Their first date shouldn’t have happened. Julie had decided to back out. A movie in the rain? “You’ll get wet,” she remembers telling him. “Well,” Damon replied, already standing at her front door, “I’m about as wet as I’ll be.”
A shared love of music and its transformative powers led them to marry in 2009. They started their home music business, N Tune Piano Service, the same year. Julie teaches piano lessons while Damon teaches guitar and drums as well as tunes and repairs pianos.
“We are both extremely self-driven people,” says Julie. Adds Damon: “I think everyone needs to have some sort of music in their lives.”
Julie credits her teaching style to instructors such as her Henderson high school piano teacher, Grace Swingle. “The things they taught me,” she says, “I teach my students.” For instance, she motivates her students by capitalizing on their interests. When Julie’s 9-year-old piano student Nathan Baird expressed his love for “Star Wars,” she told him he could play “Star Wars” theme songs after his more studious pieces.
The couple takes joy in the success of their students. When a student of theirs needed a place to practice, Damon suggested that she practice in their garage. Vivian Tsai would practice for hours in the Nantz’s garage and eventually received a music scholarship to Transylvania University.
It is because of the Nantz’s faith that they have dedicated their time and talents to music. “This is something we know God put us here to do,” Damon says. Julie agrees that they are tied together through their faith: “This is our core.”
