From marijuana to music: Building's new role fulfills musicians' dreams

BALTIMORE -- Jessica Schatz audibly choked up when she tried to articulate what Patterson Park Academy of Music has meant to her family.

“My grandfather was a music teacher, and eight years ago I inherited his piano,” she told attendees at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly rehabilitated building that will become the Academy’s first permanent home. “There’s a world where that piano could have been an under-utilized piece of furniture taking up a lot of space. Instead, it became a conduit to family.”

Turning to address her two sons, 10-year-old Elliott and 7-year-old Luka, Schatz said:

“Because of Josh and Eric, that piano is teaching you guys that you can do really hard things when you break them down into small pieces. It’s teaching you that you can build skills, that hard work can be fun and rewarding, and that you can make beautiful music.”

The Schatz family was among about a dozen supporters and elected officials who celebrated Friday’s reopening of the two-story gray Formstone building at 3201 Noble St. in East Baltimore, near Patterson Park and just north of Highlandtown. The building now displays the music school’s freshly painted logo. The ribbon-cutting ceremony culminated five years of dreaming and hard work by two married musicians: jazz pianist Joshua Espinoza and clarinetist Erik Franklin.

The couple, who met in college, invested a $300,000 loan from a bank plus a $200,000 grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to redevelop the badly deteriorated building — a facility that when they first toured, still bore the traces of its former occupation as an illicit greenhouse for growing marijuana.

“All the walls were painted black,” Espinoza recalled. “Each room had its own HVAC and irrigation systems in the ceiling and the floor. We found a box of what appeared to be marijuana bud.”

But they could tell that the building was structurally sound.

“Even though it was in pretty rough shape, it had the bones we needed,” Espinoza said.

“We started the Academy in 2021, and we knew if we wanted our business to grow, we needed our own space. And East Baltimore is changing very quickly both economically and demographically. We knew that if we waited even five years, we would be priced out of the market.”

Espinoza and Franklin had enjoyed professional careers as jazz musicians; the enforced solitude they experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged them to reflect on what they really wanted to do with their lives.

“What we were really passionate about,” Espinoza said, “was sharing music with the next generation.”

So Espinoza began teaching piano out of the couple’s home in 2021.

Eventually, he and Franklin assembled a faculty of 24-part-time teachers and began renting space in studios in East Baltimore and South Baltimore. In four years, their list of clients expanded from a dozen students to nearly 350.

That client list also eventually included the children of city and state officials. But on Friday morning, the career politicians preferred to identify themselves as “piano dads.”

The exception: State Del. Robbyn Lewis, who enrolled herself as a piano student at the Academy and formerly sang in the music school’s chorus — where she said she discovered a community of like-minded music lovers.

“I live two blocks from here,” Lewis said, “so the transformation of this building isn’t just wonderful for the city. It’s wonderful for me personally. I remember when this street used to be called ‘Dirty Noble.’ We’re already starting to rebrand it. How about, ‘The Family Block?'”

Bill Ferguson, president of the State Senate, said that when his two children studied at the school, he and other piano dads began intentionally scheduling music lessons for their kids at the same time — allowing the adults to reconvene at a nearby drinking establishment.

“While our kids were having their lessons, the Ministry of Brewing would get a little bit of economic stimulus,” Ferguson said.

Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen told the gathering that his 8-year-old daughter, Maya, puts him firmly in his place when he encourages her to sit down at the family keyboard.

“She loves piano,” Cohen said. “But she says I’m not as good as Mister Josh at getting her to practice.”

State Del. Mark Edelson said that after attending the school’s baby and toddler music classes, his 3-year-old son, Chase, has begun wandering around the house and instructing the family’s voice-activated virtual assistant, Alexa, “to play all different kinds of songs because of the love he is developing for music.”

Meanwhile, City Council Member Mark Parker said it heartens him to see that the school has given his teenage son Luke a greater appreciation for music than he was able to develop at his age.

“My own music education was about trying to craft opportunities that weren’t available in our community when I was growing up,” Parker said.

“Since then and for all kinds of reasons, the schools have unfortunately had to back away from providing instrumental music lessons. Because of the Academy, my son is going strong on the piano at age 15, with not a lot of parental nudging.”

Schools such as the Patterson Park Academy of Music, Parker said, “can have a huge and transformative impact.”

As he put it:

“They are a chance for our young people to be challenged, to grow in their skills, leadership and confidence. They help make this neighborhood the best place in Baltimore to grow up and raise a family. I’m really excited for what comes next.”