farragutpress

Making move happen: KAM

July 2, 2020 by Michelle Hollenhead

Knoxville Academy of Music is making a bold move and is hoping to offer classes in its new West End location in early July.

The studio, which has been in the former Kroger shopping center since 2014, is moving to 165 West End Ave., taking the place of EXIT Realty, which recently relocated to Cogdill Drive.

Owner Jeffrey Comas said he had been actively looking for a new site for about two years, but two factors recently hastened the planned move.

“They are building a new development here (tentatively labeled Farragut Town Center at Biddle Farms) and I’m not sure how much of the current building will survive,” he said.

“If they tear it down, we just don’t have time to wait for the rebuilding,” Comas added.

A recent air-conditioning failure further sped up the process.

“It was really good that we waited to move because what we found was just perfect,” he said. “We didn’t want to go far from where we already are, especially since our clients are used to our location.

“We really like the West End property, it is well-run and has been well-maintained,” Comas added. “We can’t wait.”

Comas, his daughter, operations director Jody Comas, and the business’s assistant director, Brandi Clifton-Cowan, have been hard at work on the transition plans, working with Town of Farragut on signage, as well as a slight redesign and construction of a wall within the business.

“We are just waiting on our certificate of occupancy and we’ll be ready to go,” he said.

“We are very exited,” Clifton-Cowan added.

The new site will offer “about the same amount of square footage,” Comas added — enough to accommodate up to 500 students weekly.

Knoxville Academy of Music offers music lessons encompassing “just about every instrument except for brass and woodwinds,” Clifton-Cowan said. “We give lessons in piano, guitar, drums and voice, along with bass, banjo, mandolin and the ukulele.”

He estimated 80 to 90 percent of their clientele is “between the ages of 5 and 15.”

Pre-COVID, Comas said the studio had “well over 300 students a week,” a number that dropped during the pandemic. “But we have really picked back up in recent weeks.”

He is grateful for Town support, both government- and customer-based

“I do want to say we appreciate so much the Town of Farragut and our clientele,” he added. “We have been well-supported by the community and we really appreciate that.”

Early background

Comas actually has an almost two-decade-long history with the Farragut community, as he began giving lessons locally in 2004, following more than 10 years of giving lessons as a music-studying college student at Belmont University and Austin Peay.

His decision to teach followed a period in his 20s when he worked as a traveling musician, a career that took him to Minneapolis for a time in the late ’80s, where he came into contact with Prince more than once.

“He used to come to these weekly Blues Jam sessions they had every Monday night,” Comas recalled of the late prolific genius. “I met him more than once.”

Comas grew up in Cedar Bluff, attending those schools then graduating from Bearden High School in 1979.

After traveling the country, he came back to Tennessee to study guitar, ultimately graduating from Austin Peay with a degree in composition.

Comas said he began specializing in teaching younger children in 1998, when he opened his first music school, where he taught almost 100 students each week.

While he no longer teaches, and instead focuses more on the marketing side of the business, Comas now has 15 instructors working at Knoxville Academy of Music while Clifton-Cowan oversees the day-to-day operations.

“Brandi really is the face and voice for most of our clientele,” Comas said.

For more information, call 865-675-1655.