Tribute

The story behind Encore School Of Music starts with my mom.

In 1994, I showed a strong interest in learning the guitar.  My mom was a single mom who immigrated to America while she was 8 months pregnant with me.  My father was an abusive alcoholic and was never a part of my life.  He later passed away when I was 12.  She worked extremely hard as a seamstress, rode the bus to work everyday, and gave me the best childhood anyone could’ve asked for.  When I was in middle school, she was diagnosed with cancer.  She began her cancer treatment, went through chemotherapy several times and could no longer work to support us.  We barely had money before, we had no money now.  We were evicted from our apartment just a few months later.  We lived off of welfare checks and food stamps, and I remember being so embarrassed of it at the time.  I didn’t know any better.

I begged for guitar lessons everyday.  I had no idea how tough it would be for her to afford them, but somehow she managed to get me those lessons for the next couple of years.  She knew how important it was to me.  She was even able to buy me my first used electric guitar.  I still use that guitar to teach to this day.  A few years later, I went on my first tour and played hundreds of shows, and traveled all over the country.  I received my Bachelors degree in music shortly after that.

In 2001, I started standing in front of a Ralph’s supermarket, playing on a small amplifier with that same guitar, and passed out flyers for guitar lessons.  I would drive all over the city giving lessons to my first group of students.  In 2007, we came up with the name, Encore School Of Music, and signed our first lease for an actual commercial space.  One thing I was sure of when we first started Encore, was that there were going to be a lot of performances.  People always say, “All these performances you guys do must be great for marketing.”  But marketing or getting more students through our performances was never the goal.  My biggest regret was that my mom never got to see me perform.  In 1996, she lost her battle to cancer and passed away.  I believe that every student deserves the opportunity to pay back their parents who sacrifice so much for them.  Now that I have my own family and am now a father myself, I now get it.  Watching my own son perform at his first showcase was priceless and the most gratifying experience for me as a father.  It was the greatest gift my son could’ve given me and I’ll never get over the fact that I was never able to give that gift myself.

Mom, I know you weren’t around long enough to see your son perform, and you were never able to experience what I experienced.  But look at the fruits of your labor now.  I hope every song performed by all of our students these past 10+ years and all the years to come are in some way a tribute to the one who started it all.  My mom.