Samuel and Doris Lellouche have had a busy five years. The Mountain View-based husband-and-wife duo started a music software company, had three kids and, just last week, celebrated the grand opening of the third location of their music school.
But it wasn’t an easy journey. The couple had purchased the building at 284 Moffett Blvd. in Mountain View right before the pandemic hit, causing their plans to be delayed by more than two years, Samuel said.
“Opening this location is even more meaningful to us because it’s something that we’ve been working on for a long, long time that has been delayed for close to three years now,” he said.
Rebuilding after the pandemic was difficult, according to Samuel. Opus 1 Music Studio, with existing locations on Grant Road in Mountain View and on El Camino Real in Palo Alto, operated almost exclusively online for 18 months before gradually reopening. But they lost students and teachers, some of whom moved out of state.
While the Moffett Boulevard location opened nearly a year ago, it started out operating only two days a week. Now, the location is open five days a week, with the goal to expand to every day of the week. Between all three studios, Opus 1 Music Studio currently has 1,300 active students, with a capacity of 1,600 students, Samuel said.
“Doris’ vision was always to teach as many kids as possible and share our love of music and passion for music,” he added. “We want to grow and try to become the biggest music school in the Bay Area.”
Doris began Opus 1 Music Studio in 2006 as a home studio. In 2010, she opened the Mountain View Grant Road campus. Shortly after opening the studio, Doris met Samuel, who at the time was working in tech.
“My wife is the pianist and the artist; I’m a techy Silicon Valley engineer,” Samuel said.
Eventually, he quit his job to go all in with the music business, and, five years ago, he started a separate company called Opus 1 Development Studio that builds software for music schools. Now, nearly 300 music schools worldwide use his software, he said.
Opus 1 Music Studio offers piano, violin, cello, guitar and voice lessons for all ages and levels. And local residents just might see, or rather hear, some of the studio’s students perform around Mountain View – a string ensemble performed at the 2023 Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, and Samuel said they are hoping to perform at the Mountain View Farmers’ Market in the future.
“Performing is a good way to validate your skills, and beyond the music education, the benefit is also building confidence,” ge said. “More than 90% of our students don’t study music to become musicians; they study music because it’s a good way to complement their education and also build character. There’s a lot of benefits to music education.”
For more information, visit musicopus1.com.
