We recently connected with Maria Hart and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Seeing the suffering of so many on this planet has been the biggest motivator to help wherever possible. Having years of experience in Special Education, Music and Educational Psychology, it has always been a deep passion to assist the underserved and help access the innate create genius in every human being, regardless of age, perceived ability, or any other delineating factors that us humans tend to come up with. Music crosses all barriers and reaches deep into the places that supposedly can’t be reached, changing lives and bringing together communities and minds that have been devastatingly separated.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Music is a language, the universal language. Being a Special Education/Music teacher with lots of work in educational psychology, it seemed inevitable to create an inclusive community where ALL beings can enjoy and learn music in the way that any language is learned. This project is called DaVinci Center for Musical Arts. Music IS a language and when learned firstly by ear, then reading and writing it, all the while creating original music, solo and in groups, it becomes clear that the learning processes for music and the spoken language are exactly the same. Friends, family and community all enjoy this together!

This natural approach to learning music has opened up many doors, especially for preschoolers, who gain the most by starting piano in the early years. Those who begin piano in the preschool years and develop to a fair proficiency actually grow a larger brain size and have abilities far beyond their non-musical peers. The research is staggering! In addition, our neurodiverse and Alzheimer’s/dementia/special needs friends are helped in many ways. The DaVinci Center for Musical Arts presently includes 12 teachers, 250 students, 6 preschool locations, and one main music school location, all of which are growing on a daily basis.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Like many, reaching rock bottom is perhaps the most challenging time in any person’s life, yet can bring the greatest rewards. The trajectory of reaching a wider audience began when losing everything, children, husband, birth family, home and most of my business. The reasons are too exhaustive to elaborate on but the important part is the resulting development.

During the several years of “rock bottom” grief, watching other people, mostly children, having fun with music, being around young children and being in touch with special needs persons were my only inspiration to keep going. The thin little string of survival during this recovery time was the meager income from the few instructors that I hired to teach my private students and preschool piano classes as I wandered from State to State in my car and try not to drive off a cliff. My car, that I was living in at the time, was my only earthly possession left. Why not get rid of it, and me too! Deep inside, I knew that was wrong and I could never do it, but I would be lying to say that the thought never occurred to me.

Slowly, and from the many beautiful children, music and friends to inspire me, the music school has grown into a multi-location, multi-instrumental inclusive community that attracts amazing teachers, families and students of all abilities. It is truly a blessing to be around these fine people, the shared music and the many moments of creative music which fills the schools and homes of our music community.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The old saying “the money you have is the money you have” has always stuck in my head. I was tempted many times to borrow money to grow the music school. Even when at rock bottom, a part of me kept repeating again and again, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”. These thoughts, programed into us at an early age, really do make a difference. Being around young children has always been a huge learning experience for me, seeing how WE program our young ones, and evaluating what WE have been programed with. Taking a step back and deciding, truly from the deeper part of us, as to which parts of the programing are best serving us and our world, has been a cornerstone of every decision I’ve had to make. Thus, the two quotes above, guided me to stick it out, put the work in and grow the business with whatever I had, without the help of loans. This may not be right for everyone, but for me, it has worked. I am debt free, own my home and car, pay off credit cards every month (to earn rewards so my hubby and I can travel) and can sleep well every night knowing that I owe no one, except the rent for the music school locations.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.davinciarts.org

Image Credits
Dana Paige