Private Lessons Have “Nurtured and Encouraged” Fine Arts Since 1960s

The Ravenscroft Fine Arts Department stands tall among the school’s robust slate of distinctive offerings for many reasons — from its impressive faculty of professional musicians teaching on campus daily to the customized facilities our musicians, actors and artists enjoy and the outstanding accolades both students and teachers earn across the arts community. But what many Ravens may not know is that the department is home to the oldest cocurricular program in the school’s history: the private lessons program.

The program started in the 1960s, with 12 students learning piano in the bell tower on Tucker Street. Over the years, it has grown and evolved and today is one of the pillars of instruction in the department, each year serving nearly 200 students who are looking to deepen their craft across a range of instruments and in voice. Thanks to the support of school leadership and teachers across campus, the program provides regular, one-on-one learning experiences during the school day, giving budding musicians in first through 12th grades the opportunity to hone their crafts with convenient access to the school’s superb fine arts faculty and facilities.

Here, we explore the history of this program and hear from some of the Ravens who took advantage of the program to hone and elevate their craft.

Longtime private lessons student Anna Sonntag ’25 opens her violin case in this photo from 2014.

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“Something unheard of in independent schools”

Ravenscroft began offering piano lessons as an addition to general music programming in the 1960s, when it was still a small primary school in downtown Raleigh. Becky Bradley, who would shape the private lessons program for decades, was hired in 1967 to teach these lessons on a part-time basis. When Ravenscroft’s then-president, Verne Hawes, organized a formal Fine Arts Department at the new location in North Raleigh in the early 1970s, Bradley became a full-time employee and was tasked with managing the growing rosters of students and instructors in the program, then called applied lessons.

Group violin lessons followed soon after, and from there, the program expanded to include private lessons in all major instrument groups as well as vocal music.

Bradley noted that her own journey as a piano player informed her teaching and leadership style. “I really have to practice,” she explained. “I have short fingers, but I have a sense of determination.” She passed along to her students lessons about diligent practice, learning to analyze music and how to approach performing even when they were nervous.

Becky Bradley — seen here in a 1971 photo from the Corvus yearbook — was hired in 1967 to teach private piano lessons at the Tucker Street primary school and shaped the Fine Arts program for decades; Karen Massey Parker ’74 and Christie Nielsen Hicks ’74 perform a duet in this photo from the 1971 yearbook.

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That approach — caring about students while inspiring them to be their best — has been a hallmark of the private lessons program ever since. David McChesney, who will retire from his 20-year role as Director of Fine Arts this spring, began his tenure at Ravenscroft as a private lessons instructor for trumpet in 1999, which he said has made him a “fierce advocate” of the program.

As both the school and the program grew, fitting private lessons into the school day became increasingly complicated, and it was difficult to find examples of other schools that were doing so. With Ravenscroft’s switch to an eight-day rotation schedule in 2015, the department found a solution.

“I went to the mountains, and I hiked, and I thought, until it came to me,” McChesney remembered. “It was a huge puzzle, but now we can actually see students for more minutes and with more frequency.”

Partnerships with other departments have been an essential part of the program’s continued viability. Students often take lessons during scheduled times for Physical Education, Study Hall and lunch. “The symbiotic relationship between P.E. and Fine Arts has allowed us to do something that was unique and unheard of in independent schools,” McChesney concluded.

The program is notable as well because it has continued to succeed even as many other schools have trimmed or eliminated arts education in the face of budgetary constraints.

In this photo from the 1980 Corvus, strings student Deming Herbert '86 performs for her Middle School classmates, one way students in the private lessons program shared their accomplishments with the school community; trumpet student John Bower ’03 performs during his senior recital in this photo from the 2003 Corvus.

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“I wanted to pay it back”

Philanthropic supporters from across the community have also contributed to the department’s ongoing success, over the years directing gifts to fund fine arts programming.

One such gift came all the way back in 1974, when Raleigh business leader and philanthropist A.J. Fletcher took notice of the school’s outstanding music offerings and offered his financial support. Scholarships from his namesake foundation have helped students pay the additional fees for private lessons, which inspired annual concerts in his honor to showcase those students’ talents.

Philanthropist A.J. Fletcher (third from left, with band and choir teacher Charlie Burt, President Verne Hawes and Coordinator of Fine Arts Joe Rice) smiles as he greets private lessons students in this photo from the 1975 Corvus; Upper School private lessons students Meredith Krull ’98, Rebecca Fiore Jellie ’97, Seth Drewy ’97 and Gretchen Hogg O’Briant ’97 prepare to perform in the A.J. Fletcher Honor Recital in this photo from the 1996 yearbook.

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One such Raven who went on to a career in the performing arts has proudly paid it forward. William Joyner ’80 is an associate professor of vocal music at the University of North Texas, which boasts one of the largest music schools in the country. He has performed more than 50 opera roles in 12 countries, and he credits Ravenscroft Fine Arts with inspiring his love for the art.

“In ninth grade, we sang Schubert’s Mass in G Major, and I remember having an out-of-body experience, like I was floating. Had I not gone to Ravenscroft, I wouldn’t have had that kind of opportunity or that kind of experience,” he said. Joyner, who in 2013 became the school’s first inductee into the Fine Arts Hall of Fame, also credits his French classes for giving him a head start as an opera singer, as he estimates that 40 percent of the work he has performed has been in French.

