The community music school is an entity that is lately attracting a lot of much-deserved, long-overdue attention. The recent stories regarding the success of Vancouver’s community school network have drawn a lot of praise for and interest in these type of institutions, and the news this week again featured articles about community music schools. Long considered a sort of distant cousin of the typical private-lesson route, community music schools are growing into cornerstones of musical education. At first glance it seems that these schools are more often to be found in countries outside the United States, as the musical training systems of various countries have garnered much coverage in recent years.
A few glances around, however, will reveal that community music schools are everywhere. These types of schools hadn’t been much on my own radar until moving to Evanston, Illinois to begin my Master’s degree. When I moved into the post-graduation scene, I discovered that little music schools were tucked away around what seemed like most corners, and Chicago seems to have a diverse and well-established selection of schools to choose from. As anyone who frequents Evanston can tell you, though, the granddaddy of them all in this area is the Music Institute, which occupies a former Christian Scientist church on the main drag of Chicago Avenue. Despite the downturn in support for the arts in the current economic climate, the Music Institute of Chicago has had a great year, proving that music education is valued not as a luxury but a necessity, and the school is working harder than ever to make that necessity available to the masses.
While the Music Institute of Chicago is hardly a newcomer to the community music school network, its current executive director, Mark George, is creating a lot of positive buzz for his management of the institution. George, a concert pianist, educator, and administrator who took the reigns of the MIC in February of 2010, came to the position with a mission: “For as long as I can remember, I wanted to emulate my father and be a musician who would make music accessible to everyone in town.” George’s father, a jazz musician and the leader of the community band in the family hometown of Glassport, Pennsylvania, inspired his approach to music education, and, with extraordinary leadership and dedication, George has brought the Music Institute to new heights. The goal of the Music Institute is much the same of other community music schools, and there are few better goals: to make high-quality music education accessible to everyone. George’s school takes that mission seriously, with offerings for toddlers through seniors and, crucially, with offerings of financial aid to those students who are unable to afford this caliber of music education without assistance.
This year marks a banner year for the Institute and for George’s leadership there, as contributions to the school have flown in the face of the economic climate to reach record highs. These contributions, combined with the tuition fees from students with the means to pay, form a scholarship fund that allows something in the neighborhood of $500,000 of assistance for underprivileged students. Furthermore, the fundraising gala for the past year raised a whopping $1.3 million for the school and its scholarship reserves. George, with his goal of making music available to all, takes the question of financial aid seriously. “There are so many kids who really want to apply themselves in music,” he says. “Whenever I see a child who needs financial aid and we’ve run out, it breaks my heart. Essentially that’s what motivates our team to keep extending the school’s reach. Doing that begins at the board level, and we’ve had a lot of great people join our board, which now numbers 28.”
George’s efforts are certainly bringing more students from all walks of life through the doors at MIC. The past year saw an enrollment of 3,000 students, which makes it the biggest year for enrollment out of the past four. The students are able to take advantage of top-notch faculty and unique partnerships with area heavy-hitters such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the other arts schools as well as of a chamber music program that involves some 200 students. While George mentions that he thinks it may be the biggest chamber music program in the country, he is not content to rest on his laurels, saying instead, “I want our school to be the premier institution for music teaching in the Midwest, and maybe eventually the entire country. Chicago is filled with many stellar cultural institutions, and, in my view, the MIC is one of them.”
The generous donors to and the thousands of students of the MIC would seem to agree.
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