by Mike Telin
Since 1983, the Broadway School of Music & the Arts has been providing the Slavic Village neighborhood with one-on-one instrumental and voice lessons, with a focus on community arts education and outreach.
On Friday, May 9 at The Darl Center for the Arts, you can help support the school’s activities by attending Brass & Bubbly. The evening will feature a 7:30 pm concert by the Factory Seconds Brass Trio, made up of Cleveland Orchestra members Jack Sutte (trumpet), Richard Stout (trombone), and Richard King (horn). The program will include music by Jacques Arcadelt, J.S. Bach, Arthur Frackenpohl, Maurice Bardin, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Amy Beach, and Joel Love.
Before and after the concert guests are invited to tour The Darl Center’s personal art collection of owner Darl Schaaf. The event will also celebrate the retirement of Barbara Bachtell, BSMA’s long-time executive director. Click here for tickets and more information.
“This will be the first benefit that we’ve held near the school,” Bachtell said during a recent Zoom conversation. “Next door to us is a Carnegie Library building that was one of the first Carnegie libraries built in Cleveland.” She noted that the Library closed in 1987, but the building found a new purpose in 2024 as The Darl Center for the Arts. Schaaf’s collection includes over 400 paintings, sculptures, curios, antiques, and artifacts that he amassed over a lifetime of international travel.
“Since Darl’s come back to Cleveland, he’s really embedded himself in the art scene and he was very pleased to offer the space for us to hold our event. There’s a stage on the lower level and he’s hosted everything there from burlesque shows to the Cleveland Gay Men’s Chorus. He makes friends easily and draws people in. So we were pleased to accept his offer.”
The retirement of Barbara Bachtell truly marks the end of an era for the Broadway School of Music & the Arts. She became the School’s third executive director in 1997 after spending thirteen years as the assistant director and program coordinator at the New Organization for the Visual Arts (NOVA).
I asked her what excited her about the opportunity to head the Broadway school.
Barbara Bachtell: Besides the step up in position, there were a couple of things. One was a family connection. I grew up in Hudson but my relatives on my mom’s side lived in Slavic village and I used to come up and visit them. So I felt a strong connection to the neighborhood. And my mother’s first cousin was Ralph Perk, the mayor, and he and his family lived in the neighborhood. So it felt like a beautiful connection.
Another reason was that I’m a visual artist, not a musician. But I have a lot of background in arts administration so it was an opportunity to continue the work that I loved doing at NOVA, which was bringing arts opportunities to the community.
Mike Telin: What accomplishments are you proud of?
BB: I think the programming that we initiated years ago continues today. Initiatives that began with one enthusiastic partner and one class that have really blossomed.
An example is our early childhood Eurythmics program. The way that started was really interesting because during the summer we were doing some outdoor art activities in a park that was a few blocks away from the school that were sponsored by LAND Studio through the Slavic Village Development.
We brought an artist to the park to lead some hands-on things with whoever was there. There were several daycare centers that brought their kids to the park and they just loved the activity. One of the centers was very close to our location, so we continued to do things with them. Pretty soon they were coming to the Broadway school, and we kicked off a Eurythmics class with one of our instructors who lives in Slavic Village.
The classes were so popular that soon we connected with Villa Montessori, which was a wonderful preschool around the corner from us. And that led to offering Suzuki violin classes which was also a wonderful program. But we realized that it was kind of hard for the preschools to bring kids to our location so we started taking the program to them.
In the past ten to twelve years, we expanded the program to the Cleveland Public Schools, Charter Schools and Catholic Schools. So our early childhood program has been very popular and has had strong support from the neighborhood.
MT: The school also offers programs for seniors.
BB: I’m really proud of our Creative Aging Program that we initiated in around 2018. I attended a conference with a group called Lifetime Arts that was developing an initiative to bring arts and music opportunities to adults 55 and up. They were really on the cusp of a whole new movement.
The program provides sequential art experiences that build knowledge and are challenging, so it’s not your typical ‘let’s make potholders’ type of thing.
For that program we’ve partnered with Senior Citizen Resources in Old Brooklyn. We’ve offered keyboard instruction, world drumming, and acrylic painting. Right now we’re offering a broad gamut of classes.
It’s all about breaking down barriers about age and what people can accomplish. We did our first exhibit in the lobby of Metro’s Main Atrium in their old building. It’s been amazing to see what the participants have been able to do. Many have never done any kind of art before.
We kicked that off with funding from the Ohio Arts Council, and we’ve had funding from them ever since,
MT: What are your plans post Broadway School?
BB: My immediate plans are to get back to work in my own art — I have a studio in the Twist Drill Building at East 49th and Lakeside. I’ve been there for a couple of years but haven’t exactly had a lot of time to work. So I’m excited to get back to making my own art.
I’ll also be doing some traveling, visiting my grandson and family for longer periods of time. And taking classes myself: I’ve wanted to take an economics class.
I would like to study Latin because I’m an appreciator of language and I actually write myself. I was just thinking about taking a music theory class. I’m not a musician although I took piano lessons early on and tried to teach myself guitar and cello.
I want to stay involved in the art community as well. I’m on the board of the Cleveland Arts Education Consortium. They are now a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization so there’s a lot of growth and opportunity there.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com May 7, 2025
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