Traveling families

Some families drive three hours. One Saturday is why it works.

COS students come from across Long Island and New York City, and from New Jersey, the Hudson Valley, Connecticut, and further upstate. Orchestra, chamber music, and musicianship all happen on the same day in the same building, so a family makes one trip and keeps the rest of the week.

A student practising away from home

Why one day

Everything is stacked into Saturday on purpose.

A program spread across three weeknights is impossible for a family an hour away and hard for a family twenty minutes away. COS puts the ensembles, the chamber groups, and the musicianship classes into a single Saturday at the Community Church of Syosset. Your child only attends what they’re enrolled in, so most families are in the building for two or three hours.

Siblings together

Brothers and sisters can be enrolled in different ensembles on the same morning, so it’s one drop-off instead of two.

One trip

Orchestra, chamber music, and musicianship all run the same day instead of spread across the week.

Private lessons alongside

Lessons are arranged with your teacher and can sit either side of the class block.

Where families come from

Nobody here is surprised by a long drive.

Long Island

Queens

New York City

New Jersey

The Hudson Valley

Connecticut

Upstate New York

I drive my son 3 hours each way from Upstate NY every Saturday because my son is able to have opportunities and education he cannot get anywhere else. He decided this for himself after seeing what the environment is like.

COS parent

Traveling from Upstate New York

Wide · COS students on tour

Before your first Saturday

The practical questions.

Classes run at the Community Church of Syosset, 36 Church Street, Syosset, NY 11791.

LOGISTICS NEEDED

Families driving in need to know where to park and whether it costs anything, whether parents can wait in the building and where, what time the earliest and latest classes run, what there is to eat nearby, and the policy on arriving late through traffic. These are the questions that decide whether a distant family enrolls, and none of them are answered anywhere on the site yet.