Duplin Music Academy takes on its next movement

John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making plans.” Melodee Wynn can certainly attest to that.

Wynn, originally from Wilmington, moved to Duplin County in 1978 and began teaching private piano lessons in public schools. Her students would come to her during non-academic classes. That was how other instructors had taught piano in Duplin County over the years.

“I had dreams of going to a big city and being music director of a large church,” Wynn said in an interview with Duplin Journal. “Being that type of musician means being at the top of your game. You think you’re good, but there’s always someone better.”

Teaching piano through the public schools changed when the system went to a year-round schedule.

“That meant they were in school for nine weeks and then out for three weeks,” Wynn said. “That wasn’t conducive for learning piano.”

In response to the change, Wynn’s husband built her a studio beside their home. Students would come to her after school. The entire time, she still had the dream of working and living in a big city in the back of her mind.

“When many of my students graduated from high school, I decided I wanted to pursue my organ degree,” she said. “I was able to go back and finish the degree at UNC Wilmington.”

With her organ degree in hand, Wynn realized that Lennon’s words were true. It wasn’t feasible to move to a big city.

“My husband asked me, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’ I told him I love to teach, so I think I’ll go back to teaching.”

As fate would have it, they were out riding when she spotted a for sale sign in front of a building at a great location on US Highway 117 between Wallace and Burgaw.

“Stop! Look! I said to my husband. It’s only five minutes from our house.”

Within days, they bought the building, and Wynn’s husband began renovating the building based on how she wanted it to be laid out. That’s how Duplin Music Academy was born in 2007.

Wynn found herself teaching alone for the first few years.

“The hardest thing was finding instructors,” Wynn said. “Most instructors in different instruments are older. You don’t get many younger people majoring in the field of music anymore.”

Eventually, Wynn was able to reach out to other instructors to teach guitar, violin and voice at the academy. David Phillips, band director at Wallace-Rose Hill High School, would come to Duplin Music Academy in the afternoons to teach private lessons.

“It began to get very busy,” Wynn said.

After many years of teaching a long line of piano students in Duplin County and operating the academy, Wynn began considering retirement. However, the thought of losing the building to something other than a music school bothered her.

“The building was more of a dream to open it up for the community,” Wynn said. “When I began to think about retiring, it would be sad to see this become an insurance office or some other business.”

Fortunately, one of Wynn’s long-time students would be one to continue the dream. It started when that student, Adriana Mejia, was about to graduate from UNC Wilmington.

Mejia’s journey into music began in elementary school.

“Mr. Phillips came to [Rose Hill-Magnolia], my elementary school,” Mejia told Duplin Journal. “He was showing different instruments and demonstrating them. I was about to go into middle school. I thought it would be different and cool.”

When Mejia turned 13 years old, her mother came home from work and said, “They are offering a scholarship at my job for students to learn piano.”

That led to Mejia becoming a student of Wynn’s. After years of piano lessons, Mejia began teaching privately while attending UNC Wilmington. She and Wynn went out to lunch one day to catch up.

“How would you feel about teaching piano at the studio?” Wynn asked her at lunch.

“I’d love that.”

Eventually, Wynn approached Mejia again, this time asking, “How would you feel about taking over the business?” Mejia jumped at the opportunity.

“I think she built a really wonderful place here,” Mejia said. “I would also have hated to see it become something else.