Deluca Music Academy has been teaching students to love and learn musical instruments and voice since 1959 – over 11,000 in fact.

Owner Mark Henkels has owned the Academy since 1986. He and his wife, Karen, have three children and they all started taking lessons as ele-mentary-age students. Their oldest son is now a professional musician, their middle daughter is a chorus teacher in the West Chester School District and their youngest plays guitar for fun.

DMA has been fortunate to have a wide variety of teachers and students to grace the school over the years.They range from playing with such artists as Stan Kenton, Woody Her-man, Frank Sinatra from the big band era, to Prince, Christina Aguilera,Teena Marie, Boys to Men, Mariah Carey, LeAnn Rimes, Celine Dion,The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Four Tops, and Tupac.

They also have made appearances on “The Tonight Show,” MTV, the “Today” show, and the “Grammy Awards.”

A number of DMA students have be-come teachers themselves and teach not only at the Academy, but also at schools in the area, such as Upper Moreland, Central Bucks South and Cheltenham.

DMA offers guitar, piano, voice,drum, saxophone, ukulele, violin, cello, clarinet, flute, trumpet and trom-bone lessons from experienced and enthusiastic teachers, who are profes-sional musicians and teachers. Their goal is not only to create wonderfulmusicians, but to make sure the stu-dents are having fun in the process.

DMA also offers students The Musi-cal Ladder System. Approximately every three months, students are re-warded with a special wristband that proclaims their success for reaching certain goals. The students love col-lecting the many colored wristbands that show how much they have ac-complished.

DMA also offers the opportunity to perform in recitals throughout the year. In addition, the Academy offers free picture days so each student can capture memories as he or she devel-ops as a budding musician.

Music lessons never go out of style,and DMA is proud to be a part of the younger generation’s chance to learn a skill that can last a lifetime.