Meet Margaret James | Pianist and Piano Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Margaret James and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Margaret, how does your business help the community?
In studying piano, children get stuck and believe that they simply “can’t do it”. What happens during the piano lessons is that I lead the students to figure out how to get UNstuck. They learn that, with effort, they CAN do it. Maybe they can do anything that they work at. I think this helps children when they encounter difficult things later in their lives. I also believe that the time I spend with piano students – the heart connection that happens (because they feel truly seen and supported) – helps make the world a more positive place.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a musical director of theatre. The musical director teaches the actors the songs in the musical, accompanies them on the piano, conducts the orchestra, and generally supports the story the musical is telling and the vision of the director. I have done that professionally since the 1970s – mainly in large union theatres in Chicago. I was the first woman nominated for a Jeff Award (Chicago’s Tony’s) for musical directing. When I first started conducting at large theatres, and had to take the “conductor bow” at the beginning of the play, I often heard gasps in the audience, “It’s a GIRL!”

It was not easy. But I loved the theatre. Now I’m semi-retired – to Colorado where my heart lies, where my family lives. I take every chance I get to musical direct – and I’m currently working at The Arts Hub in Lafayette, where there is a thriving school, and many, many opportunities to help young people learn more about the theatre.

I also give private piano students, and I love teaching one-on-one. I love teaching piano – it is SO HARD to learn to play! Especially as an adult! I love helping people see how much progress they’ve made.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The best time ever would be several hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park, lots of dinners at homes of friends, and maybe a show that I am performing in, or friends are performing in. Recent shows I’ve loved have been Assassins at Miner’s Alley in Golden; and The Princess and The Goblins, which was performed by Third Side Theatre at The People’s Building in Aurora. And lunch at Red Cedar in Longmont! And maybe a drive up to see the Thomas Dambo troll in Breckenridge.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to thank the long-defunct American Conservatory of Music, where all the professors were refugees of Hitler or Stalin, and all they wanted to do was to share what they knew with students who would carry that knowledge forward. I was a student there in the 1970s, and it was the best education I could’ve ever hoped for.

Website: https://a1ien0.wixsite.com/longmontpianolessons

Other: That’s it. Thanks.

Image Credits
Sorry – my photos are terrible. The “Recording” photo is of John Abbey’s recording studio in Chicago, where we were recording the original cast album of “The Glob – The Musical” written by Greg Opelka. The “Rehearsing” photo is us rehearsing that recording.