Twenty years is a milestone for any person. But for a business, it can be truly remarkable.

Yet, this year, Laurel School of Music is celebrating its 20th anniversary, having arrived on Main Street in 1989.

"I've only know what it's been like to run this place for the last five years, but I have a lot of pride in the other 15 years of this school, too," said Alvin Roda, who took over as the school's director in 2004.

As part of its 20th anniversary, the school kicked off its first-ever summer concert series late last month at McCullough Field.

"I never realized just how important, not just to the kids, but to their parents, the public performance aspect is," Roda said. "The kids want the chance to show off what they can do and their parents want just as much to see what their children have been working so hard to learn."

The series is also an opportunity to show off one of the school's most popular programs: Rock Band class.

"The point of this school is to produce programs that really excite the students," Roda said. "We started five rock bands this year and it really energized the guitar students."

In fact, the school has 24 students signed up for the next round of rock bands.

Mack Statham, who has taught at the school for 15 years, said that sort of excitement is what makes the school special.

"A lot of the students arrived in elementary school and were so eager to learn about music, that they stuck with the school right through college," he said. "In fact, one of the teachers here now, was once one of my students."

The school's future wasn't always as certain as it seems to be now. When he took the school over in 2004, it was struggling to maintain its student base and looked like it might have to close its doors.

But, with an aggressive plan aimed at finding what prospective students wanted out of the school rather than telling them what the school offered, the school grew to its current roster of 280 students.

"I came and treated it as if I was starting up a new venture," said Roda, who was a lawyer before joining the school. "It was difficult at times, but the name recognition helped me out a lot. It always helps when your name has been out there for 15 years."

More recently, though, the school had another, much rougher patch.

As the economy turned south over the last two years, the flow of students trickled to a stop. After growing by between 50 and 75 students a year for his first four years, Roda said, the school did not grow at all last year.

"It seemed like out of nowhere, parents had to choose where their money was going, and it couldn't go to us anymore," he said. "I can't tell you how many people had to tell me, 'Al, I just can't swing it right now.' "

The timing was bad, too. With the school's steady growth, Roda had begun the process of improving the school itself. Having already expanded into neighboring property, he was going about getting new equipment and constructing new rooms.

"We had a lot of new expenditures and suddenly we were a little squeezed," he said. "Fortunately, it started turning around about three months ago and it seems like we're back on track."

Statham said the school has endured several recessions now, and that much of that survival has come from the same philosophy that was used this time around.

"Not too long after we started, students and teachers were dropping out," he said. "We just stayed and worked with the people that did stick around and got through it as best we could until the economy changed."

In addition to forcing him to examine his expenses and business practices, Roda said the recession has, most important, reinforced his "customer first" philosophy.

"These are the people that helped us get to where we were and helped us get through every rough patch," he said. "This just reminded me of that more than ever. That, and we would be nothing except for our teachers."

So what's in store for the school for its next 20 years?

Roda said he'd like to expand upon the school's concert series and make it a "memorable event."

Roda also said he hopes to encourage more siblings of students to join as well. Toward that end, he's trying to reinvigorate the school's Tot-Tunes/Tot-Crafts program.

The idea is that parents at the school will bring their younger children to one of the Tot-Tunes/Tot-Crafts events, which will feature music along with arts and crafts to help the kids associate music with fun.

"I want this to be a school for everyone," Roda said.

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