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| The Music Settlement | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Music Settlement |
| Founded | 1912 |
| Founder | Mrs. Louis W. [Emily Riggs] (est.) |
| Type | Conservatory, Community Music School |
| Location | Cleveland, Ohio, United States |
The Music Settlement is a community-based music school and conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio, offering private instruction, early childhood music, ensembles, and teacher training. Founded in the early 20th century, it has connections to regional cultural institutions and national arts organizations and serves a diverse population across Greater Cleveland. The institution maintains collaborations with orchestras, universities, and arts agencies while hosting concerts, competitions, and public programs.
The organization traces its origins to civic and philanthropic efforts in Cleveland associated with figures linked to Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Museum of Art, Playhouse Square, Cleveland Institute of Music, and local settlement movements inspired by Hull House and reformers like Jane Addams. Early 20th-century benefactors and trustees included patrons connected to John D. Rockefeller Sr., Amasa Stone families, and social networks overlapping with University Circle, Cleveland institutions such as Case Western Reserve University and Western Reserve Historical Society. Across decades it interacted with visiting artists from touring circuits that featured names connected to Carnegie Hall, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and summer festivals like Tanglewood and Spoleto Festival USA. During World War II and the postwar era the school adapted programs influenced by national trends led by organizations such as the National Association for Music Education and American String Teachers Association.
The administrative structure includes a board of trustees, artistic directors, faculty drawn from conservatory and university backgrounds, and program coordinators who liaise with partners including Cleveland Clinic arts initiatives, municipal arts commissions, and foundations like The Cleveland Foundation and Gund Foundation. Programs span private lessons, early childhood classes similar to methods by Zoltán Kodály, influences from Suzuki method pedagogy, chamber music coaching, and preparatory curricula aligned with conservatory standards from institutions such as Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, and Eastman School of Music. The school hosts auditioned ensembles, youth orchestras, and community choirs that have performed with guest conductors from ensembles tied to Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and regional opera companies including Cleveland Opera affiliates. Teacher training and certification pathways reference frameworks used by National Guild for Community Arts Education and curriculum models by Music Teachers National Association.
The campus occupies historic properties in the University Circle, Cleveland neighborhood and includes recital halls, classrooms, rehearsal studios, and administrative offices. Performance spaces have accommodated master classes by artists with affiliations to New York City Opera, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House, and visiting professors from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music. The campus is proximate to cultural landmarks such as Severance Hall, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, enabling cross-institutional events. Instrument-specific facilities support keyboard, strings, brass, woodwind, and voice instruction with archives and libraries reflecting collections similar to those held by Library of Congress music divisions.
Faculty and alumni have included performers, pedagogy leaders, and scholars who later associated with major institutions like Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and academic appointments at Case Western Reserve University, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Eastman School of Music. Guest artists and clinicians have come from backgrounds tied to Leonard Bernstein, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Maria Callas, and pedagogues linked to Paul Hindemith and Heinrich Schenker traditions. Alumni have pursued careers in symphony orchestras, Broadway productions on Broadway, recording studios associated with RCA Records and Deutsche Grammophon, and leadership roles in arts organizations such as National Endowment for the Arts.
The institution partners with public schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, community centers, senior living facilities, and hospitals to provide music therapy and participatory programs drawing on models from American Music Therapy Association. Outreach includes collaborations with neighborhood organizations in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, East Cleveland, Ohio, and regional festivals resembling Cleveland International Film Festival-adjacent cultural programming. The school sponsors scholarship programs funded by philanthropic entities like Matched Endowment Foundation-style donors, and youth initiatives that mirror national efforts such as El Sistema-inspired ensembles and community arts education campaigns promoted by Americans for the Arts.
Over its history the organization has received commendations, grants, and awards from municipal arts councils, statewide cultural agencies such as the Ohio Arts Council, and national funders including the National Endowment for the Arts and private foundations akin to Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation. Faculty and students have earned prizes in competitions connected to MTNA National Competitions, Young Concert Artists, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition-affiliated events, and regional concerto competitions associated with orchestras like Cleveland Pops Orchestra and chamber ensembles that perform at venues such as Severance Hall and Maltz Performing Arts Center.
Category:Music schools in Ohio