Facility creates musicians 'the Austin way'

Kurt Phillips has always loved music.

His wife, Atha Phillips, shares her husband's enthusiasm in a slightly different way: While he keeps his fingers busy on a guitar, she keeps hers busy on the books.

Together, the couple runs Lone Star School of Music, a business dedicated to cultivating peoples' love for the art.

From listening to albums in his adolescent bedroom, to pinballing around to different colleges studying guitar and theory, to writing a movie soundtrack, the musician's career is a medley of different musical experiences.

"I started by playing Aerosmith tunes in my bedroom when I was in high school," Kurt said. "I had seen MTV and thought, 'Okay, I can probably play guitar.' I was listening to the Eagles, Van Halen and even Janis Joplin."

Kurt studied jazz guitar at Wichita State University and was studying music theory at Kansas University when he said he reached a point where he'd have a choice between homework and gigs.

He temporarily took a break from school, and eventually moved to Chicago where he met Atha and finished a degree in classical guitar at The Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Soon, the two moved to Austin where Kurt would rub elbows with other musicians downtown at The Elephant Room, eventually forming the TRES Latin jazz trio with bassist Mike Rosch and percussionist Noah Mosgofian.

In 2006, Kurt was giving lessons to students out of the couple's house in East Austin. Atha had a career at Whole Foods—which just happens to be opening a location a few doors down from their school—when she asked her husband where he was taking his love for music.

"I knew that I could do the front end of it and he could do the programming end of it," she explained. "It was sort of a perfect marriage."

"Creating musicians the Austin way" is the banner that Lone Star School of Music is built upon and maintains. The school runs a relaxed, creativity-fostering environment that one might find uncommon in traditional music instruction.

"We're not the ruler-on-the-knuckle kind of school," Atha said. "There are those schools if you want that, but we want kids to love music. We don't want it to be a chore."

Lone Star offers a wide variety of classes for both adults and children. Instructors teach everything from banjo to violin.

The school's programming includes a Wee Rock program for toddlers, Little Rock program for young children and a Rock Band program where children form bands and have gigs scheduled for them. Kurt also offers a "guitar dojo" which is structured like a karate class where students can earn different degrees of belts (guitar straps).

The school will also begin offering Skype lessons for those people who are short on time—something that is unique to Austin, according to the duo. It's part of their strategy to expand their presence in the city, including two more locations in Austin and possibly diversifying elsewhere.

Lone Star School of Music, 4301 W. William Cannon Drive, Austin, 712-5187, www.lonestarschoolofmusic.com