October 23, 2026

More Than Music: How Renaissance Music Academy Builds Community at the VTCRC

Co-founded by David and Teresa Ehrlich in 1993, Renaissance Music Academy (RMA) is a nonprofit community music school serving students of all ages and ability levels and encouraging a lifelong involvement with music. At its home within the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, that mission plays out every day through private lessons, group instruction, ensembles, performances and a faculty that Teresa Ehrlich, executive director, describes as the heart of the school.

A walk through RMA also reveals another part of its story: Many of the instruments, furnishings and artwork throughout the school carry a connection to someone who has been part of its community.

A school built around its teachers

RMA’s faculty includes musicians and educators recruited to Southwest Virginia from across the country and abroad. Several have professional performance backgrounds, but Ehrlich said what sets them apart is their commitment to teaching.

Many faculty members have spent decades with RMA, allowing them to build long-term relationships with students and families.

“It’s not just a job for them,” Ehrlich said. “It’s a calling.”

For roughly 25 years, RMA teachers and students were scattered across homes, churches, libraries and borrowed classrooms. Moving to the CRC brought the school together under one roof, with dedicated teaching studios, group spaces, room for performances and ample parking.

Ehrlich remembers families seeing the full scope of RMA for the first time as piano, guitar, violin and cello students began crossing paths in the same building. The move helped turn a collection of lessons across town into a more connected school community.

Every piano has a story

That community has also helped shape the space itself. Every piano in RMA’s building was donated, Ehrlich said, and many carry stories of their own.

One of the most meaningful stories belongs to RMA’s concert piano. It belonged to Kathy, a friend and teacher Ehrlich credits with transforming the way she approached music education early in her career. Years later, Kathy’s family was looking for a home for the piano and asked whether RMA would adopt it. It now serves as the school’s concert piano, carrying a piece of Ehrlich’s own journey as a teacher into the lessons and performances happening there today.

The generosity extends beyond the pianos. Furniture and other pieces throughout the school have come from families, friends, board members and community supporters. Student artwork fills the walls of several teaching studios, much of it created specifically for their instructors. Ehrlich said many RMA students also study visual art, making the drawings and paintings another reflection of the relationships built inside the school.

Music meant to be shared

RMA serves children and adults, with instruction beginning in early childhood. Its Suzuki-based approach emphasizes parent involvement and long-term learning, while performances give students opportunities to take what they learn beyond the classroom.

RMA musicians regularly perform at hospitals and senior living communities, and the school hosts free monthly Saturday concerts open to the public. Adult students also gather to perform for one another in an informal setting, giving musicians of different experience levels a chance to share what they are learning.

“What we do is meant to be shared,” Ehrlich said. “You can’t learn music in a vacuum only for yourself.”

Growing at the CRC

RMA is now preparing for its next chapter. Plans for its current CRC space include three additional teaching studios and a larger ensemble room. A longer-term vision includes a separate performance complex with a roughly 300-seat recital hall, multipurpose space, an outdoor performance area, recording capabilities and spaces for music therapy and research.

Ehrlich also hopes to build stronger connections with the people and companies surrounding RMA. She has called the school a “cultural ambassador” for the CRC and sees opportunities for music, art and performance to play a greater role across the park.

At the CRC, innovation takes many forms. RMA brings the arts into a community known for technology, research and entrepreneurship, creating another way for tenants, families and the broader region to connect while showing what can happen when different ideas and disciplines share the same community.

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