TESS makes music for five years
By CHRIS BOSAK
This year’s annual Playdown concert put on by students of Norwalk’s Talent Education Suzuki School (TESS) will take on extra meaning.
More than 150 TESS students, aged 3 to 19, will help the local company mark a business milestone by playing in a Fifth Anniversary Celebration Concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 7 at the Norwalk Concert Hall. The students will play instruments such as violin, piano, cello, flute and guitar. The concert is free and open to the public.
Rebecca Christopherson, CEO and music director of Norwalk TESS, opened the business in 2005 in the East Avenue United Methodist Church. Later in 2005 the business moved to its current location at 3 Quincy St.
Now that she has surpassed the five-year hump, surviving even the economic doldrums of 2009, Christopherson can now turn her attention to outlining the company’s future.
“Having made it five years, the vision for the future of the school is crystal clear,” she said. “In the first five years you are experimenting a lot and figuring out what the clients want. Now we have a clear idea of where the school is going.”
One area Christopherson and TESS of Norwalk will concentrate on expanding and improving is the school’s elective offerings. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, Christopherson had a university venue where she could expand her musical talents and feed her musical interests. That type of venue, she said, is lacking in the area.
“We’re offering creative electives, as if we are the university. You can take musical history, jazz piano, electric violin — any number of supplemental activities that doesn’t replace your core lessons with private teachers. It’s a way to be able to try other things and expand your musical experience. It’s a very novel idea for around here.”
Another key to her company’s success, she said, is sticking to the game plan. Many companies will do whatever a customer wants, but compromise quality in the process, she said. Sticking to the TESS philosophy has kept her business moving forward.
“The biggest reason we’ve been successful is hard work. It’s a commitment to what we do. We know what we do and we know what we don’t do,” she said. “The Suzuki method requires parental involvement. If a parent doesn’t want to be involved, we recommend other places — and there are good ones out there. It would dilute our program if we tried to do things we don’t do.”
Brian Griffin, vice president of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce, said sticking to the company’s standards has served Christopherson and TESS well.
“Becki and the team at TESS have done a phenomenal job in growing their business and achieving a position of high esteem within the realm of music instruction,” Griffin said. “They approach the school with a focused business mentality, while still maintaining a very creative and educational atmosphere. A true gem in our community.”
Christopherson also credited her work with Jim Malski of Action Coach, a Westport-based business consulting company, with helping guide TESS in the early stages.
“That gave us a grip on the financials,” she said. “We had the musical aspect, but it’s a business and there are true costs involved with having a business. Jim was helpful in putting a system in place to run a business.”
Christopherson has also immersed herself in the Norwalk business and arts communities. She is active with the Chamber of Commerce, Norwalk Arts Commission, Suzuki Association of America and is a board member with the American String Teachers Association.
“If I want my music business to thrive in Norwalk, it behooves me to want the community to have a strong cultural connection,” Christopherson said.
She passes that sense of involvement on to her students. Once a month TESS students play a free concert within the community at places such as the Norwalk Senior Center and Stepping Stones Museum for Children.
One of the highlights of her first five years in business was an experience that proved her students are taking a sense of community to heart. As Christmas approached, a Jewish family with two children enrolled in TESS asked Christopherson if she knew of a place where they could play on Christmas Day. On the holiday, five TESS students played at a senior center in Stamford.
” I was so pleased that they embraced that principle of giving back,” Christopherson said. “They saw how much their music touched others.”
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