New Location, Same Voice Studio
As most of you know, the Janice Edwards Voice Studio has had a rather nomadic history the past 20 years. When I moved to New Hampshire in 1999, I found a lovely location for a studio on Hanover Street, right across from the Palace Theatre. This area of Manchester has been lovingly referred to at times as the “Theatre District.” The owner of 83 Hanover, Maurice Leroux (may he rest in peace), moved me around to 3 different locations at 83, each one more spacious than the last. The most recent one, on the 4th floor, was quite spacious with four small walk-in closets with built-in shelves. It also faced Hanover St. so it had lots of natural light, as well as plenty of room to hold large studio classes. Unfortunately, in late 2021, a local developer purchased the building and is gutting it and turning it into condos. We who rented there are very sad that this beautiful, historic building has come to this. ):
My next space was much smaller but fortunately in the neighborhood at 848 Elm Street, also in Manchester. Things were a bit cramped since there was no storage for my huge collection of music scores and books about music, collections that have been building up for over 30 years. So I purchased a large armoire with glass doors which held most of my scores. I was subletting this space from the LMC Group, which also had to vacate the Hanover Street location. Kristen, Melissa, Luke and Kato were extremely helpful and supportive during that stressful time. The studio occupied 848 Elm for about 2 years (and parking was a nightmare – Elm Street parking is no fun), when we learned that the developer/owner of 848 Elm was planning to use all the space for their own offices. By this time, I was practically in despair. Where would I move and how would I pay for it? I spent several weeks researching and driving around the area to find a place to move a voice studio – you can imagine that was not too easy!
I had recently taken on a new student, a very nice young man named Gabe, who could sense my frustration and sadness at having to once again move the following: baby grand piano, small bookcases plus at least 200 music scores/books, armoire, some furniture. Gabe located a beautiful, historic home at 212 Coolidge Avenue on the west side of Manchester that had been turned into commercial space. One thing I really loved about this space is that it has two walls of built-in bookshelves – TWO! Plus a lot of natural light. The owner of the building Michael Kiley has been so accommodating about installing an air conditioner (2nd floor got very hot during the late summer months). It is now removed, and Michael also installed venetian blinds in the 3 windows.
I could not be happier with this beautiful, elegant space – and could not be more grateful to Michael and Gabe for helping me set up the studio, without any real loss of income…the transition was quite smooth.
Now, if only Michael would install an elevator (!) It would’ve made moving the piano up the 14 steps to my 2nd floor studio so much easier!
