Four masked students played at socially distanced pianos one evening in February at the Surf Ballroom Music Enrichment Center in Clear Lake.
The students, between 7 and 11 years old, were participating in Karen Millerâs piano lessons that prior to COVID-19 were held in her home.
Karen Miller works with Victor Rasmussen, 7, at piano lessons at the Surf Ballroom Music Enrichment Center in Clear Lake. The center offers musical outreach programming for children and adults. Ashley Stewart
âThis space has been awesome,â she said, noting her living room wouldnât have allowed the students to distance as much as needed.
The Music Enrichment Center at 509 Buddy Holly Place has been a beacon for the North Iowa Cultural Center & Museum, the nonprofit that operates the historic Surf Ballroom & Museum.
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The Surf Ballroom s place in music history has long been secured, as the site of Buddy Holly s last concert and the place where, as Don McLean sang, the music died.
Now the storied 72-year-old ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, has been officially declared a historic place by the U.S. secretary of the Interior, landing on the National Historic Landmark list this month, just days before the 62nd anniversary of that fateful day. The Surf Ballroom is a national treasure. You can almost feel the energy and hear the echoes of all the concerts over the years, Chris Kramer, director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, said in statement. The soundtrack of the 20th century played live, right here in Clear Lake, Iowa.