Music Mentors: Sarasota Music Conservatory moves downtown

By expanding their school’s space, Sarasota Orchestra violinists Léna Cambis and Sean O’Neil hope to also expand their students’ appreciation for music.

By Nick Reichert
| 6:00 a.m. September 23, 2015

Sarasota Music Conservatory co-founder Sean O'Neil (middle) leads students Sommer Altier and Giordano Scarano in a violin lesson.

Arts + Culture

It was time for them to pick an instrument. Léna Cambis and Sean O’Neil were thousands of miles and dozens of years apart from eventually meeting at a party by happenstance in Sarasota in 2002, but the girl from Montpellier, France and the boy from New Orleans had one thing in common: They both picked the violin.

Now the couple, through their Sarasota Music Conservatory, help kids make that same decision.

Sean O’Neil and Sarasota Music Conservatory student Giordano Scarano play during a lesson in the conservatory’s new space.

The organization, which recently relocated to Second Street in downtown Sarasota, began in the couple’s Lakewood Ranch home in 2008. Then named the Sarasota Music Academy, the school was an extension of Cambis and O’Neil’s roster of violin students that they had slowly been growing since they arrived in the area in 2000 and 2002, respectively.

Since then, the music-instruction collective has steadily grown. The couple, who play in the Sarasota Orchestra, expanded their 17-member faculty with their friends and colleagues, which allowed them to offer lessons for every string and woodwind instrument as well as lessons in music theory and solfège (learning to internalize pitch). What started out as 16 students blossomed into 60. In 2013, the school moved out of the couple’s home and into a rental space on 10th Way.

Now with a new name, a new tax nonprofit designation and a new space, the Sarasota Music Conservatory is poised to expand its mission of exposing students of all ages to music.

Sean O'Neil leads Sarasota Music Conservatory students Giordano Scarano and Sommer Altier through a music theory lesson.

“Something I think people will latch onto, especially now that we have conservatory in the title, is that it’s way too serious or exclusive, but it’s not,” says O’Neil. “It’s just about showing some level of dedication.”

“We want people to understand that we can also teach casually, not just students who want to become professionals,” adds Cambis. “The percentage that come out of conservatories in Europe that become professional musicians is around 2%.”

For practical purposes, the Sarasota Music Academy was founded as a for-profit organization so Cambis, O’Neil and the faculty could start teaching without starting a board of directors required for nonprofit institutions. But after four years, Cambis and O’Neil realized that a music school was never going to be and never was intended to be a moneymaking venture. And whenever they tried to raise funds, they hit roadblocks because they couldn’t offer any potential patrons a tax write-off.

But with the school’s recent changes, the couple hopes to attract new donors and supporters. This will help fuel their plans for more public recitals, master classes and international performance programs.

But first, there’s practice.

Cambis walking Joy Chotzistamatis through a difficult phrase in her practice music.

Hidden on the second floor of 1491 Second St. and just behind the door of suite D is a musical explosion. Students ranging in ages from 5 to seniors in high school mingle in the lobby and three separate classroom and practice rooms. Students tune their strings and practice scales, preparing their next recital piece written by a master composer.

In adjacent rooms are students on the opposite end of the musical spectrum. With piano chord charts and toy versions of xylophones and other instruments scattered all around, parents are enrolling their children (some as young as 15 months) into the conservatory’s early musical development program. Cambis and O’Neil and their musical faculty are corralling these musically inclined students on this Saturday. Although the conservatory offers lessons throughout the week, it’s on the weekends during the school year when a good chunk of musical education takes place.

Student Spotlight

“Music is a better form of expression than just speaking. Sean and Léna make playing the violin seem effortless and great. It’s always fun to see what the composers were thinking as you try to understand the music.” - Giordano Scarano, playing violin for eight years.

"I love improving and learning new things about the violin. Taking lessons here helps me grow and become a part of my instrument.” - Sommer Altier, playing violin for 11 years.

"My favorite part is discovering the little individual pieces and movements inside a work of music. It’s one thing to listen a to a famous violinist, but to start learning a piece yourself is thrilling. They always teach me how to play a work how it's generally done, but Sean and Léna let me branch out and do my own thing and add my personal interpretation and touch to a song.” - Joy Chotzistamatis, playing violin for 15 years.

And with such a wide range of ages, Cambis and O’Neil not only see these students as their extended family, but they also see a little bit of themselves at that age.

“I treat them like my own children,” says O’Neil. “Sometimes it’s hard because you see a part of yourself in them that you don’t like and parts of yourself that you really like, but you have to let them become their own musicians.”

And though they have had students go on to study music in college and pursue music professionally, Cambis and O’Neil aren’t after a masterpiece in each student. They just want make sure they can hit all the notes that life has to offer.

“It’s a big responsibility,” says O’Neil. “I really feel strongly when I see their progresses, successes and them learning from their failures. I want to make sure when they leave and move on from us that they are more prepared for life than I was.”