About Musespeak Studio
Credit: Artistic Impressions
Musespeak Studio offers piano lessons, music theory lessons, background music, piano accompanying, solo and collaborative music services, writing, and administrative work. Musespeak Studio was founded by Rhona-Mae Arca in 2001 and operates out of SW Calgary.
The name "Musespeak" is inspired by the Nine Muses of Greek Mythology. They were the goddesses of art and inspiration. The muses “speak” through art, music and the written word at Musespeak.
About Rhona-Mae Arca
Rhona-Mae Arca is a music educator with over 20 years of experience in arts administration, corporate communications, and special events. She has worked for the Lethbridge Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Alberta Ballet, Calgary Arts Summer School, and Calgary Wind Symphony.
Rhona-Mae has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist and cajónist for over 30 years. She holds an ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music and Level 7 Contemporary Idioms Certificate from Conservatory Canada. Rhona-Mae attended the University of Lethbridge, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Bachelor of Management. Influential music teachers in her music education include Derek Stoll, Irina Ginzburg, Elinor Lawson, Elizabeth Mahaffy and Sherry Kennedy.
Rhona-Mae is a member of the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ARMTA), the Alberta Piano Teachers’ Association (APTA) and Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations (CFMTA). She has served on the ARMTA Calgary board for several years and was Branch President from 2008 – 2009.
In June 2013, Rhona-Mae was named Tech Teacher of the Year by Roland Canada, Music for Young Children and Conservatory Canada. She accepted her award at the CMFTA National Convention in Halifax that July.
About Maestro
Maestro likes the Kuniisii Steinway. Credit: Rhona-Mae Arca.
Maestro was Musespeak’s four-legged Studio Assistant from 2002 - 2016. In his lifetime , Maestro was an integral part of Musespeak Studio operations, making sure that students were settled and ready for lessons. He provided comic relief, calmed frazzled nerves, and comforted students and parents alike. Maestro especially loved to accompany students at group classes by singing or playing on the bongos and often asked students to bring out the percussion instruments.
Like many Lakeland Terriers, Maestro took his assigned roles seriously – from inspecting all the student prizes to “instructing” a student to start playing a song. Maestro could tell whether a student practiced regularly at home and walked out of lessons if he wasn’t satisfied with what he heard.
Maestro crossed the Rainbow Bridge in June 2016. He is missed by all the students. Although he may be gone, his spirit lives on in the student incentive programs, his YouTube channel and Maestro's Music Tricks.