An orchestra of sounds fills the complex at Frisco School of Music: a piano melody, the strum of guitars and a stampede of footsteps from young dancers.

At one end of the main building, one can hear the tunes of Jimi Hendrix; at the other end, Johann Sebastian Bach could be playing.

Frisco School of Music is the largest arts school in the Frisco area, offering group and private music lessons, as well as theater, dance, voice and art instruction. The school is also home to the Frisco School of Performing Arts and the Musical Arts Schoolhouse preschool. The school has more than 1,100 students and more than 40 teachers on staff.

Frisco School of Music opened 16 years ago at the intersection of Main Street and Preston Road.

“Preston Road ended here at Main Street in the year 2000,” co-owner Chris Duncan said. “There was dirt. So we sort of took a gamble [moving there].”

Despite the gamble, Duncan and co-owner Steve South took the leap of faith to open the school with piano, guitar and voice lessons. The two “blew it out of the water” over the next six years by increasing enrollment and adding more programs.

The school quickly outgrew its space, and Duncan and South took another leap of faith when they began building a new location with more than twice the amount of space.

“It was very scary,” Duncan said. “I remember walking in the front door. I’ll never forget it. I started walking around—because we hadn’t moved in yet—and I thought, ‘What were we thinking? How are we ever going to have this many students?’”

But room at the current facility filled up, too, after opening in 2006. Since then, the school added a second building for the School of Performing Arts—which focuses on theater and dance—and the preschool.

South said he and Duncan plan to expand the school as needed. The complex can accommodate up to about 2,000 students, but the school will need more space as the Frisco community grows, he said.

One thing Duncan said sets Frisco School of Music apart from other arts schools is the group classes. The group lessons allow students to be social and learn from each other, she said.

South said the other thing that sets the school apart is the experiences students have while taking music lessons.

“You can literally learn to play guitar or learn to play piano on YouTube, but what you can’t do is get the experience we provide,” he said.