The Academy of Fine Arts

Specialties

We offer the finest training in Acting, Dance and Music in Gaithersburg. Music: We train all ages beginning with 3 year olds in pre-​piano or suzuki violin. We specialize in voice, piano, and guitar lessons with many competition winners and active performers on our faculty and in our student body. We are a founding school in the United States for the Royal Academy of Music’s Achievement Program. Our acting students, kids and adults, have performed on stages throughout the DC area on in various film/​commercial projects. Monthly recitals and performances at Olney Theatre! Our dance program is special. Small class sizes devoted to the ballet and/​or tap technique where kids and adults get lots of personal attention. It’s the fastest way for any age group to really improve quickly. There are no «ensemble» parts. All routines are choreographed especially for the students in the class and performances happen twice yearly at Olney Theatre Center.

History

Established in 1995.

Co-​Founders Phil Hosford and Hayuru Taima opened the school on August 1^st, 1995. Phil had left his Assistant Professorship at Michigan State University because of his desire to create a space to for both his artistic loves, Music and Acting. For the first many years, the concentration was on the music programs. Over 500 students per week were coming to the facility by 1999 for piano classes, suzuki violin, music theory and private lessons in piano, voice, violin, cello and flute.

The Acting Academy was finally established in 2009 followed quickly by the Dance and Art Academies. With each new Academy and each new faculty member the goals and standards remained; hire the best music, dance, acting and art faculty, pay them well, create a supportive, friendly environment at the school and in classes, and teach the arts as well as we possibly can.

Meet the Business Owner

Phil Hosford H.

Business Owner

Co Founder and teacher.

Philip Hosford

Music: Director, Piano, Orchestra; B.M., University of Maryland-​College Park; M.M., Peabody Conservatory; solo performances, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall; London, the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall; toured Europe, Asia, U.S., South America, Africa. Solo Recitalists Grant from NEA; USIA Artistic Ambassador; member, National Philharmonic Piano Trio; former faculty, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Michigan State University, Eastern Music Festival; recordings, BBC, Channel Crossings, Mark Recording labels.

Theater: Acting studies at University of Maryland, Studio Theatre, National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Washington Improv Theatre and the Roundhouse Theatre. Appearance include 1^st Stage Theatre (Blithe Spirit), Shakespeare Theatre Company (Much Ado About Nothing) Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (Richare lll), Adventures of John Blade (Aprong Theatre). WATCH Award nominee, Best Director, She Loves Me (Damascus Theatre.