ERC SUCAR staff Stephanie Krell teaches a note to 6-year-old Vanessa Urban during a violin lesson at Cornerstone Music Studios in Millstone on Feb. 5. MILLSTONE — One of the cornerstones of any community is music, because it helps people connect to others and to things greater than themselves.

A Millstone resident has harnessed this philosophy into a new enterprise called CornerstoneMusic Studios. The business at the corner of Sweetmans Lane and Millstone Road, which has been open for a year and a half, currently services 130 students in the Millstone area, according to owner Laura Wittman.

The business offers private lessons in piano, violin, viola, saxophone, guitar, voice and other instruments, as well as Musikgarten, which are group music and movement classes for children up to age 5.

Wittman, a classically trained pianist and mother who has nurtured music education in her two daughters, Olivia, 17, and Isabel, 13, and who has given piano lessons to other community children in her home throughout the years, said she had an epiphany that led her to open the studio.

ERC SUCAR staff Vanessa Urban, 6, takes a violin lesson at Cornerstone Music Studios in Millstone Feb. 5. "I felt like I had been called to focus my passion and energy on music and children," Wittman said. "It's a blessing, because at Cornerstone I'm doing both."

Holly Deitz, a studio manager whose children, Michael, 9 and Hayley, 14, take

guitar and piano lessons, said, "There are no other music studios in town. It's amazing what this has brought into our community."

Wittman said highly qualified musicians, many with college degrees, teach the private lessons at the studio. Lessons take place in private, artistically decorated and well-lit rooms that have outlets for iPods and recording devices. While parents wait, they can lounge near the fireplace or the grand piano in the waiting room.

"Many parents like to sit and unwind," Wittman said. "It's a great place to do that."

The studio's ambiance was created to make students and parents feel welcome, according to Wittman.

"We want everyone to feel like they are family," she said.

Although the studio has a couple of pianos and a few weighted-key keyboards, students should have their own instruments for instruction, according to Wittman.

"It behooves a family to invest in the instrument because it sends the child a strong message that the parents do believe in the value of music and that they are placing confidence in the child to begin the learning process," Wittman said.

Students who take private lessons have various performance opportunities throughout the year. In its first year, the studio partnered with Albivi on Perrineville Road to have its students give concerts on the restaurant's terrace in the summer and the fall."

It gave the kids an opportunity to get out there and put themselves in front of an audience," Wittman said.

Cornerstone Music Studios' students also gave benefit concerts for the Millstone Township Foundation for Educational Excellence, which raises funds for Millstone public school programs.

Students also have the opportunity to perform at various recitals at the studio throughout the year and to perform and compete against other musicians at the Mid- Atlantic Music Teachers Guild Festival, which will be held March 27-29 this year in Hazlet.

Wittman said the business also has hopes of forming a youth rock band this year. She said musicians in the band would learn how to better play their instruments, perform with other musicians, play concerts and record their performances.

For Wittman, who has lived in Millstone for the past 17 years, the intrinsic reward of opening the studio is "planting a musical seed inside of every child who walks through the door."

"Its blossom will continue to unfold and evolve," she said.

Wittman said her passion for helping children realize their dreams through music has deepened in the past couple of months, since her sister Dianne Brodman passed away.

"I have a sense that Dianne is very much a part of this enterprise," she said. "This dream is really both of ours."

Wittman recalled that both she and her sister had a passion for music, but would always get nervous before a piano recital. She said their mother and father, who were also musicians, always reminded them that God gave them a gift.

"Having the gift is one thing, but acquiring the skill to use it is totally separate," Wittman said, adding that she and the other faculty at Cornerstone Music Studios are dedicated to helping area children nurture their musical talents.

For more information, contact the studio at 732-446-1919 or e-mail cornerstonemusicstudios@ verizon.net.