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Merit School of Music is a nonprofit organization located in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Merit School of Music is a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, Illinois Arts Alliance, Illinois Alliance for Arts in Education, Chicago Consortium of Community Music Schools, and the Chicago Music Alliance.
Merit School of Music was founded in 1979 by Alice S. Pfaelzer and Emma Endres-Kountz in response to the elimination of music education from the Chicago Public Schools' elementary school curriculum. They had borrowed space from Roosevelt University for their tuition-free conservatory program, held on Saturday afternoons. Two years later Merit's growing enrollment created the need for a larger space and the school was moved to Chicago's Fine Arts Building. In 1987, Merit moved again to the basement of the Dearborn Station in Chicago's Printer's Row neighborhood. This location remained the school's home for the next 18 years.
By 2005, the school needed more room to accommodate its student body. After a $19 million capital campaign, Merit purchased an old TV studio in Chicago's West Loop and underwent extensive renovations to make the building musically equipped. The building is named the Joy Faith Knapp Music Center. It was named in honor of Joy Faith Knapp, a young businesswoman who died of lupus.[ citation needed ] It is located on 38 South Peoria Street.
The Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory [1] is Merit's most advanced musical program, it is named after one of Merit's founders, Alice S. Pfaelzer. The Tuition-free Conservatory is for high intermediate to advanced students with at least three years of experience on their instrument. Students meet for 26 Saturdays during the school year for three to nine hours.
The Instrumental & Vocal Music Program (group classes) [2] is an after-school program that includes instrumental and vocal instruction, music theory classes, and large ensembles. The program prepares students for entrance into Merit's most advanced program, the Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory.
The Private Lesson Program [3] is offered on all instruments in both classical and jazz music and in ethnic drumming. Private Lesson students perform at an annual recital and have opportunities for performance and competition throughout the year. Merit's Private Lesson Program is an option for adult music students. Merit is located in the West Loop and offers lessons on weekends and weekdays during after-work hours. An optional end-of-year recital is available for students.
Merit Music in Communities [4] (formerly known as Bridges) brings music instruction into more than 30 public, parochial, charter and private schools, and community centers, each week. Each program is designed in consultation with the Principal or Site Director. Merit Music in Communities offers group instruction on instruments, as well as in general music, early childhood, musical theatre and chorus. Band and string orchestra programs are also available. Students have the opportunity to continue their musical studies and further develop their technical and musical skills in one of Merit's on-site programs.
Merit's Early Childhood [5] program supports a child's first steps in music. It incorporates song, chant, movement exercises, and instrument play.
Alegre Strings is an all-violin performing ensemble with weekly rehearsal classes. Students are instructed using the Suzuki method. As the students progress in their studies, they continue with classical pieces and also incorporate the folk songs of Latin America. Performances are a central component of Alegre Strings. Students in the Alegre Strings program have performed for Presidente Fox of Mexico, NBC News, Fox News, WGN News, and have been featured in articles in Chicago Parent, The Chicago Tribune, Exito, and Ladies Home Journal. All Alegre Strings students perform in the Alegre Stringtacular – part of an all-day festival sponsored by Univision. Held in June at Harrison Park, the concert features all 150+ Alegre Strings students from around the city performing 35+ pieces in unison from memory.
Regenstein Scholarship Program - students living in Chicago Housing Authority communities, or other government-subsidized housing, are eligible to apply for the Regenstein Scholarship Program. The Regenstein Scholarship Program is dedicated to the musical and personal development of children who live in Chicago's public housing communities. In addition to a financial award, selected Regenstein Scholars receive an instrument for use while enrolled at Merit, musical supplies, and public transportation tickets to and from Merit obligations. Students and families receive additional staff support to help guide them through their Merit experience. Instruction for beginning music students, including early childhood programs, is available.
Music lessons are a type of formal instruction in playing a musical instrument or singing. Typically, a student taking music lessons meets a music teacher for one-to-one training sessions ranging from 30 minutes to one hour in length over a period of weeks or years. Depending on lessons to be taught, students learn different skills relevant to the instruments used. Music teachers also assign technical exercises, musical pieces, and other activities to help the students improve their musical skills. While most music lessons are one-on-one (private), some teachers also teach groups of two to four students, and, for very basic instruction, some instruments are taught in large group lessons, such as piano and acoustic guitar. Since the widespread availability of high speed. low latency Internet, private lessons can also take place through live video chat using webcams, microphones and videotelephony online.
The Juilliard School, often abbreviated simply as Juilliard, is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, which is named after its principal benefactor Augustus D. Juilliard. Juilliard is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious performing arts schools in the world and ranks among the top schools for performing arts.
