton.
The June 8 reopening also marked CMS’s 10th anniversary. In 2013, Walsh was performing with regional orchestras such as the Symphony in C in Haddonfield N.J., and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. She also taught students privately, on the violin, viola, cello, and piano. Two of her piano students happened to be the children of George Laks, Lenny Kravitz’s keyboardist.
He asked Walsh, “Why don’t we build a bigger school?” and that was exactly what she had been wanting to do for years.
She was able to purchase the building on Bridge Street at a greatly reduced price due to the pandemic. When its previous owner unfortunately passed away, her children put the property up for sale. The floors had been refinished and the walls painted with soothing colors, such as peach in one room, avocado green in another. Walsh has furnished each room with a beautiful carpet and tasteful artwork to create an inviting space in which to learn.
She is particularly proud of three survivors of Hurricane Ida: instruments that were rescued from the floodwaters and miraculously restored. A 100-year-old cello donated by pianist David Ancker was restored by luthier Alejandro Bacelar of Martinsville NJ. Bacelar also saved a German violin dated 1766, after it had been accidentally dropped on cement and shattered.
Five pianos were lost in the flood, but the Steinway, her father’s piano, was the exception. Since it was completely submerged, the piano had to be restripped and restored by Behrooz Salimnejad, a conservator of 30 years at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was also restrung by Peter Reichlin; the instrument’s action will be repaired soon.
CMS incorporates Walsh’s original “vision of a space that would bring musicians and artists together of all different genres.” Recalling the arts shows held at the Lambertville location, she says, “I was romantically inclined to think that music and art could inspire each, as did the French Impressionists. With this new space, she believes “something similar could happen.”
Stockton Town Council President Michael Mann, a painter himself, concurs with her vision. Attending a news conference prior to CMS’s June 10 open house, Mann said, “Canal Music Studios is adding to the future of the arts community. Stockton is a wonderful place, a magical village [with] great painters, great writers, great musicians.”
Also in attendance was Dave Defreese, board chair of the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra (GPYO). He recalled that as a member of the board, Walsh “was invaluable in helping us get through some very challenging times, including the pandemic.” Defreese was impressed with her atypical route to becoming a professional musician and instructor. A GPYO graduate and former concertmaster, she studied violin and piano privately with Philadelphia Orchestra members while in high school. Instead of attending a conservatory, she decided to study computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.
However, when she was 25, the death of her father made her realize “you have a very limited time on this Earth, so you might as well do what you love.” She resumed private study, auditioned for orchestras, and began teaching children herself.
“It’s a great story,” said Defreese. “I’m a big fan of those great stories, because they tug at the heartstrings, they tell something important to the community.”
Performing during the press conference, 19-year-old Coco Brown began violin study with Walsh when she was 7. In the fall, she will continue to pursue a degree in music industry at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where every student has to be proficient in a musical instrument. Brown knows that “in order to improve and get to the level you want to be at, you have to have that discipline, and I like that Adrienne was a bit tough on me. I feel like that really served me well.”
CMS currently has eight instructors; Walsh foresees that the faculty will grow in the coming years (the original CMS had 15 instructors).
“Our teachers have to be kind, but they also have to be adept at their instruments. All of our teachers are professional musicians. That’s our main passion. Teaching is also a passion of ours because we were all inspired by our teachers to be as good a musician as we could be.”
Along with private lessons, group lessons will be offered, as well as classes in voice, theory, and composition. Instruction ranges from classical music to jazz, pop, rock/punk, folk, and musical theater. Walsh also plans to start a drum corp.
“I love playing the drums, and I have so many women who want to study the drums,” she said
To find out more about Canal Music Studio’s offerings, visit the website, canalmusicstudios.com.
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