Music to My Ears brings music lessons and musical theater back to Sebastopol
The newest tenants of the former Main Street Theater are also offering opera performances

Losing the Main Street Theater was a major blow to the cultural life of Sebastopol. It didn’t seem so at the time because the theater, deprived of an audience post COVID, closed so quietly—but with it went the existence of live theater in Sebastopol. Add to that the closure of People’s Music (a source of music lessons and musical instruments for almost 50 years) the year before, and things looked dire for the performing arts locally.
But nature abhors a vacuum, and now these two longstanding cultural institutions have been replaced by a promising new music venue, Music to My Ears, which offers music classes for all ages and live performances, specializing in opera.
The company, which is now renting the old theater space, was founded in Cotati in 2006 and was purchased by Christa Durand and Even Bowers in 2019.
Durand taught voice and piano lessons for several years for Music to My Ears in Cotati before she and Bowers bought the business.
Bowers, a software engineer, handles the technical side of the company’s productions and helps with the accounting.
“I do pretty much anything tech-related for the business,” he said.
Both Bowers and Durand bring business chops to running their new endeavor. Durand inherited and ran her family’s solar construction company, called Natural Light Solar, before returning full time to music.
Durand is a lyric soprano. Praised for her clarity and warmth of tone, she has performed in hundreds of concerts and shows in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. A native of Santa Rosa, Durand attended Sonoma State University, where she received her classical training and her Bachelor of Arts in Music.

A Safe Place to Learn
The bread and butter of their business is music lessons.
“We primarily do private music lessons for all ages, featuring pretty much every instrument—the normal kinds of instruments and a couple of weird ones,” said Durand with a laugh. “We have group classes and small instrumental ensembles. Voice classes. We offer a free singing class for children under 12 on Saturday mornings.”
They employ 20 to 25 music teachers, teaching an array of instruments.
The school’s teaching philosophy emphasizes fun and developing a love of music, as opposed to churning out musical prodigies.
“Kindness is really important to us,” Durand said. “We want all of our students and teachers and everyone to be promoting kind interactions with everyone? This really needs to be a safe place to come and be and learn.”
“I feel like a lot of places you go, it's like, ‘Yeah, we're gonna teach you how to do this and you're gonna be the best musician of all time – the next Mozart.’ Sure, we want our kids to be able to do that too, but we want them to have fun and really love music when they're done or as they move on to wherever they're going next. Music and theatre arts are essential to everyone no matter what you're going to do in your life. You do them because it's good for the soul.”
In addition to music lessons for children, they also have music classes for adults.
“Right now we have a voice class for adults, called ‘Harmony Playground.’ Several of my personal students that are in it, and many have said they find it to be very healing experience. There's a lot of people in it that have said they didn't sing for a long time because they had bad experiences in the past and now they're coming back and feeling like, ‘Oh yeah, I can sing again.’”
They also do musical theater shows for adults.
“They're a little bit different. We run them more like a class. Everyone who auditions gets in, and it's not necessarily the most talented people that are doing lead roles. We’re trying to create a space where adults can practice musical theater. Some of the other theaters in our community are semi-professionals. So where do you go as an adult to dip your toe in? A lot of adults that have come to do musical theater for the first time with us over the years are now doing lead roles in other places but they needed that safe place to experiment first.”

Bringing opera to Sebastopol and beyond
Durand takes a different approach to the monthly performances they offer—here the emphasis is on expertise. They offered their first opera performance in mid-September.
“That went really, really well,” Durand said. “It was fun because people were really surprised about the quality of the singers that are in Sonoma County. We have some really high-quality singers here.”
They plan on offering an “Opera Gems” performance once a month, including this Friday. (See ticket info at the end of this article.)
She said she’s also interested in hearing from other professional/skilled musicians who’d like to bring other types of classical music performances to the theater. They’ve already collaborated with a local theater company, North Bay Productions, to present cutting-edge productions like the Gender Role Reversal Review at the theater.
In addition to her work with Music to My Ears, Durand works with several classical music outreach programs devoted to promoting the relevancy of classical music. She is a member and performer with Opera on Tap San Francisco, an organization that aims to expose new audiences to opera by taking it out of the concert hall and into alternative venues, like bars.
“It’s basically a way to bring opera to people that wouldn't normally go to it. And the hope is then they would maybe think it was really cool and check it out,” she said.
Durand is also the artistic director of The Artists' Salon, which seeks to reintroduce the classical salon format into the home with the aim of fostering meaningful conversations around art and music.
“The Artist Salon is about bringing classical music into the home and reviving salon-style gatherings full of music and poetry,” Durand said. “A host can either hire the group and invite their guests for free or charge their guests a fee and we perform on guest admissions. Hosts must have a working piano (it doesn’t need to be fancy) and provide light refreshments and libations.”
She is also the artistic director for a non-profit group called Up Street Music Patrons, which funds music education and provides musical opportunities to adults and children for personal and cultural enrichment.
She’s excited to be at the helm of one of Sebastopol’s venerable cultural spaces.
“I want us to be a community space,” Durand said. “We want it to be fun and inviting and culturally diverse, where everyone feels safe and comfortable in being here.”
You have two chances to see Music to the Ear in action this week. Opera Gems: Stunning Opera Arias and Duets from Singers in Sonoma County is happening on Friday, Oct. 20, 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm at Music to My Ears Theatre, 104 N. Main St., Sebastopol. $20-25. Learn more and get tickets here. Then on Sunday, they will be offering a family-friendly performance and fundraiser for Up Street Music Patrons called Fairytale Melodies on Sunday, Oct. 22 at 2 pm. $5-$25 sliding scale. Learn more and get tickets here. Both events will happen at Music to My Ears Theatre, 104 N. Main St., Sebastopol.