Inside a plain brick building on South Street is an organization that’s taught thousands of students — children and adults — to sing, play instruments and find connections through music over the last 38 years.

For the last 21 of them, executive director Jason Trotta has been at the helm — and he’s not going anywhere.

The Northampton Community Music Center (NCMC) provides music education and programming for community members through private and group lessons, performance groups and outreach programs. Trotta started his career as a music teacher, but the nonprofit he was working with after college offered programs for participants with disabilities.

Teaching them gave him a new perspective: “It was the first time I saw a different side of music and the power that it had in providing benefits to people,” he said. “It was no longer just about the music I wanted to make and what I wanted to do with my life.”

When he found NCMC, he was likewise drawn to its mission of helping the community through music.

“Here I am, 21 years later, and I just think the organization keeps getting better and better, and the faculty here are just amazing to work with,” he said. “It’s an exciting place to be. It’s where I want to be.”

Some students who have “graduated” from NCMC have gone on to professional accolades in the music world: singer/songwriter Jamie Kent has played shows with Huey Lewis & The News, The Doobie Brothers, America and Reba McIntyre; musician and conductor Joel Bein is the artistic director of the New Orleans Chamber Players.

Even so, making big-name alumni is not the program’s mission; Trotta points out that a conservatory, for example, might make students adhere to rigid hours-long practice sessions daily with the goal of creating people who will stay in the music business. His organization’s approach, however, is more holistic.

“For us, our mission is about making music a lifelong pursuit as part of your human experience and joy,” he said. “People who come here, we set them up for success, so they get the most joy out of the experience.”

Even alums who’ve gone on to professional success outside of music (in medicine, engineering, etc.) have told Trotta that NCMC helped them in their respective fields because it’s “a workout for the brain to study music as well as learn how to conduct relationships.”

Of course, setting up those successes is no small feat: NCMC has 50 teachers on staff who served 994 students, including children and adults, last year. Trotta hopes that by the end of this year, that number will be 1,000.

Of those 994 students, 259 of them benefited from financial aid; all students who are enrolled in EBT, WIC or Card to Culture are automatically eligible for at least 20% off the cost of a class. Trotta said that in NCMC’s 38-year history, the organization has never turned away a student for their inability to pay.

Much of the funding for scholarships comes from private donors — in fact, it was an anonymous donor who paid off the building’s $200,000 mortgage a few years ago.

If he had $1 million, Trotta said, he’d most want to use it on outreach to attract even more people to what NCMC offers.

“The expansion and support that we could give to the people who need it most, that are still falling through the cracks — I think it’s all about that,” he said. “It’s all about who’s missing — looking into opportunities to be where people are. Maybe they can’t get to us. Can we be more out in the places where they are and where they live?”

As it is, the organization already has a number of groups dedicated to specific communities: there’s Ujima, a BIPOC chorus; the Pride Chorus, for LGBTQ singers; the New Horizons Band, for senior citizens; and the Good Neighbors Project, which connects new refugee families in the Pioneer Valley with music programming. Another outreach program brings live music into local nursing homes for residents with Alzheimer’s.

Even with the support that NCMC provides, it’s not uncommon for a family to be apprehensive about enrolling their children in a class there, which Trotta said is often because of the parents’ own lack of experience playing music.

He pointed out that people who didn’t learn an instrument when they were kids might not know where to source one or how to pick a good one instead of “something on Amazon for $50 that’s not going to make any sound.”

To bridge that gap, they provide referrals to local businesses that sell and rent instruments; they also provide open houses and “instrument petting zoos” that allow children to see and try out instruments for themselves. Interested students and families can also reach out to NCMC to set up a time to visit.

Trotta’s office sits above a recording studio where, on a recent afternoon, one could hear the sound of conga drums coming up through the floor. The building was otherwise quiet, for the most part — the Northampton schools hadn’t yet let out for the day — but when the building is at its most active, it’s a space where “the walls are exploding with different sounds.”

As NCMC continues to grow and expand, Trotta hopes that more students will find a home there, a place where they can learn about music and build social connections.

“We’re here,” he said. “We belong to the community, so they just have to let us know what they want, and we’ll make it work.”