FORTVILLE — Krista Schuyler, co-owner of Fortville Music Garage, couldn’t describe the feelings she had when she learned that their music lesson studio was ruined by smoke damage from the Main Street fire that happened on New Year’s Eve of 2022.
She remembers getting ready to pour the sparkling grape juice for the midnight celebration when the sirens would not stop just a few hundred feet from where they lived.
“Even to this day, it doesn’t even seem real,” Krista said. “I mean, it was one of those moments. Unless you’ve been through it, I can’t describe it. It was just surreal.”
With approximately $100,000 damage of supplies and space from smoke and soot, Krista said that she and her husband/co-owner Zack weren’t sure what their next move was and took some time to figure out they wanted a new space.
Later in the year, Krista said a FMG member reached out to let her know about a location on Broadway Street that was available.
“Zack and I both walked in and said this is what we need to do. We need to come back…,” Krista said. “Now we have more students than we did before the fire.”
“It’s a really cool feeling to come back from something like that,” Krista said. “To have the support and the means to be able to come back and come back even stronger than what we were before,” Krista said.
The new studio at 211 W. Broadway St. officially reopened in August and currently has some openings for new students of all ages, an idea Krista is keen to since she was an adult student herself, learning how to play drums at 31 years old. Zack has been involved with music since he was about 13 years old and can play more than 27 instruments.
Krista works the administration side of the business while Zack is the lead instructor and instructor trainer. They also have eight instructors that are a mix of full-time and part-time. They offer private lessons, band experience and music production.
Krista and Zack originally blended their families together in 2020 after they both went through divorces during COVID. It was that same year they both shared the idea to finally open up a music lesson studio.
“We’ve both always had that entrepreneurial spirit,” Krista said.
Krista said that having their whole family be involved or a part of FMG is not something that everyone gets the opportunity to have. While their kids take lessons there, the oldest daughter also helps run the front area.
“A lot of times, it’s work life and family life that are separate, but we get to combine the two, and that’s really special because our music studio doesn’t feel like work. We love what we do and love that we get to do that as a family and we get to share that with other families as well,” Krista said.
Another component that FMG is big on is being involved in the local community. Krista said they felt it was important to give students — young and old — the opportunity to have a community and to play. One way they do that is by partnering with Denver’s Garage Pizza & Brew to have an open mic night every Tuesday from 6-8 p.m.
“That’s what small businesses do. Small businesses should be there for each other to help each other out,” Krista said.
Krista said they have multiple ideas for the future in the works, one being a student mentorship program they plan to launch, but had some delays earlier in the year due to the fire.
From the learning pace, style, genre, goals and more, Krista said that every lesson is hand-crafted for each student, making it a unique experience for every student that goes into the studio. As of Oct. 16, Krista said they still do have openings within their instructor’s schedule.
“Our main goal at Fortville Music Garage is to make sure that every instructor and student feels loved, cared for, valued,” Krista said. “That’s at the heart of who we are and what we do.”
