Michael Patrizio doesn’t understand the definition of “retirement.”
Less than five minutes after ending his 37-year-career as a band teacher at Shaker High School, Patrizio, 61, immediately began figuring out his next move with his life.
“I went, ‘Wait a minute. I’m not done!’ I swear to God, it really just hit me right between the eyes. ‘I know! I’ll open an arts center,’” he said, laughing. “Literally, just like that.”
Rather than going straight home from school, Patrizio drove around Latham, his home for the majority of his life, looking for a location for his new dream. Eventually, he found the building of the once-Colonie Youth Center at 5 1st Ave on Kiwanis Park. Although it was falling apart and abandoned, Patrizio spent the next three years going back and forth between banks trying to get a loan to rehabilitate it.
With the help of a former student, Michael Caruso, who is now Patrizio’s partner, the band teacher and his wife, Alana, opened the doors to his dream on June 9: The Patrizio Center for the Arts.
“I’m trying to have everything in the arts under one roof. That’s really it in a nutshell,” Patrizio said.
Since they’ve opened, more than 40 students are taking music lessons and hundreds attend health and fitness classes. The center has about 14 teachers, including Patrizio. Patrizio also works closely with the Latham Kiwanis, which owns the land.
Patrizio is constantly looking to do more.
“The sky’s the limit,” he said. “If I can imagine it, I’m gonna put it under the roof. Somebody asks for it and I can find it, it’s gonna be under the roof. And when the roof isn’t big enough, we’ll put an addition on it.”
The 6,200-square-foot, all-ages creative center sells/rents/repairs instruments, has six rooms for private music lessons ($25/half hour), a dance studio for ballet, jazz and pre-tap, a recording studio as well as wellness and fitness classes, including the popular Zumba. The building also has a kitchen for cooking classes and has art classes.
Although the business has been doing well enough to “pay the bills,” the arts hub has had its setbacks. This summer, the center set up a “Jazz Improv” class, where students could spend time learning specific improvisational techniques they wouldn’t necessarily get to focus on during a jazz ensemble. With a 10-week program lined up and teachers all set, Patrizio was disappointed when not a single student signed up. In a similar turn, a course in which students could learn how to set up a portfolio didn’t have enough students on board to run.
That still doesn’t stop Patrizio. He has plans to build an amphitheatre on the two-and-half-acres of land. The center is also working on having a summer enrichment program next year.
“That is our main emphasis at the moment, to put together our summer sessions so kids will have an opportunity to come in and continue their art, dance, music, recording,” said Caruso, who took lessons with Patrizio in the ‘70s. “We’re going to emphasize keeping the children involved in programs throughout the summer. Keep their minds moving, keep the wheels moving, all under one roof.”
Although he’s happy the building is up and running, Caruso said it hasn’t been an easy ride.
“It’s definitely been a very large undertaking financially as well as time, but it is working phenomenally. We’re growing every day,” Caruso said. “The interest is huge. Our present clientele love the facility.”
The new business is also looking into getting a sign on Troy-Schenectady Road, since people are having difficulty finding the building, Patrizio said. He said he was thinking of having a “G Clef” costume made that could dance on the road to promote the business.
Yet the support of the community and beyond has been helpful. Patrizio unexpectedly received a package on Monday, Oct. 22 from a prisoner from Pennsylvania. Though he was nervous at first to open it, he found a used mandolin inside with some lesson books and picks.
“I don’t know what it’s all about. I guess he thought it was something to donate,” Patrizio said. “It’s like he stopped playing it and wanted to give it to me. I don’t know what his crime was, but he thought of donating (the mandolin) to some kid.”
Patrizio said he isn’t sure if the prisoner was an old student of his or someone he used to know, but he couldn’t believe the strange, but thoughtful support.
As the arts center continues to take it one day at a time, Patrizio still smiles, sighs and looks around at the place he created for his ever-growing passion.
“I never feel like I’m working. I spent all those years at North Colonie and I used to joke, ‘I feel guilty getting a paycheck ‘cause I just go and have fun with the kids.’ They must have learned something though … a lot of (those) kids are now music teachers,” Patrizio said. “I look forward to coming here and working. To me, it’s not work. I love it.”
For more information on classes and schedules, visit www.patrizioarts.com.