MERIT SCHOOL OF MUSIC
38 South Peoria Street, Chicago, IL 60607 meritmusic.org

---

Organizations Filed Purposes: Chicago's Merit School of Music is a community music school helping young people transform their lives by removing barriers to high-quality music education. Our 125 passionate and experienced teaching artists engage nearly 3,000 students annually in group and individual instruction, and through two signature programs: the community-based Merit Music in Communities and the audition-based Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory. Thanks to the support of Merit's dedicated faculty, staff, board, donors and parents, 75 percent of our students receive financial assistance. This enables motivated students, regardless of economic circumstance, to develop their talent and to use Merit as a springboard for achieving their full musical and personal potential.

Merit School of Music provides access to high-quality music education so that Chicago's driven young musicians can experience the transformative power of mentorship, community, and song.

The Merit Music in Communities (MMiC) program was founded in response to a request from Chicago Public Schools to create an in-school music education program. MMiC provides provides high-quality music education to 2,000 students at dozens of schools throughout the city through group instruction in strings, band, choir, piano, guitar, early childhood, and general music. In addition to leading year-long courses, Merit faculty also participate in multi-week general music residencies where they collaborate with students and CPS teachers to creatively enhance reading, language, and critical thinking skills through music.

Merit School of Music has a robust private lesson program for jazz and classical students of all ages and levels of musical ability. Over 900 students take private lessons at Merit, working one-on-one with celebrated music faculty to explore individual talents and interests, develop skills and technique, and overcome challenges. Approximately 70% of students enrolled in private lessons at Merit receive financial aid.

Merit's Instrumental & Vocal Music program provides approximately 650 beginning and intermediate K-9 musicians with small group after-school programming for string, band, piano, guitar, and voice. As students move through the program's sequential curriculum by achieving set goals, the program becomes deeper and more rigorous, preparing students for entry into Merit's prestigious Alice S. Pfaelzer Conservatory.

---

---

Data for this page was sourced from XML published by IRS (public 990 form dataset) from: https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/202131139349300913_public.xml