We recently connected with David Chiorini and have shared our conversation below.

David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

The After School Music Academy offers dynamic music and movement programming in the after school enrichment space. I’ve been a music teacher for most of my career and when I was building my business, I decided to make my teachers a top priority. I had experienced every kind of employment scenario, good ones where I felt supported as well as bad ones where I was way under paid and it was painfully obvious that the business that I was working for was only looking out for profit margins.

I knew (and still know) that having the best possible teachers and supporting them in the best possible ways would give the best experience to the students that we serve. I want high quality programming and I want to take care of my teachers. We pay the best in industry rates and offer benefits packages way above what some of our competitors do.

When I set the business up and wanted a community feeling where we all got the opportunity to do good work in a manner that we can all be very proud of. I’m happy to say that this continues to be a guiding light for After School Music Academy.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After School Music Academy works with school districts, charter school networks, and non-profits to bring fun music and movement programming to the after school space. We strive to bring the highest levels of quality in what we do as having the best programming and teachers is what we believe gives the best results to the students. We want the kids to have success with music! Schools are doing a fantastic job of bringing compelling enrichment activities to their student communities and we are thrilled to be a part of this momentum!

I’m very proud of the business that I and my team have built. We put the students that we serve and our teachers as our top priorities. I have always known that taking care of our staff is extremely important. We pay the highest wages in our sector and support our staff with professional development and benefits packages. If the teachers are feeling supported, the students are the ones that benefit. This is a cornerstone in the way we do business.

I also love how our curriculum is innovating in the space. Music pedagogy has not seen much evolution in the last 50 years. We prioritize ensemble participation and we use instruments that are quickly accessible (make a nice sound early in the process). Our is also programming is uniquely adaptable into many different genres of music.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I was working at a school in the SF Bay Area and I quickly became aware of the after school enrichment space early in my time at this particular school. The schools program was incredible! So many awesome programming ideas done in extremely creative ways. One thing that really stood out to me was that there were no offerings for music. As the orchestra teacher at the school, I wanted to get the students started as early as possible so that they would be rock stars when they entered my class in 4th grade. I also saw this as an opportunity to create a business.

We were an overnight success. Parents loved the convenience and music education is definitely on the menu for most parents. After our first year, I shopped the program to the surrounding community and all of the schools that I reached out to wanted our programming. We continued on this path for the next few years and had lots of programs running throughout the Bay Area.

Shortly before the pandemic, we started working with our first non-profit organizations ASEP in SF and After School All Stars in LA. The volume of programs they were requesting made me rethink the structure of the business. A few years later we started partnering with school districts and I’m now proud to saw that we are working with some of the largest districts in the state. It’s truly an honor to serve diverse student communities all through the state and I am blown away when I think of our humble beginnings at my first school in the Bay Area.

I still teach in the classroom everyday and I have no plans to change, regardless of the success of the business.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It’s no doubt that working a full time job as well as being a business owner is challenging. The business that I built is 100% boot strapped. All of the capital that we use came from the business itself. This meant long days starting at 4am and working until dark. I didn’t have administrative help with the business, so every aspect was on my shoulders. On top of this, we had 2 young kids. Crazy times for sure! I am very proud of the success and can look back on those challenging times as a real moment of resilience in my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.afterschoolmusicacademy.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093101143327
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidchiorini/