Mission

At Armstrong Community Music School we teach, explore, perform, and celebrate music by supporting and engaging our entire community with nurturing and transformational musical experiences.

Vision

At ACMS we envision a music-rich community, where all people, regardless of skill, identity, or income, have access to quality music education from birth through all stages of life.

Values

The power of music is unifying and essential. We value creating a safe and open environment for ALL to learn, create, heal, connect, bond, discover and collaborate. We value our diverse community and embrace equitable and inclusive access to music. At ACMS we value YOU and your joyful lifelong journey of creative expression.

As a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, we provide: 

Individual music instruction in virtually every music style including classical, jazz, blues, and folk as well as musical styles from around the world.  Instruction is available to all ages and skill levels in piano, voice, violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, flute, percussion, composition, recording engineering and more. 

Early Childhood Music (ECM) programs provide group instruction for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and their caregivers.  Group piano lessons are also offered for children ages 4-6.  Building on over 20 years of experience, ACMS has developed deep expertise in ECM program design and delivery.      

Our Community Outreach Programs aim to make Austin a stronger, healthier, and more musical city.  Offered at no cost, we partner with eight organizations and offer 17 programs to some of the city’s most vulnerable communities including immigrants, people with disabilities, veterans, and survivors of domestic violence and abuse.      

With our Open Door Policy, we provide free or low-cost access to our facility to many organizations in the performing arts community.  This has become vital as affordable space has become scarcer in Austin.  

We are an active member of the Austin arts community and a proud member of The National Guild for Community Arts Education.

James C. Armstrong 
(May 10, 1932 – August 21, 2017)  

James C. Armstrong was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the only child of Elizabeth Means Armstrong and O.C. (Army) Armstrong. Gifted musically, James could play the piano by ear. Some of his favorites were Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Cole Porter, Elvis Costello, Lady Gaga, and Stan Getz. He turned his love of music, art, dance, opera, and theater into the bedrock of his philanthropy. 

Mr. Armstrong’s involvement in the art scene in Houston led to his close friendship with legendary opera singer, Beverly Sills, and he went on to serve on the Board of the New York City Opera. The Armstrong Community Music School was named after him when it was founded in 2000. He was honored in 2008 at the Austin Lyric Opera Ball for his unwavering support of opera. He was also deeply committed to several Austin arts organizations including: ZACH Theatre, Ballet Austin, Austin Symphony, the Long Center for the Performing Arts and Umlauf Sculpture Gardens & Museum. He was widely known for his generosity, magnanimity, and his grace. Not political, he was quietly devoted to opportunities for everyone, a decent life with decent prospects, for everyone. 

His generosity and community involvement extended far beyond the arts and stage. Mr. Armstrong supported Hospice Austin, Project Transitions, SAFE Alliance, AIDS Services of Austin, The Center for Child Protection, Habitat for Humanity, the Anti-Defamation League of Austin, and the Thinkery Children’s Museum, and UT College of Fine Arts. 

Armstrong Community Music School is most grateful to James C. Armstrong for his essential role in the creation of the school. The thousands of children and adults who experience music and music education of the highest caliber at Armstrong Community Music School ensure his legacy of philanthropy and creating opportunities for all will endure. 

Margaret Perry, Founding Director
(August 17, 1951 - April 5, 2018)

Margaret Perry was a music educator for 38 years. Trained originally as a harpsichordist, Ms. Perry performed with Baroque music groups around Texas, and served for several years as the pianist for the Houston Ballet. Ms. Perry taught music in both public and private schools in the U.S. and Europe, and maintained a private piano teaching practice in Austin for more than three decades. She lectured extensively on the lives of composers and opera history for both children’s classes and adult opera audiences, and created curricula for general musical studies for many ages. Ms. Perry also served as a consultant for community arts education providers on issues of management and advocacy.

Ms. Perry was a trustee for nine non-profit boards in the Austin area, and was elected chairman of three of these. She served for six years on the Board of Directors for the National Guild for Community Schools of the Arts based in Manhattan. She served as a trustee for Austin Classical Guitar and La Follia, and served in an advisory capacity for KMFA, Creative Action Project, Chamber Music in Public Schools (CHAMPS), and the Physics Advisory Board at the University of Texas. At her transition into Executive Director, Emeritus, Margaret moved into an active advisory role as of October 2017.

In April of 2000, she became the founding director of the Armstrong Community Music School, the first music school in the world to be established by an opera company, after serving as the Director of Education of Austin Lyric Opera for eighteen years. In March of 2003, the city of Austin presented Ms. Perry a Community Service Award, and the same year the State of Texas declared a day in her honor for thirty years of arts advocacy and education. In 2010, Ms. Perry was given a “Profiles in Power: Women of Influence” award by the Austin Business Journal. In the summer of 2012, she was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame and received an award for service to the community arts field from the National Guild for Community Arts Education.