By Peter Leggett, Walker West Music Academy

At this time of year at Walker West Music Academy, we’re amidst planning for our next fiscal year. We’re reviewing our annual budget and configuring next year’s, forecasting enrollment trends for the year using data from the last, evaluating and reflecting on this year’s program successes and shortfalls and identifying key strategic goals to be achieved in the next 12 months.

2013 looks bright for the Academy and will be a year that we’ll continue to provide our accessible community music education programs to more than 125 students each and every week. We’ll continue to offer individual instruction and ensemble programs to help students grow through music. We’ll continue to provide artistic development programs like the Young Artist Professional Training Program and Digital Music Production Program. Students will continue to have the chance to experience music throughout the summer through the 2013 Summer Music Enrichment Program and the 2013 Summer Jazz Workshop.  The Academy will also benefit from a newly created artistic committee comprised of several faculty members that will help guide the artistic decisions for 2013.

And while we plan and look ahead, it’s also a time for reflecting deeply on the great successes the Academy has achieved not only in 2012, but throughout the past three years as the organization has undergone a massive organizational turn around from top to bottom.  And though we continue to enhance our programs and improve our capacity for sustained stability, we still face challenges that lie just ahead.

The Academy’s aging building will not be able to provide us the necessary accommodations the organization needs for much longer. Built in 1922, the two story landmark location the Academy has called home for more than 20 years is in need of significant repairs and renovations.  As a result, 2013 will also bring with it several choices the Academy’s leadership will need to make about the facility and space requirements the organization will need in the future.

And so as we continue our planning, we look to our students, families, friends, contributors, fellow business owners on Selby Avenue, and residents in the Summit-University neighborhood for support and guidance to ensure we are able to continue to provide accessible community music education well into the future.

To find out more information about Walker West Music Academy or our plans for the future, go to www.WalkerWestMusicAcademy.org or call 651-224-2929.