Hello Everybody!

There are a lot of updates in this note, so please review it carefully.

Registration Information

I will be calling you individually to ask about registrations, and if I miss you, I will send the re-registration ‘invitation’ from the system which will bill you for your first month to hold your spot.  If there are any issues or questions, please text me back at the office number at 416-651-7529.

We will target the same day/time combinations for families.  For lessons there are very few recommendations for lesson extensions, but these may cause the occasional 15m bump across schedules.  We will flag these for you.

Please complete your registration as soon as possible.  Thank you!

Rate Increases

We are struggling along with you on the inflationary front, and must do some increases this year.  They are specified below.

Please Refer Families to ABC – we need your help!

Since the pandemic things have changed for everyone around us.  Between our costs of living, and large world events, our business has shrunk to a level that is operationally poor.  As always we’d ask that you consider referring us to your friends and other families that you know.  Here’s what you both get:

• Lessons:  20% off the coming school year (= 2 months free off your most expensive set of lessons, the new family 20% off all their lessons)
• Music Together: 20% off 1st child registrations (saves $199.94 per year – siblings are already discounted heavily, always)

By using the referral, you reduce your costs significantly, and help us grow and offset our growing concerns.  Remember to tell your friends to mention your name so we can apply the discount to both families!

Music Together

First, please note that there will be no classes this summer.  We apologize, but all of our teachers will be taking large blocks of time off that will make it impossible to juggle them in an overlapping way like we normally would across locations.

Secondly, please note our rate is increasing from $97.64/month to $99.97.

Please consider referring new families to ABC.  See below for the very aggressive referral program we have – you can save a lot of money while helping us grow, and keeping our wonderful teachers busy.

Lessons

Lessons will be available for the following teachers at Conway (and online) only this summer:

• Emma, Thursday evenings
• Thomas, Thursdays
• Gergely, Thursday target, but likely away over some weeks in July.

Summer is more flexible!

Unlike the school year the summer is flexible.  You can choose some weeks, or all weeks.

For kids up to 12 years old we strongly encourage at least some lessons at semi regular intervals to avoid learning leakage.  Up to this age-ish, kids developing neural pathways need regular enforcement and repetition before they become permanent, and this is a powerful strategy to keep that information and interaction with music alive through the summer.  It can be very frustrating for kids to come back and find they have taken some steps backwards, plus you will have spent a lot of time and money on building those skills up over the school year.  A few strategically placed lessons will make a big difference to starting in the fall.

Summer is a Parent’s Secret Weapon

If you add up the months from the time your child starts Senior Kindergarten and goes through High School graduation, you get a full 2 additional years of educational opportunity for them.  We don’t think they should be full-time in the summer, but strategically choosing some activities during these periods can have a huge impact on their development.  Naturally we think music is top of list, and here are some reasons why compared to other academics:

• communication one-on-one and in groups is a core skill
• we never leave if we haven’t finished performing (a completion skill…if you run out of time on a test it is just over!)
• presentation skills are weekly work – valuable for interviews, boardrooms, and large groups/conferences
• self-improvement is ongoing, we are always reaching to improve ourselves and our output

Lesson rates are increasing for the following lessons:

• 30 min. from $51.76 to $55.38
• 45 min. from $62.81 to $64.81

Hinna is Coming

Hinna is the name of our new software to manage bookings, billings, and the basic operations that Opus1 currently handles.  We have been building it for almost 3 years, and would like to roll it out over the summer.  There will likely be a ramp up of communication around this, and we’ll ask for your patience as we get it up and running.

WHY Hinna?

Like many businesses technology has been very empowering, but as it has improved, grown, and changed, we are flooded with disparate tools that take too much time and money that actually detract from our ability to be focused on families.  Most of the paid tools available are also charged in USD, which is extremely painful at the current 40% exchange rate.  We needed to make our ability to operate and grow simpler, and with less spending so we can continue to avoid tuition increases.

You may begin to receive emails from Hinna, or text messages from Barnaby (or Pat, the AI concierge).  If you are unsure about these being legitimate, feel free to call or text the existing office number at 416-651-7529.  Pat will be heavily gated and should never ask about, show, or discuss your personal/sensitive information.