Musicality Music Academy

09/14/2026

A big thank you to the Hometown Heroes barbershop quartet, who joined us yesterday with close harmony. They had us smiling from the first chord.

Dan Ryan (pictured center) is our vocal teacher at Musicality Music Academy, and is available for lessons. He is also the lay clerk for the church choir at Faith Presbyterian - rehearsals start on Thursday at 2 PM.

Their warmth was every bit as memorable as the singing, and plenty of you told us afterwards how much you enjoyed it. We're grateful they gave us their morning, and we hope it won't be the last time.

To the Hometown Heroes: come back any time. 🎶

09/07/2026

Musicality Music Academy in print!

Zev Black from Independent Newsmedia came out to Faith Presbyterian to write about our academy and the music happening at Faith Presbyterian Church: "when words fail, music takes over".

Thanks to Pastor Greg Emery, everyone at the church, and to Zev for the write-up.

09/07/2026

Schubert's "Ave Maria" with cellist Oxana Cochran. 🎻🎹

Our Music Director, Rory Dowse, is planning more live music around Sun City and the surrounding area over the coming months: familiar classics, hymns, and a few things you might not have heard live before. If your church, club, or community group would like us to come and play, send us a message.

08/26/2026

Meet James Wade, our piano teacher 🎹

We're excited to welcome James Wade to Musicality Music Academy, teaching piano lessons in Sun City.

James brings more than four decades in music education to every lesson — including years as a school principal and classroom teacher at schools across the Phoenix area. Piano was always part of the job: he taught it privately alongside his classroom work, later moved into teaching at a private music academy, led choirs from preschoolers to adults, and accompanied services and school programs on piano and organ. Along the way, he's performed in hundreds of concerts, recitals, and worship services.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Education, with a minor in Music, from Martin Luther College. Ask anyone who's studied with him and you'll hear the same words: compassionate, patient, and endlessly positive.

Whether you've never touched a piano or you played years ago and want to come back to it, James's first lesson is $25, nothing to sign. 🎶

📍 Faith Presbyterian Church, Sun City
👉 https://www.musicalitymusicacademy.com/piano-lessons

08/24/2026

Meet Dan Ryan, our voice and guitar teacher.

We're excited to have Dan Ryan teaching voice lessons and guitar lessons at Musicality Music Academy. Dan's been singing and playing since a seventh-grade teacher in Chicago put a guitar in his hands to play for Friday Mass — he was accompanying singers at his own church by age fourteen.

After moving to Arizona in 1983, Dan spent decades leading praise teams and choirs, including twenty years leading music a church in Glendale. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Arizona State University and spent fourteen years teaching general music and choir in local schools before retiring from the classroom in 2021 to teach privately.

His students say he leads with patience and encouragement — listening first, correcting gently, and building confidence one lesson at a time.

Whether you've never taken a singing lesson or a guitar lesson in your life, you used to play, or want to find your voice again, Dan's first lesson is $25, nothing to sign. 🎶

Voice Lessons: https://www.musicalitymusicacademy.com/group-voice-lessons

Guitar Lessons: https://www.musicalitymusicacademy.com/guitar-lessons

08/19/2026

We made the news! Musicality Music Academy was featured this week in the Daily Independent, and we couldn't be prouder to share our story with the community.

Musicality was founded by our music director, Rory Dowse, who has been teaching piano for 20 years and trained at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. The idea behind the academy goes back to a simple belief: music is a language for the things words can't say. As Rory put it, "It's a story-telling element where words fail — that's when music takes over."

That philosophy shapes everything we do here. Classes are capped at just six students, covering music from the 1500s to today, and no prior experience is required. We also offer one-on-one lessons for those who prefer individual instruction.

Musicality is proud to call Faith Presbyterian Church home. As Pastor Greg Emery shared in the article, the goal is to open up the campus as a place for the whole community — not just on Sundays — and music is something that brings people together across every age and background. We're especially passionate about serving our neighbors 55 and up, while welcoming musicians of all ages.

Whether you've never touched a piano or you're returning to music after years away, there's a seat for you at Musicality.

📖 Read the full story: https://www.yourvalley.net/sun-city-independent/stories/music-brings-new-life-to-sun-city-church,713087
🎵 Learn more or sign up: musicalitymusicacademy.com

Credit: Zev Black @ Daily Independent

Faith Presbyterian Church, 16000 N. Del Webb Blvd., is looking for more ways to expand beyond just a place of worship. Part of that initiative can be seen with the introduction of Musicality Music …

08/18/2026

The Sun City Independent came out this afternoon to hear about Musicality Music Academy. Pastor Greg Emery talked about why we opened our doors to a new music school.

Group singing lessons and our community choir are getting underway now — details at musicalitymusicacademy.com.

08/18/2026

We had the pleasure of listening to Joshua Facello perform on Sunday, concertmaster of the Scottsdale Symphonic Orchestra.

Paganini and Mendelssohn make an unusual pairing. One writes for the violin as if daring it to break; the other writes as though the instrument were simply singing. Playing them back to back is a lesson in how much range four strings and a bow actually have.

Music like this doesn't happen in the West Valley by accident. It happens because musicians are willing to travel, because a room exists that's worth playing in, and because there's an audience here that wants to hear it. Come and join us for our next guest musician: Oxana Cochran (cello) on September 6th!

🎵 Musicality Music Academy — voice, choir, and piano for all ages across the West Valley. musicalitymusicacademy.com

08/18/2026

Our group sang a motet last Sunday written nearly five hundred years ago, in four parts, by a composer who served four English monarchs and somehow kept his head through all of it.

There's a reason we teach music like this. Renaissance polyphony asks singers to hold their own line while three others move around them. It's the fastest way to turn a group of people who like singing into a group of people who can actually sing.

They did it beautifully. In a room built for it, under a roof that's carried that sound the way it was meant to be carried.

🎵 Group singing classes at Musicality Music Academy are open to adults and young people across the West Valley — no audition, no experience required. You'll be reading music and singing in parts sooner than you think.

musicalitymusicacademy.com