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest continuously operating independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Hall, and is home to approximately 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies, and 1,500 more in its Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education. NEC offers bachelor's degrees in instrumental and vocal classical music performance, contemporary musical arts, composition, jazz studies, music history, and music theory, as well as graduate degrees in collaborative piano, conducting, and musicology. The conservatory has also partnered with Harvard University and Tufts University to create joint double-degree, five-year programs and provide students access to Boston's premier academic resources.
William Levi Dawson was an American composer, choir director, professor, and musicologist.
The Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music is the music and performance arts school of Northwestern University. It is located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, United States.
The Colburn School is a private music school in Los Angeles with a focus on music and dance. It consists of four divisions: the Conservatory of Music, Music Academy, Community School of Performing Arts and the Dance Academy. It is located adjacent to the Museum of Contemporary Art and across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The Bard College Conservatory of Music is part of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Founded in 2005, the program is unique among music conservatories in the United States in that all undergraduate students are required to participate in a five-year dual-degree program, in which both a B.M. in music and a B.A. in a subject other than music are obtained. Many of the Conservatory's faculty also teach at other conservatories such as the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute.
School of Rock is a music education program. This for-profit educational company operates and franchises after-school music instruction schools in the United States, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, South Africa, Mexico, Australia, Paraguay, Taiwan, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and the Philippines. School of Rock currently has 307 open locations in fourteen countries serving more than 55,000 students.
Bloomingdale School of Music (BSM) is a non-profit community music school on the Upper West Side of New York City, in the neighborhood historically known as the Bloomingdale District. It is housed in a five-story, 102-year-old brownstone and was founded in 1964, by David D. Greer, organist and choirmaster of the West End Presbyterian Church. According to its website, BSM's mission is to "provide access to high-quality music education to anyone who seeks it, regardless of economic status, ability level, ethnicity, or religious affiliation."
The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music is a Palestinian music conservatory with branches in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Gaza City. In total, there are more than 1,000 students. It was established in 1993 as The National Conservatory of Music, with its first branch in Ramallah, opening in October of that year.
The MacPhail Center for Music is one of the nation's oldest and largest community-based music education centers. Located in the Mills District of Downtown East, Minneapolis, Minnesota, the school has over 16,000 students, providing instruction at more than 130 locations outside of its downtown Minneapolis facility on more than 35 instruments and in a variety of musical styles. MacPhail is registered as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing students of all ages, backgrounds and abilities access to inspiring and enduring music learning experiences through extraordinary faculty, relevant programming and integrated learning technology to create successful outcomes
The DC Youth Orchestra Program (DCYOP) is an ensemble-based music education program in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1960 on the request of DC Public Schools to be the city's youth orchestra, DCYOP enrolls over 600 students ages 4–18 every year from the DC metro area.
El Sistema is a publicly financed, voluntary sector, music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu. It later adopted the motto "Music for Social Change." El Sistema-inspired programs provide what the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies describes as "free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children." By 2015, according to official figures, El Sistema included more than 400 music centers and 700,000 young musicians. The original program in Venezuela involves four after-school hours of musical training and rehearsal each week, plus additional work on the weekends. Most El Sistema-inspired programs in the United States provide seven or more hours of instruction per week, as well as free use of an instrument.
The New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) is a series of summer residential programs for New York State high school students. It provides intensive pre-professional training. It is open to all New York State high school age students who qualify through audition. Seven component schools offer training in the specific disciplines of ballet, choral studies, dance, media arts, orchestral studies, theatre and visual arts.
The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, known at one time as the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music, is a music conservatory located in Brooklyn, New York City. It offers a broad range of instruction in areas of American song, jazz and gospel singing, Latin jazz, and African drumming. The conservatory was founded in 1897 by German-American immigrants as a classical European conservatory.
Piano pedagogy is the study of the teaching of piano playing. Whereas the professional field of music education pertains to the teaching of music in school classrooms or group settings, piano pedagogy focuses on the teaching of musical skills to individual piano students. This is often done via private or semiprivate instructions, commonly referred to as piano lessons. The practitioners of piano pedagogy are called piano pedagogues, or simply, piano teachers.
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department, conservatory, conservatorium or conservatoire. Instruction consists of training in the performance of musical instruments, singing, musical composition, conducting, musicianship, as well as academic and research fields such as musicology, music history and music theory.
musiConnects is a non-profit music education organization and chamber music residency based in the Mattapan and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. The organization's mission is to "model and teach self-expression, peer leadership and community development through the transformative power of chamber music." Founded in 2007 by violinist Betsy Hinkle, musiConnects operates two education programs and a concert season of chamber music performances in neighborhood venues such as schools, community centers, libraries, health centers, and assisted living communities.
Isabele Taliaferro Spiller was an African-American school co-founder, music educator, and performer.
Florence Jepperson Madsen was an American contralto singer, vocal instructor, and professor of music. She served as the head of the music department of Brigham Young University (BYU) for ten years.
Coordinates: 41°52′51.0″N87°39′0.1″W / 41.880833°N 87.650028°W