People's Music School
The People's Music School is the only community music school to offer free group classes and private lessons to children in the United States. Founded in 1976 and located in Uptown, Chicago at 931 W. Eastwood Avenue, the School offers private music instruction to anyone, regardless of their financial resources. Today, the School offers free instruction in 13 INSTRUMENTS (including woodwind, piano, percussion, and string instruments), as well as voice and theory classes to more than 350 students each term (three terms in a year). In exchange for their free music education, the students or their parents volunteer at the school for two hours a month. The People's Music School also presents free concert performances to showcase the talents of their students as well as to give back to the neighborhood.
The People's Music School also hosts an annual street festival in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago in which it is located.
History
Dr. Rita Simo, a Juilliard-trained classical pianist, founded People's Music School over 30 years ago in Chicago in a rented storefront with a piano donated by St. Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Church. She dreamed of having her own place to teach and convey the joy of learning music to other people and began with music lessons to a handful of Hispanic, Asian and African-American students. Dr. Simo was inspired by the free music education she received as a child in the Dominican Republic. "What we are doing is letting students discover their self-worth through their love of music," Simó states. Twenty years later, Dr. Simo and the school directors erected the building currently housing the school, which features ten classrooms, a concert hall, a music library, and an outdoor patio. Rita, as she is simply known to all, retired in 2001 from her position of Executive Director, though she remains actively involved as a board member. The People's Music School hired Bob Fiedler as Executive Director in November 2005, who formerly served as the Development Director for an Uptown homeless services agency (REST) and Director of a local Muscular Dystrophy Association chapter.