By Gordon Brown
Lawrence Today magazine, Summer 2003
It started with two conservatory alumnae, two pianos, and three students. Nearly four years later, Prairie Music Academy, LLC, in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, has an additional seven employees, including two more Lawrentians, and offers instruction in piano, guitar, voice, violin, viola, cello, and music for very young children to more than 150 students.
Business partners and founders Lana Robotewskyj, '94, and Kari Walton Engleson, '92, say that they never really knew each other at Lawrence, despite both being in the piano studio of Theodore Rehl and pedagogy students of Kathleen Murray, now dean of the conservatory. After graduation they went in separate directions to pursue master's degrees, Engleson in Louisville, Kentucky, and Robotewskyj in Madison.
"Years later," Robotewskyj says, "we bumped into each other at a music store — both piano teachers to the store's students and working slaves to our employer. One day I walked into her room, and we both blurted out at the same time, 'Let's open our own school!' The rest is history; we put together a business plan, received funding from the bank, rented retail space of about 1,700 feet, and opened the doors to Prairie Music Academy in October 1999."
It was, of course, not quite that simple and by no means easy. Both alumnae have had to work at other jobs in addition to running their own business, but perseverance — and a certain amount of perspiration — has brought success, growth in enrollments, and the prospect of moving to larger quarters and offering more instruments.
Their teaching philosophy, like that of the music education program at Lawrence, emphasizes performance.
"Success is learned, not taught," says Robotewskyj. "By performing, students learn self-confidence, self-esteem, and, most importantly, leadership skills and ability. We encourage our students to perform and provide them with as many different performance opportunities as possible.
"We have become part of the Sun Prairie community by taking part in the Groundhog Day festivities, performing at the annual Sweet Corn Festival, and providing holiday music at the senior living and nursing centers. We teach our kids not only music lessons but lessons about life."
Two other conservatory graduates — cellist Michael Allen, '84, and pianist/vocalist Shad Wenzlaff, '94 — teach at Prairie Music. The Lawrence influence, however goes far beyond that, the founding partners say.
"Our best role model was and is Kathy Murray, who taught us basically everything we know in the pedagogical sense and really instilled in us a drive to teach with enthusiasm and love for our students," Robotewskyj says. "We've achieved success because of the tools that were given us to use, and now we are giving those tools to our students.
"We owe our achievements to Lawrence, and because of our great teachers, we are able to spread the magic of music to others — and make a living at it."