It’s not everyday that one sees a piano being wheeled down
Monterey Street, but when music teacher Candace Fazzio gets an
invitation to play, it’s
”
have piano, will travel.
”
It’s not everyday that one sees a piano being wheeled down Monterey Street, but when music teacher Candace Fazzio gets an invitation to play, it’s “have piano, will travel.”
“With us, it IS about the music, and we’re glad to share with any appreciative audience,” she says about playing in this summer’s Fifth Street Live music series.
And when she brought her piano earlier this summer to Sue’s Coffee Roasting on Fifth Street, it was standing room only as more than 50 people squeezed into the small shop to hear Fazzio play.
Fazzio is Director of Monterey Street Music Academy where she teaches piano to students ranging in age from 3 1/2 to 89. Also known for her exquisite and lyrical playing style, Fazzio is in demand as both a lecturer and a performer.
This week her plan was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Music Academy with a gala concert and open house. Instead, Fazzio finds herself dismantling her business, including an accumulated inventory of electronic organs, small keyboards, kids’ books, and student-level and advanced piano music.
At a time when there is so much talk of the future Cultural Center and the need for attracting viable businesses to Gilroy’s downtown, the Music Academy can no longer afford the increase in rent for the space it occupies at 7423 Monterey Street.
Fazzio and her fellow Academy music teachers have been priced out of the center of the historic downtown, where her Academy has served as a hub of musical activity for the area, providing intimate performances and lectures by many south bay artists.
“I’ve survived in this business for 30 years, and 10 of them have been in a commercial location, which is what has gotten me into the predicament in which I seem to be at present,” Fazzio says. “There are several businesses that have hung on in the historic downtown in spite of the opinions expressed by other columnists about how downtrodden the downtown is, many of these businesses having even more years than mine.”
The life of a local artist is rarely easy.
“I make a poverty-level income on part-time work. I practice every day,” Fazzio says. “I believe in living within one’s means, and that things should pay for themselves. The arts should be participatory, both for the performer and the listener.”
Fazzio believes that people are never too old to learn something new. She finds that many of her students’ mental limitations are self-imposed and that the majority of students learn to overcome other limitations, such as time restrictions or physical limitations including stiff joints or arthritis.
Fazzio expects to be able to bring most of her students with her to a new location. “I have great families. I think most of them will not squawk about a different facility, as long as it’s clean and reasonably convenient. I hope that they have begun and continued in lessons with the Academy because of the quality of our teaching, and not because we’re in such a great building.”
Fortunately, by the time you read this, Fazzio is preparing to move to a new location in classrooms at the United Methodist Church at 7600 Church St., where she can continue giving lessons as of Monday.
Fazzio is thrilled: “My students won’t have to lose any instruction time, which is really important to me.”
