Today we’d like to introduce you to St. Joseph Arts Academy Jason Riley.
Hi St. Joseph Arts Academy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
small-town kid who wanted to play guitar. the dream was – play music, maybe be a rock star someday. when I was about sixteen, a few local kids asked if I could show them how to play. teaching wasn’t really something I had in mind, but happy to help. I just started showing them what I knew, and it kind of grew from there.
went on to study music in college, got my degrees, and spent a lot of years playing professionalyl, all kinds of gigs, all kinds of styles. jazz, country, rock, classical, always liked learning and playing a little bit of everything. in college, I met (and married) a fellow band member, Jolie, who went on to become an elementary school music teacher.
our kids were little, I taught lessons out of the house and played gigs around the region. as they got older and things got busier, we decided to move my home studio into a small commercial space in 2018 . the St. Joseph Arts Academy officially started. We began with maybe 30 students and two guitar teachers. Now we’re up to nearly 300 families and around 20 instructors teaching just about every popular instrument. we have a great team!
not a grand plan or anything, just came out of a love for music and wanting to share that with other people. we saw a need in our community for something like this, and we just kept building on what was working.
Jolie recently retired from public school teaching and now runs our early childhood music program, which I think is one of the best things we do. It’s such a joy to see the little ones light up with music.
basically, we’re just musicians who love to play and love to teach. It’s been amazing to watch it grow into something so special here in st. joe. I still perform around the area and have been teaching guitar at Missouri Western — where the Chiefs practice — and Benedictine College for the whole time. so many great mentors and encouragers from the KC area that affect us here in st. joe!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The music part is easy. The business part… that’s a whole different story.
Finding the right commercial location was a big challenge from the start. Once we finally found a space we thought would work, we jumped in and signed the papers — and almost immediately after, the building started to flood. So that was fun. We had a whole mess with the foundation and a water mitigation company that ended up making things worse. It was one of those “welcome to business ownership” moments.
it’s all the non-artistic stuff that takes so much energy — dealing with landlords, setting up systems, managing people, handling accountants and taxes, and just keeping everything running smoothly day to day. There’s a lot that goes into it that has nothing to do with music.
we’re musicians and we’re dealing with musicians. we’re sensitive people. We care about what we do and the people we serve. So if someone’s unhappy about anything, even something small, we really take it to heart. Running a family business can be tough that way. You want everyone to feel good about being here. Mostly, everyone is happy but sometimes…. a few people can make it hard.
through all that, the music side has always been the therapy. Teaching, playing, seeing students and families light up with music is the goal.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a musician and a teacher. I’ve been playing and performing professionally for over 30 years, mostly across the region but US and some in Europe. I love all kinds of music, and I think that shows up in the way I teach and play.
at the SJAA I still teach a full load of guitar students, I perform around the region, and I help lead our team. What we really specialize in here is personal, one-on-one music education. every student’s different, every family’s different, and we try hard to meet people where they are, five-year-old starting piano, a teen wanting to play in a band, or an adult learner finally checking “learn guitar” off the bucket list.
what sets us apart is we’re helping people connect with music in a way that hopefully sticks with them for life. we care about the relationships maybe more than results. teachers here are great players AND great mentors
What I’m most proud of is the community that’s formed around this place. We’ve got hundreds of families who support one another, we celebrate milestones, and work hard to make music a part of their daily lives. we’ve been able to create a space where teachers can build careers doing what they love, right here in St. Joe.
I still just want to play guitar with my friends and feel very lucky to just get to share that with more people now.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
That my grandfather gave me the family banjo as my inheritance which really inspired me to learn to play and carry on an important family tradition (it had kind of skipped a generation. Still not a strong banjo player but the guitar has taken me across the US and Europe, performing in multiple styles w/national and international acts. I’m a reader of all kinds of material and i can juggle!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stjosephartsacademy.com
- Instagram: @stjosephartsacademy.com
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/stjosephartsacademy
