About Opus – Our Story

Our Story: Founder and CEO, Rob Melton started taking guitar lessons at age 6 in a small town in Pocatello Idaho. “I would show up in basements, back of businesses in closets, halls of churches, etc. but never with other students or a consistent teacher or curriculum, something I was longing for”. He started playing in bands at age 12 with school friends playing various gigs around the community. He moved to Vancouver in 1986 and quickly joined a locally established band. After graduating from Fort Vancouver High School, he studied at Mt. Hood Community College and Clark College, earning an AA Degree. Rob then followed his songwriting passion and moved to Los Angeles in 1993. He studied and pitched songs, learning from various mentors for 3 years. Deciding this was not the path for him, he moved back to Vancouver and enrolled at Portland State University, applying to the piano department. Never taking a piano lesson, he had to study extremely hard for two years to be accepted into the program. He was admitted and studied in the classical piano department, ultimately earning a bachelor’s degree in piano performance. He then went into Graduate school the following year after being awarded a Graduate Teaching Assistant position and earned a Master in the Art of Teaching.

Rob’s wife, Janet, began piano lessons at an early age in Colorado Springs. She eventually moved to drum lessons while in high school. She went to college at Knox University in Galesburg Illinois, graduating with a bachelor’s degree. She moved to Vancouver in 1998 after graduating to explore the Pacific Northwest. Rob and Janet met while both auditioning as drummers in an African dance troupe. They married in 2002, have two kids, Jack – age 14, Simon – age 12. Janet currently enjoys playing the accordion for personal enjoyment and is a founding member of their family band, The Meltones with her playing accordion, Rob plays upright bass/guitar/mandolin, Jack plays guitar/piano/banjo, and Simon plays ukulele/piano.

Opus was founded in 2006 by Rob and Janet Melton in Ridgefield, WA. Rob envisioned a place that provided music instruction with more fun and performance opportunities than he had growing up. He opened the Ridgefield location after graduating from PSU with a Master of Arts in Teaching. The studio was a modest two-room space with only rob teaching. He studied and took lessons on most instruments while earning his master’s degree so was able to teach most instruments. The goal was to hire a teacher once there were enough students on a specific instrument. After six months, they were able to hire our first additional teacher. We opened our second location in Camas in late 2015. Our vision is to grow artistic spirits who learn, have fun, make progress, love (or learn to love) music, and become patriots of the arts for a lifetime.

In 2023 Rob and Janet purchase the property 732 directly next to the Camas studio, 726 and renovated it from the Camas Chiropractic Center to Opus School of the Arts. Opus now offers dance, visual art, theater, and adult fitness/wellness classes starting the summer of 2024. The new building has two 600+ foot dance floors and 4 more music studios.

Once again, welcome to Opus and best wishes of success to you during your new employment. We hope that your experience here will be challenging, enjoyable, and rewarding.

Sincerely,
Rob and Janet Melton (Director/ Owners)