Turtle Bay Music School May Close After 94 Years

MURRAY HILL, NY — A Manhatttan music school that offers lessons to people of all ages and works with public school students is in danger of going out of business after nearly 100 years, the school announced recently.

Turtle Bay Music School — which relocated to Murray Hill after selling its longtime East 52nd Street home in 2018 — will close at the end of January 2020 if the institution does not secure "an immediate and very significant financial investment," the school's board of directors announced this month. The institution was founded 94 years ago to serve as a community music school and partners with the city to offer lessons to students at public schools that lack music programs.

Despite the longevity of the Turtle Bay Music School, the institution remained financially vulnerable throughout most of its history, the board of directors wrote. Recent developments such as the rise of online music education have hit the school especially hard.

"Confronting reality, changing times in the cultural and educational landscape, and society’s shifting priorities have made the [Turtle Bay Music School] business model no longer sustainable," the school's board wrote in a letter.

The board's letter thanked all of Turtle Bay Music School's former teachers, donors and pupils for their dedicate to the school and to music.

"Our doors may close, but we hope your overwhelming talent and heart will soon support another music school and continue to spread the transformative power of music," the message reads.

Board President Jeff Schlosser said in a statement that the "biggest tragedy" of the school's closure will be the loss of Turtle Bay's public school programs. The programs were invaluable to talented public school children whose parents may not be able to afford private lessons, Schlosser said.

"There are many heartbreaks with this news, but the biggest tragedy are the hundreds of NYC students who will now be missing out on the classical music education they want. These children have the talent, the drive, and the desire, but not the funds for lessons. It devastates us all to no longer be able to provide this valuable opportunity to the people most in need," Schlosser said in a statement.

The move to shut down comes just one year after Turtle Bay Music School sold its longtime home on East 52nd Street in a seven-figure deal. The school had been based out of 242 E. 52nd St. since it was founded in 1935. Turtle Bay Music School sold the building to an LLC company for $11 million in June 2018, according to public real estate records.