From the Director of Cedar Street Studios, Jared Lane

Growing up in Buena Vista, I was always involved in the arts in the Arkansas Valley. I remember singing with the Collegiate Peaks Chorale and performing with High Country Fine Arts theatre productions. However, I often had to drive to Denver to be able to find complete and advanced lessons in cello, voice, and piano. We drove to Denver for instruction in music theory, music history, conducting, and more. So, when I went to college to earn my degree in music and later my masters in music composition and started a career in composition for film and television, I told myself that I would return with all that I had learned and give back to Buena Vista, a town and community that had given me so much. Because of the amazing gift of technology, I have been blessed to be able to compose for film and television from right here in the beautiful Arkansas Valley.

I have been teaching privately since my undergraduate years of college and am excited to be teaching here as well. My goal in teaching has always been to teach the whole child. When I think back to the music teachers who impacted me the most, they were the ones that not only taught me all aspects of music but sought to develop my character as well as my music. They made sure to find my passions and dreams and fan those flames. These teachers helped formed every part of who I am, and now I have those same goals.

One of the reasons I decided to have a career in film and television music is because music and music in films often taught me on a personal level. When a good book, movie, or piece of music touches us, it changes how we see the world. The arts, particularly music, bring people outside themselves to dream about what could be. I want to give that to others who watch and listen to my film scores. That spills into teaching. Because of the teachers who taught me music, I grew to have a deep connection with music. By teaching my students, I endeavor to give them that gift.

The same is true in the recording studio. While in Prague, assisting the film score composer with the recording of the score for Starbright, I saw firsthand the power of recording studio musicians and their collaboration with composers and recording technicians to bring to life the music that touches us. That led me to go back to Prague to conduct the Czech Studio Orchestra in recording my own documentary film score which went on to win Best Original Score at the 2023 Nieves International Christian Film Festival as well as a Bronze Medal Winner at the Global Music Awards for 2022 Original Score/Soundtrack for Movie and Television. You can listen to the score here. Cedar Street Studios wants to bring some of that magic of sound studio recording to musicians, podcasters, and others in the valley as well.

[Music]…tends to tap into some affections that I don’t normally experience—wonder, majesty, pain—and teaches me how to feel those things…I find they are more readily available to me in other areas of my life.” - Phil Keaggy

I’m blessed to live in this community and to be able to do what I love here in these beautiful surroundings. I hope you will join us in bringing more music and musical opportunities to the Arkansas Valley. The sky is the limit for what is possible for our students here. For more information about piano, violin, cello, voice, group violin, and Music for Little People™ classes, as well as recording studio information, please contact me at jaredlane@bvcedarstreetstudios.com