Connecticut School of Music expands

Business for Kenneth Kuo has hit a new note.

The resident of Westport and New York City recently founded RentalInstrument.com, a venture devoted to lending violins, saxophones and other musical pieces following the success of the Connecticut School of Music in Greenwich, which he founded in 2000.

"Word gets out there that the Connecticut School of Music has very good instruments," said Kuo, 36, who came to the United States in 1986 from Taiwan to study the cello at Juilliard School of Music. "Now we're branching out our rental department."

Kuo said his business, which has 13 teachers giving lessons in classical music in a 2,000-square-foot studio at 1242 Post Road E., Westport, made the move after securing a 500-square-foot office at the Greenwich Arts Council, where lessons are also conducted.

"We're going to move about 200 of the 700 instruments we have there," he said, adding that the repair shop will be relocated from Westport to the new office. "Most of the repairs will be done there because the dust and noise are not suitable for the lessons given in Westport."

RentalInstrument.com allows students to keep wind instruments after renting for three years and offers three levels of stringed instruments for novice students to advanced musicians. Novice string instruments can be rented for $40 total for September through December and $17.99 a month September to June with July and August for free.

"It probably makes us the most accommodating instrument rental out there," said Kuo, who would like to expand his entity nationwide. "That's how much we believe in our products."

Kuo's business is also designing its own line of string instruments, named after the late celloist Carl Davidoff, to arrive from Beijing this year.

Kuo, founder of the Connecticut Musical Arts Foundation, has recorded two albums and performed in several world-class venues such as Lincoln Center.

There is always a demand for instrument rentals because most students rent them to make sure they're interested in becoming serious players before buying their own pieces, said Adele Huffman, program coordinator for the Connecticut Music Teachers Association's New Haven chapter.