The Louisville Academy of Music is a non-profit community music school in Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 in the Crescent Hill

Crescent Hill

Crescent Hill may refer to the following:*Crescent Hill, Louisville - a neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky*Crescent Hill - a neighborhood and historic district in Springfield, Massachusetts...

 neighborhood. Founded in 1954 by Robert French and Donald Murray, the academy has had over 1,200 students in its over 50-year history. It originally operated from three rented rooms in Highlands

The Highlands (Louisville)

The Highlands is an area of Louisville, Kentucky which contains a high density of nightclubs, eclectic businesses, and many upscale and fast food restaurants. It is centered along a three-mile stretch of Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue and is so named because it sits atop a ridge between the...

 area of Louisville and moved to its current location in 1971.

The academy currently offers lessons in piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, strings

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

, voice

Voice

Voice may refer to:* Human voice* Voice control or voice activation* Writer's voice* Voice acting* Voice vote* Voice message-In film:* Voice , a 2005 South Korean film* The Voice , a 2010 Turkish horror film directed by Ümit Ünal...

, woodwinds, brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, and percussion for students of all ages. The present building on Frankfort Avenue consists of studios, a recital hall, a library and archive that contains thousands of books, records, and files on Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

musicians and organizations. The academy has presented more than a thousand programs and has trained over ten thousand students, many of whom have become composers, teachers, chamber music performers and members of major orchestras. Today, the academy is still run by Robert French, and his wife, Ruth French.

Robert French won the 1999 Governor's Awards in the Arts for his work with the school.