Eriana was a shy, sometimes withdrawn sort of kid—until she started attending the Joy of Music School. That’s how her grandmother Norma recalls it. “She’s just blossomed since starting there,” says Norma. “She’s not self-conscious at all.”

Eriana, who is 10, remembers it the same way. “I was quiet,” she says. “But you make friends, and you learn about music, and you don’t feel like being so quiet anymore.”

Her first exposure to the School came four years ago, when Eriana enrolled in General Music, a group class taught by Joe Jordan. “It was really cool,” she says. “He (Joe Jordan) was really nice.”

In 2014 she started taking piano lessons from our Executive Director, Frank Graffeo, an experience she calls “fabulous.” She explains: “I got so hooked by it. It’s just so fun, and you get to learn new things, and it sounds so pretty.”

Eriana practices the piano every day, her grandmother reports. “She doesn’t even have to be told. And she begs to go to the recital.” Her favorite pieces at the moment are Für Else and Pachelbel’s Canon in D.

Her next goal: to take singing lessons. Which, when you consider how shy she was just two years ago, is pretty remarkable. Says her grandmother: “I couldn’t be happier about the Joy of Music School.”