CUMBERLAND – A woman who got her start teaching at Rick’s Musical Instruments 16 years ago is now fulfilling a dream and taking over the store.
Marissa Maroni, a Woonsocket native who grew up near the high school and later taught at Leo Savoie School for six years, now runs South County School of Performing Arts. She said struck a deal with Rick’s owner Rick Verfaille, who will stay involved doing repairs at the store at 2352 Mendon Road.
Maroni said she was a bit shocked at the acquisition but mostly very excited and proud to grow her existing school alongside what will now be known as SoundHouse Arts.
She said she wants local music educators to know that this store will continue to be here for them. Those teachers already have to worry about such issues as budget debates and administrative concerns, she said, and shouldn’t have to worry about whether their students will have working instruments to play on. She pledged to continue Verfaille’s emphasis on making educators’ lives easier any way she and her staff can.
Overall, the goals at SoundHouse Arts will be to support local schools through rentals and repairs, offer retail services, and grow classes and lessons in the Cumberland location and the locations in West Warwick and Rehoboth, Mass.
Maroni said Verfaille knew he would retire at some point, and they kept in touch throughout. When the longtime owner had to have a medical procedure, she said, he realized that the transition to someone new needed to happen. She said she made him a deal and they solidified it in short order.
On the name change and rebranding, she said she wants it to reflect that it takes a lot more than just her to run operations. Many people want to name their store after themselves, she said, and Rick created did so while creating a fabulous business, but a name change will more fully paint the picture of a store and school based on its employees and the community it serves every day.
A significant change will be to move away from a system where teachers are more independent contractors using the space for lessons, she said, instead having lessons run through the store.
There will be some modernizing of the facility, she said. There is plenty of existing space, but that wouldn’t preclude an expansion one day.
“I’m going to be creating an educational facility that works alongside the store and the repairs,” she said.
Maroni, of North Kingstown, said she originally started teaching classes out of a home studio her husband built off the garage, inviting some teachers to work out of the space. As Verfaille did in putting his name on the sign, she named her business Maroni Music Studio.
She was also becoming a mom at the time, and with a 1-year-old, she started running baby music classes. The cars were lined up down he driveway, she said, and as she likes to say, she probably would have been kicked out of her neighborhood if she didn’t move to a new space in Wickford.
Maroni Music Studio rebranded to the performing arts school, with the intention of eventually growing into something much bigger, said Maroni. The dance studio would open on Post Road in North Kingstown, and her theater in West Warwick.
Maroni said she and her staff will reach out to residents in Cumberland and surrounding communities, and that they see this filling a need in the area. Aside from School of Rock and smaller studios, there are no real comparisons to what they’ll bring, she said.
A certified K-12 music teacher, she said she has a unique opportunity to really understand the ins and outs of what band teachers and music teachers go through and what they need.
“I’m here to make their lives easier,” she said.
Having a vibrant education facility early childhood gets young people excited about music lessons and helps create thriving band programs in middle and high school, she said.
Maroni said this is only the start of what she’s planning in northern Rhode Island, and sees the potential to offer a lot more to the area in the future, including bringing the school vacation and summertime camps here.
