For the Love of Music and Each Other
Teaching Music and Sharing Joy
At Leslie's School of Music, we strive to make music education as fun, memorable, effective, and special as possible. It is located in the booming community of Waxahachie, Texas, where the arts are rich and the band program is top notch. We offer superb private music lessons for all ages (piano, violin, trumpet, guitar, bass, cello, vocals), as well as small group classes, seminars, and an impressive educational outreach program. Our goal is to positively impact our students, support and enrich our community, and help make a difference in the world through love, joy, and music.
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Our name,
our story....
Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I turned my parents’ old shed into a classroom and invited (or perhaps gently forced) my younger brother and any willing friends to participate in “Leslie School”, year after year…after year. Fast forward almost 30 years, and the classroom is still one of my favorite places to be. In the last two decades, my love for teaching has led me to an amazing array of teaching settings, from kindergarten teacher to high school orchestra director. I pour my heart, creativity, and energy into my lessons. I seek to make learning as positive, fun, and effective as possible. My hope is to spread joy to and through my students and to inspire our future generations to love to learn.
Five years ago, my husband accepted a promotion working for a factory in Dallas, Texas. So, we, with our 2-year-old daughter and goldendoodle puppy, left our California home, family, and friends, taking a big leap of faith and hoping for a fresh start. The factory hours were incredibly long, and the work environment was extremely stressful, and we struggled. It HAD to get better. We pushed through one day at a time. And yet the anxiety of the situation became a heavy burden that pushed us further and further down. Our marriage, mental and physical health slowly deteriorated. Two years later, we bucked under the weight of it all. Life is too short for this. My husband quit. As we discussed and prayed on what our next step should be, we decided to increase my private music student numbers to help with finances. My husband is a guitarist (a very good one, I must say!), and so could teach guitar lessons. I would continue offering piano and violin lessons.
It worked beautifully, and we loved what we did. Our numbers and interest continued to grow at an incredible rate. With Waxahachie’s booming population growth, we were at the right place at the right time! Within one year, we grew from 30 students to 150 students. We hired 2 more teachers and converted half our home into a school. With a sign on our front door that said, “Don’t knock, just come in!” it became a revolving door for young musicians. Each week, we have over 350 people in our home! Throughout this awesome year of growth, we became an official business. Naming it was easy: “Leslie’s School of Music.” It is with the same childlike spirit I had in my parents’ old shed that I lead our ever-growing music classroom.
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Leslie Cozakas, 2023