Joyner noted that his three years of private voice lessons at Ravenscroft were covered by funds from the A.J. Fletcher Foundation. To show his gratitude, he and his wife established the William H. Joyner Family Fund for Music, which funds private lessons for three Upper School students each year.

Members of the Ravenscroft choir including William Joyner ’80 (second row, third from right) perform for the public in this photo from the 1980 Corvus; Joyner performs as Jimmy Mahoney in Kurt Weill’s “Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny” at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in 2005. Photo courtesy of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

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“I wanted to pay it back,” he said. “I count my blessings that I was able to go to Ravenscroft.”

Over the years, numerous Ravens like Joyner have created endowments that support the Fine Arts Department, including the Hunter Family Scholarship in the Fine and Performing Arts, the Johnson Endowment for Music, the Weiler Family Fund and the CBHT Thespian Endowment Fund.

This year, 185 students are taking private lessons, learning from 15 instructors. McChesney noted that these instructors include full-time faculty as well as performing musicians whose credentials range from being members of the North Carolina Symphony, principal violinists from “every regional orchestra,” and musicians who run their own ensembles — “from 18th-century baroque music to salsa.”

“This is a college faculty working at the secondary level,” Choral Director Robert Strebendt, who serves as coordinator of the private lessons program, said. “Educationally speaking, there’s nothing better than one-on-one lessons. You can tailor the repertoire and meet that student exactly where they are.”

As they have since the days of A.J. Fletcher’s gifts, students showcase their learning at one of eight recitals each year.

Instrumental private lessons students from the Class of 2013 perform together during their senior recitals, a hallmark of the private lessons program, in this photo from the 2013 yearbook; private lessons instructors for the 2024-25 school year include (front row) SK Chipley, Kelly Nivison, Pamela Kelly, Melodie Bobbitt, Amanda Schreiner, (back row) Matthew Parunak, Robert Strebendt, Rebecca Ledford and Tasi Matthews.

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“A very fertile field for the arts to flourish”

While the private lessons program has adapted and modernized in many ways over the years (imagine scheduling lessons for 200+ students from ages 6 to 18 with only pen and paper!), it continues to be a point of pride for Ravenscroft nearly 60 years after its inception.

“When people tour the school, we show them the private studios so we can show them the things we can do,” McChesney said. “Ravenscroft has been a very fertile field for the arts to flourish.”

Alumni of the program agreed. William Moss ’03 took private lessons throughout his time as a student here, first in piano, then in French horn after a brief stint playing trumpet. His brother John ’04 took private lessons in trumpet, while brother Alex ’07 played saxophone.

William Moss ’03 performs on the French horn — one of three instruments he studied through the private lessons program — in this photo from the 2003 Corvus; Moss (back row at left) is pictured with other seniors in the Duke Symphony Orchestra in 2007.

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One memory that sticks out for him is auditioning for the All-District Band for the first time as a sophomore — and the growth that followed.

“I knew it had not gone well, but I was surprised to see that my score was the lowest of anyone who had tried out,” he remembered. Motivated by that experience, he worked to prepare for an audition for Governor’s School of North Carolina later that year — for which he was selected — and went on to make the All-District Band as a senior.

“I can thank [private lesson instructors] Dr. Campbell and Dr. McChesney for that,” he said. “The technical side was my weakest, and years of being forced to practice it for private lessons helped me improve.”

Private lessons students gather for photos following their senior recitals in 2016; multi-instrumentalist Hannah Ramusevic ’18 is recognized as a graduating senior at the May 2018 All-School Band Concert.

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Moss went on to play in the Duke Symphony Orchestra for four years. Now an attorney in the Baltimore area, he plays occasionally at home but enjoys seeing symphony performances when he’s able. “My time in the orchestra at Duke and all through Ravenscroft gave me a lifelong appreciation of classical music,” he said.

Hannah Ramusevic ’18 also took private lessons in multiple instruments — piano, clarinet and saxophone — and said the range of options had a significant impact on her growth as a dedicated musician. 

“Having the background in basic music theory from my piano lessons actually helped me get comfortable on my other instruments a little quicker than if I hadn’t taken them,” she said, adding that private lessons also allowed her to improve her technique at a pace that suited her. “[In ensembles] the director is picking something that everyone will be able to play together, so it was very beneficial to work on lesson repertoire that pushed my abilities.”

After Ravenscroft, Hannah went on to study music in college. She now works in arts administration and still plays for fun.

Whether alumni of the private lessons program simply enjoy music today or pursue it professionally, this unique offering has left a lifelong impression.

“Ravenscroft had a huge impact on my life and my career path,” Joyner concluded. “I made the arts my career, but the bigger picture is that Ravenscroft nurtured and encouraged that. In some ways, I still try to teach the way I was taught at Ravenscroft.”

Violinist Benya Wilfret ’25 (to the right of Director of Strings Pamela Kelly in photo at left) and vocalist Grace Parker ’28 (back row, second from left in photo at right) — both shown performing at the 2024 Upper School Holiday Concert — are among the nearly 200 private lessons students today who make the most of opportunities to refine their craft.

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At top, private lessons instructor Claudia Hinson works with a student in this archival photo from the 2019-20 school year.