Our mission
Our mission is to enrich lives and build community by providing inspiring music education and by offering performance and listening opportunities.
Our guiding principles
Create a comfortable, open and friendly environment for music students, faculty, performers and audiences, with a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.
Throughout the year, provide high-quality, affordable, inspiring music education suitable for the wide-ranging interests of our community.
Offer excellent performance and listening opportunities for all who value music.
Build and maintain an effective team to support a creative and financially sustainable school.
Be good stewards of our historic property.
Who we are
Mountain Top Music Center is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit community music school and performing arts center located in Conway, New Hampshire. Our mission is to enrich lives and build community by providing inspiring music education and by offering performance and listening opportunities throughout the area. We use music to build community through group study and performance, shared listening, and mutually respectful, inter-generational, multi-cultural musical communication. More than 350 people participate in our lessons, classes, workshops, and community ensembles each year. We offer progressive, coordinated music education to students of all ages. For children we provide developmentally appropriate instruction aimed at nurturing the means for music expression. We offer adults a way to begin or extend their musical skills and expertise.
Mountain Top Music Center presents a variety of concerts bringing the work of our students, community ensembles, and faculty to the community. We also present professional musicians and ensembles, sometimes in collaboration with other non-profit organizations. Recognizing strong potential for growth in this area, MTMC successfully led a capital campaign to renovate Conway’s long-neglected Bolduc Block and Majestic Theatre into teaching and performing space. Since 2021 we have operated the renovated theatre as a prominent regional performance venue. In 2022 we added a 50-seat café-style venue for more intimate performances. We continually strive to link our communities of students, performers, and listeners, seeking to expand where possible through providing inspiring performing arts experiences.
Mountain Top Music Center’s faculty comprises outstanding teachers and performers from the Mount Washington Valley and surrounding communities. The faculty shares the philosophy that great teaching and learning takes place in a constructive and supportive environment. Lessons are tailored to the age, skill level, interests, and learning goals of each individual student.
What we teach
Mountain Top Music Center offers private instruction for ages 5 and up at all levels and in any genre. We offer lessons on all orchestral and band instruments (strings, winds, brass), plus harp, piano, bass, acoustic and electric guitar, voice, and percussion. Lessons in additional instruments can be arranged. Affordable instrument rental, tuition assistance, and payment plans are available.
Our lessons and classes are primarily in person with occasional exceptions. In contrast to online lessons or video courses, in-person study offers the benefits of highly personalized guidance, observation, and support that is difficult or impossible to achieve remotely; real-time and customized technique and posture correction to prevent injuries and strain; the use of MTMC’s equipped studios, facilities, music technology, and instruments; camaraderie and community amongst your fellow musicians; performance and professional opportunities.
Who we teach
Private Lessons
Private lessons are appropriate for students ages 5 and up and all abilities, and are an extremely effective way to improve a musician’s solo and ensemble playing or to begin learning an instrument in the most impactful and injury-free manner, with highly customized and detailed support and guidance from your 1-on-1 instructor. Students enrolled in the private lesson program have the opportunity to perform in recitals and informal gatherings throughout the year.
Early Childhood, Youth & Teen
Mountain Top Music Center provides coordinated music education to all ages and skill levels, from babies to elders. For very young children, Munchkins and Melodies, Keyboard Kids, and more provide foundational music skills to support early learning and brain development. Our partnerships with area schools and childcare organizations provide music programming that enriches and complements music and arts activities for children in the wider community. The Top of the Mountain honors program provides masterclasses, performance opportunities, and additional resources for teens wishing to focus on their musicianship.
Adult Learners
Adult learners make up a significant and active part of Mountain Top Music Center’s community. In addition to private lessons, we offer ensemble opportunities tailored to adult musicians.
Performance and ensemble opportunities
Students in the private lesson program have the opportunity to perform in recitals in the Majestic Theatre, community and local events, gigs, and other performance events throughout the year. More advanced students might even wish to schedule a solo recital or share a recital program with a friend. MTMC has successfully launched a number of professional, working musicians throughout the years, including supporting audition prep, music business and career guidance, connecting student with appropriate professional gigs, and more.
Ensemble experiences build both musicianship and friendship. Groups include:
- Jazz Band for Adults
- Chamber Ensembles
- Piano Duetters
- Singers’ Workshop
- Cover/Jam Band
- Strings After School
- Beginning Ukulele
- Youth Ensemble
and more.
The Mountain Top Music Center Community Orchestra brings together students, faculty, community members, amateurs, and professionals alike to collaborate on orchestral repertoire and perform several concerts per year in venues around the region. The Orchestra often collaborates with other performing arts groups in the area.
Land Acknowledgment
Mountain Top Music Center is located on Apíkwahki (Clear Valley Lands Bordering A Crooked Stream, Pequawket or Kchitegu, now known as Conway), on N’dakinna (Our Land), which is the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Pequawket, and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land and waterways, including the Sαkóhki (South Place, Saco River), and the alnôbak (people) who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations. We recognize that some of these peoples currently lack federal recognition and acknowledge the hardships they continue to endure after the loss of unceded homelands.