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By Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
Take a few steps inside Prince William Music Academy (PWMA) in Manassas, and you’re greeted by piano,
strings, and voices weaving the vibrant soundtrack of a school where music comes alive for every student and every student is part of a community. Since its founding in 2016, PWMA has become a nurturing home for aspiring musicians in the Prince William area, helping hundreds of students unlock their potential, whether they are picking up an instrument for the first time or honing their skills for advanced performance.
At the heart of the experience is a range of private music lessons, tailored to each student’s skill level. Students can choose from a variety of instruments, including piano, strings, guitar and bass guitar, voice, and woodwinds, all taught by a faculty of seasoned teachers and performers.
But the Academy’s approach goes beyond individual lessons. Group instruction also plays a key role, offering collaborative learning, ensemble playing, and the chance to build critical communication skills and peer connections.
Katherine Colburn, PWMA Director/Owner, said the school also offers five recitals per year, jury performances where students can get feedback from a panel of judges, masterclasses, full musical theatre productions, and showcases, as well as audition classes to help prepare students to win the competition that they are after.
A Vision Comes Alive
Colburn established PWMA to be more than just a place where students take lessons and leave.
“I dreamed of creating a music school where students could come and get the best music education from highly qualified teachers/performers,” she said. “Before PWMA, I spent many years teaching private cello students who had received previous instruction from musicians who did not specialize in cello. They were great musicians, but in a different genre: piano, violin, etc. After doing a lot of research, I found that this was very common in the larger music schools as a successful business model. Unfortunately, this does not help the student achieve their main goal, which is to see progress and be inspired by their successes.”
Colburn explained that PWMA teachers are only allowed to teach the instruments for which they have degrees, and they are all performing musicians in the DMV area. Most have a master’s degree.
The vision and model have been met with success. Colburn recalled, “One of the biggest compliments I ever received about PWMA was from one of our teachers. She said, ‘This is the school that I WISH I had gone to growing up.’ That meant so much to me, because I have made a point of filling it with real-world opportunities for the kids, not just endless lessons.”
Colburn, whose own journey in music education shaped the Academy’s philosophy, holds a bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance from the University of Miami and a master’s from George Mason University. She has performed with the Prince William Symphony, Manassas Chorale, and the Fredericksburg Symphony and was formerly an adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington.
However, Colburn’s musical spark and desire to teach were lit long before, at age 11. She said, “I can still remember going to my cello teacher’s house for my weekly lesson and thinking, ‘I could do this! This would be fun.’ In some ways, I was lucky. I never went through the ‘what do I want to do when I grow up’ stage. I had been bitten by the music bug and just knew that was my place.”
Her choice to pursue the cello was inspired by her mother, herself a cellist. When a teacher suggested her hands were too small for the instrument, her mother intervened. “In all honesty, my hands are very small for the cello, so she wasn’t wrong, but I learned to work around my smaller stature,” Colburn said.
Advice for Aspiring Musicians
Faculty members, such as violin and viola teacher Christopher Chris) Dixon, who joined PWMA’s founding team in 2016, highlighted the Academy’s emphasis on performance and the environment of learning.
“Students at PWMA have the opportunity to perform in multiple recitals each year and participate in juries to get feedback from a panel of teachers, which is an opportunity I did not have until I was in college,” he said. “There are a plethora of camps and activities for students to participate in throughout the year. Overall, it’s an amazing culture to grow and thrive in as a musician.”
Dixon, who also teaches elementary strings in local public schools and performs in area orchestras, offered practical advice for students: “Take every opportunity you can to perform. Find music that excites and interests you. Try out for every audition opportunity that comes your way. And don’t let past failures
discourage you from finding future success,” he said.
Katherine Bahm, a former PWMA student, is now a cello performance major at the Hartt School in Connecticut. Bahm began private lessons with Colburn as a homeschooler in 2016. “It is safe to say that my experience at PWMA was life-changing, since I am now a student at the Hartt School, a conservatory of music, theatre, and dance,” she said. “The faculty who have mentored me have helped me grow as both a musician and a human being, often putting my own personal well-being above musical progression, teaching and caring for the student first and the musician second.”
Bahm’s involvement at PWMA included private cello lessons from 2016 until her departure for college in 2025, participation in the all-cello choir ACE from 2017 to 2023, and voice lessons in 2024. For young artists, she offered this advice: “Mentors and peers will often tell young musicians that there is only one way to succeed in music, and frequently, they will get caught up in a dream that was created for them. They push through boundaries and performance anxiety for their art and succeed, but forget why they fell in love in the first place.
“For me and many others, it’s creative and self-expression,” she said. “Musicians are their harshest critics and constantly compare themselves and their accomplishments to others in their field and forget that failure is a part of long-term success.”
Reflecting on her musical path, Bahm likens it to “driving in West Virginia — mountainous with lots of potholes, but the view is amazing.” She relayed, “I’d be lying if I said it was all sunshine and rainbows, but I’d also be lying if I said it had been a terrible trip. I considered quitting music in pursuit of a ‘normal’ career multiple times. I am grateful for the cello and academic mentors, family, and orchestra directors who helped me remember why I started.”
Bahm shared suggestions for aspiring musicians, which she said are applicable to any artist.
“Mindset is everything,” she said. “There will always be people who are better than you. As a musician and a creative mind, there is a moment in the music journey where you have to change your mindset of performing for others and perform for yourself.”
Colburn’s advice to young musicians is also a metaphor for overcoming challenges.
“Do not get hung up on the wrong notes that happen to everyone,” she said. “Instead, just go for it when on stage. If you prepare to the best of your ability, then you will always come out ahead of where you started from.”
PWMA is located at 9401 East Street in Manassas. For more information, visit pwmusicacademy.com.
Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt has written for Prince William Living for more than 10 years. An award-winning author and poet, she can be reached through her website, KatherineGotthardt.com.
