Building a home with the power of music to enrich the lives of our students and their communities.
Midwest Young Artists Conservatory
As the region’s largest youth music ensemble program, we offer unparalleled orchestral, chamber, jazz, and choral music education of the highest quality. We empower nearly 1000 students annually of all ages and abilities, from 84 communities in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana to study and rehearse at our home in Highwood, Illinois.
What sets us apart?
♫ Our students thrive in a challenging, nurturing, fun, and supportive MYAC community that emphasizes individual musical and personal growth, building lifelong friendships, learning lessons of hard work, perseverance, teamwork, respect, leadership, and giving back to your community.
♫ MYAC works in partnership with private teachers and school music directors to help students reach their highest potential. We’re a resource for private music teachers and school music programs, offering clinics, coachings, outreach concerts, private teacher referral services, and more. We maintain a world-class teaching faculty and visiting master artists who lead masterclasses at the MYAC Center throughout the year.
♫ We’re committed to ensuring accessibility and diversity in music by providing financial aid to all interested students, so that no student is turned away based on ability to pay. We offer unique, impactful opportunities for students to perform in prestigious concert venues and on international tours. MYAC graduates are responsible and compassionate future leaders in various fields and accepted into top colleges and conservatories worldwide.
Our Programs
♫ Our programs consist of 8 orchestras, 60+ chamber ensembles, jazz ensembles including combos and big bands, 4 choral ensembles, early childhood music classes, music theory & history classes, festivals and workshops, summer camps, master classes, and national concerto and chamber competitions.
♫ MYAC ensembles are coached by a staff of professional musician-educators, including members of Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, and the Chicago Chamber Players, and perform at Harris Theater and Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Symphony Center in Chicago, Pick-Staiger Auditorium at Northwestern University, and the Ravinia Festival.
♫ Nationally renowned for our prize-winning chamber music program consisting of over 65 performing groups, we take pride in offering the most comprehensive and personalized chamber music program possible for our students.
♫ Very few chamber programs in the nation are as large as MYAC, and no youth music program has experienced the competitive success that MYAC has had at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as well as other national and local competitions.
♫ We encourage our students to experience the excitement of performing major chamber works in venues across Chicago. Our chamber groups have been featured on NPR’s “From the Top” radio program, ABC, CBS, Music da Camera, WFMT 98.7 FM “Introductions”, and WGN 720 AM.
♫ Prospective students and their parents are welcome to visit rehearsals of age-appropriate ensembles and attend MYAC concerts to get a glimpse of our offerings.
Our History
The history of Midwest Young Artists Conservatory is a story of a compelling mission, hard work, and serendipity. MYAC was founded in February 1993 in Evanston, IL when a group of parents located rehearsal space at Lake Forest Country Day School and asked Founder and Director, Dr. Allan Dennis, to continue working with their children.
Following that organizational meeting, 55 students showed up for the first rehearsal. The students were divided into a Junior and a Senior Orchestra, with several of the older or more advanced students playing in both, a tradition of nurturing leadership that continues as a core value of our programs.
It is an incredible accomplishment that the vision of these first MYAC parents and Dr. Allan Dennis has resulted in the premiere music ensemble program in the nation, housed in the beautifully transformed Old Stockade Building at Fort Sheridan, bursting at the seams with students enrolled in orchestra, chamber music, jazz, wind symphony and/or choral ensembles, and ambitious plans to create a vibrant arts center in Fort Sheridan in the near future.
We have never wavered from our mission “to build a home with the power of music to enrich the lives of our students and their communities”.
MYAC Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
It is the mission of MYAC to build a home with the power of music to enrich the lives of our students and their communities.
At MYAC, we understand that cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture is essential to MYAC’s vision of our home where there are no barriers to every child experiencing music education as a core part of overall education.
We value diversity and celebrate the contributions of people of all backgrounds, across age, ethnicity, race, color, ability, learning style, religion, faith, socioeconomic status, culture, marital status, languages spoken, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity as well as differences in ideas, thoughts, values, and beliefs.
Recognizing that individuals from certain groups have historically experienced barriers to music education, we will do our best to eliminate the societal and music barriers which may include access to private lessons, ensemble experiences, performance venues and financial aid.
Unity – music brings us together.
Our commitment to opening our doors to all means that we take the following actions:
● Commit to ongoing dialogue and training to continue our development as an inclusive organization.
● Develop pipeline programs as partnerships with schools, community centers, houses of worship, and other community organizations.
● Expand our curriculum and performance repertoire to include diversity in programming.
Code of Ethics - Core values and Expectations:
● Respect of differences: We appreciate diversity, foster mentorship, and embrace scholarly empowerment.
● Enthusiasm: We approach teaching, learning, and playing together with curiosity and excitement. We value the opportunity to play together and learn from one another.
● Excellence: We are committed to providing superlative musical education experiences to our students and our audiences. We commit to maintaining the highest possible standards in our teaching and our playing. This commitment also extends to excellence in how we treat one another and how we conduct ourselves both on stage and off.
● Collaboration: Excellent musical performance is rooted in close cooperation and collaboration. We commit to working together in this spirit which includes delivering and receiving critical feedback with kindness and grace and resolving conflicts that do arise respectfully and restoratively.
Violations of the above values and expectations, Code of Ethics, or other policy may be reported to any staff or faculty member and may be escalated to a member of the Board of Directors if not satisfactorily addressed.
Non-discrimination Statement
Our programs are accessible to students without regard to race, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity or disability. In addition, financial assistance is available so that no qualified student is excluded from MYAC’s programs.
On these same criteria, we do not discriminate in hiring and firing of staff, selection of volunteers and vendors, audition and placement in ensembles, financial aid determinations, and provision of services. Our facilities are handicap accessible, and we are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our students, faculty, staff and volunteers, and community.