Owner Maureen Owiti opened Sugar Land Music School in its current location in 2008.[/caption]Maureen Owiti always knew her calling was to be a teacher. Growing up, her parents noticed her love for music as a young child living in Kenya, Africa, and she spent most of her life training to become a pianist.
“I think teaching is something I was born with,” she said. “For a long time my parents always knew I was going to be a teacher; they just didn’t know what I was going to teach. Then
they saw my love of music come up, and then my mom encouraged me to take lessons.”
Owiti moved to Houston in 1992 to earn her music degree from Texas Southern University. After graduating from TSU in 1999, Owiti worked as a music teacher in Houston for two years before she opened the Sugar Land Music School in Missouri City in 2002. She later moved the school to Sugar Land in 2008.
Owiti said she founded the music school to provide students with private sessions instead of leading group music lessons.
“With my skills in music I thought I could do more good working on a one-on-one basis,” she said. “That desire to have my own [school] was already in me, and I did not last very long in the [Houston] school system.”
The music school initially serviced 23 piano students during its first four years in business. In an effort to attract additional students, Owiti moved the music school in 2008 to its permanent location in Sugar Land. Owiti said the school now teaches 300 students and offers beginner and advanced lessons for many instruments, including guitar and violin.
Nevertheless, the school’s piano lessons remain the most popular offering and have led Owiti to develop different curricula for adults and children. She said she tailors each lesson to strengthen a student’s hands and fingers and to improve their ability to read sheet music.
“There are books you follow so it is very simple,” she said. “The books are set up in such a way [that] when the student first comes in, they are able to identify the placement of the keys on the piano. Then you are identifying finger numbers.”
As the music school continues to expand its student base, Owiti is also expanding the school’s international footprint by preparing students to participate in the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music exams. The ABRSM is a London-based organization and is the United Kingdom’s largest music education institution that issues prestigious certifications to musicians. The certificates issued by the ABRSM are recognized by many international music organizations, she said.
Owiti said ABRSM’s exams not only help students diversify their college applications, but also help students become internationally recognized.
“For a lot of students here, [the exams] are something they feel they need for college applications to show they are well-rounded,” she said. “I have students from countries all over the world, and you want to give them [a certificate] that is recognizable.”
Note for note
The Sugar Land Music School offers private music lessons for a wide variety of instruments including:
piano | violin | cello | voice | guitar
The school also provides students an opportunity to test with the Royal Schools of Music. The ABRSM provides exams for:
- Piano
- Music theory
- Violin
- Flute
- Singing
- Clarinet
- Trumpet
- Saxophone
- Cello
