Opening for the Rockettes, a Holmdel music school teaches classical music and Broadway

HOLMDEL – Anna Stepanova was 7 years-old when she found herself rapping a solo at Radio City Music Hall in 2019.

From the stage, "the audience looked huge," she remembered.

Stepanova was part of an a capella group from the Music and Art Academy that was invited to open for Rockettes Christmas Spectacular.

Since then, she has auditioned and returned to Radio City Music Hall three times, including in November, where she joined nine other students in blue winter capes singing "Winter Wonderland" and "Let it Go" from Disney's Frozen.

To Stepanova, the stage is fun. She has taken lessons with the Music and Art Academy since she was three and performs in semi-annual productions with the company.

This love of the arts is what Lana Ricci, the founder and owner, hopes to cultivate in her students.

After moving to the United States in 1994 with three kids and limited English, she was shocked to find out how different American musical education was compared to Europe.

Schools in the U.S. "cut all their art classes and music classes," she said. In contrast, European countries placed an emphasis on a music and arts education.

Ricci grew up in Mykolaiv, Ukraine and taught piano in Czechoslovakia, now present day Slovakia, and Trenton before setting her eyes on forming her own company: a one stop shop for all kinds of arts.

Students can take a variety of lessons including piano, violin, guitar, drums, saxophone, clarinet, singing, dancing, acting and the fine arts.

The Music and Art Academy, founded in 2002, grew from 30-40 students to a pre-pandemic high of 380 students. After nearly permanently closing in 2020, Ricci's academy currently has about 180 students.

Its current location is at 34 Main St. in Holmdel.

While students of all skill levels have attended her academy, she has pushed for professional experience.

Teachers from the academy have prepared students for film and theater auditions in New York as well as for exams with the ABRSM or Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Fredi Walker-Browne said her greatest pleasure is in helping “the next generation of performers make their careers, make their living and not make a lot of the mistakes that performers make when they don’t get the right information.”

Walker-Browne, who played JoAnne Jefferson in the original production of the musical Rent, joined the academy over a decade ago after a chance encounter with a friend at a commercial audition. Her friend Kerrianne Spellman, a Broadway and TV actress, was working at Ricci’s academy. Spellman told Walker-Browne that the academy was looking for voice teachers.

“I fell in love with it,” Walker-Browne said. “(This is) the longest I’ve ever done any one particular thing.”

Walker-Browne said she delights in showing her students who want to become professional artists navigate the business.

“Watching those who want to go pro, actually do it and succeed is gigantic to me,” she said. “We’ve had quite a few go forward and I’m delighted about that.”

Because of her love of mentoring, she has had a close relationship with her students, which has gone both ways.

Walker-Browne’s new album "#1People1Planet" came into being after a former student introduced her to his friend, who works as a producer.

While Walker-Browne grew up in a household with dinnertime poetry readings, she understands that the arts are often seen as an elective.

“Arts are essential, in that artists tell the human story, and story is how we communicate. And the more we learn about how to express our stories, the better we will be able to communicate with each other,” Walker-Browne said. “So, I encourage everyone to not tell your students you can’t sing, you can’t paint, you can’t dance. Find out, create.”

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Holmdel Music and Art Academy students open for the Rockettes