The People's Music School

Thank you to the Teladoc Health team for supporting The People's Music School and for amplifying the importance of the work we do! 🎶 #RadicallyInclusive

🎻✨ This week's National Seminario at Ravinia Festival was an unforgettable experience! Watching our talented students from The People's Music School come out of their shells and form friendships with peers from around the world was truly inspiring. 🌍🎶 Proud of each and every one of them! 

We're #hiring! Are you a music educator with a passion for phenomenal teaching? Are you a firm believer in the power of music to transform lives? Work at The People’s Music School! Check out our open positions at https://lnkd.in/gZxA-D8U. #werehiring #musiceducation #employment #opportunity

When was the last time you challenged yourself to do something completely new? At The People's Music School, we ask our students to show up with a growth mindset every day. There are few things more humbling than picking up an unfamiliar musical instrument and trying to make it sound, well, listenable. So this summer, we're stepping into our students’ shoes: Every week at Program team meeting, a staff member teaches everyone a beginner lesson on their specialty instrument. So whether you’re already a virtuoso violinist or a phenomenal flautist, you’re picking up a clarinet and trying to make it sing. This ritual creates value in so many ways. It literally gives us our students’ beginner perspective: The difficulty of following directions, the frustration of not getting it right the first time, the triumph of that first squeak. It builds joyful bonds: Doing something unfamiliar and energizing is a wonderful way to connect with your fellow teammates. It gives us valuable insights on our work: Program Managers gain immediate and actionable perspectives on the challenges of the faculty members they manage. When was the last time you put yourself in your students’ shoes? Or if you don’t have students, your customer’s shoes? Your client’s? Give it a go - you just might learn something. And not just how to play “Hot Cross Buns.” #musiceducation #growthmindset #teambuilding

Thanks to the support of the D'Addario Foundation, The People's Music School is discovering just how transformative an intensive music education can be. We are pleased to announce we were selected to participate in the Immersive Music Challenge (IMC), an implementation and longitudinal study led by the D’Addario Foundation. As an IMC implementation partner, TPMS will receive five years of generous grant support from the D’Addario Foundation, as well as donations of instruments and supplies for our students and our program. We're honored to have been selected as an implementation partner for one of the IMC’s five core sites, with our Albany Park program playing a key role in this initiative. We look forward to gaining an even better understanding of the impact our program can have on students, families, and communities, thanks to the support of the D'Addario Foundation.

Even as the world shifts constantly around us, our history grounds us in deeply rooted values. The below letter was written by The People's Music School's founder, Dr. Rita Simó. We discovered it in a recent excavation of our storage unit. Handwritten in June 1976, mere months after the original school opened in February, the letter highlights values that continue to define us nearly fifty years on: Our #community has always been there for us from far and wide, donating a big new rug here, a French horn there, a shipment of records all the way from Boston. Rita never skimped on #excellence, insisting that our students were constantly practicing and performing, putting on a flute and piano recital just five months after the school's grand opening. Rita’s #creativity shines through as she draws on resourcefulness to build her bold new enterprise. She took every #opportunity to say yes, to draw people in, to be open to whatever may come her way. And how could all of this happen without #hardwork, exemplified in this precise moment by the dirt under our fingernails as we dug through 48 years of history? These values - which we acronymize as #ECCHO - ground us to this day. Whatever evolves or is disrupted, values matter, and we are always guided by them. What are your organization’s guiding values? What are your own? How do they show up in your histories, your current actions? #musiceducation #values #history

In June of 1976, just four months after opening The People's Music School, Dr. Rita Simó wrote this letter to the community: Dear Friends, Many things are happening, the practice rooms are finished. The inside walls are covered with sound proof material and there is a rug on the floor so the sound is well controlled. A family from Des Plaines donated to me a French Horn, some music and a music stand. A woman from River Forest sent us a big package of beginners piano books, another woman from Oak Park gave me a big new rug, and a friend from Boston sent a package with many good records. To them all as well as to all of you, we want to say thank you for your support. As the enclosed flyer shows, we are having a flute and piano recital on Sunday June 13. If you are near by please come, we will be glad to see you. Sincerely, Rita Simó Much has changed since 1976, but the deep appreciation for our generous community remains the same. ❤️ #FromTheArchives #ThrowbackThursday

Witnessing the incredible talent and poise of our students and teaching artist on Fox32 Chicago this morning was an absolute inspiration! These students (and their very proud moms off camera) exemplified the best of The People's Music School and our values of Excellence, Hard Work, Creativity, Community, and Opportunity. I don’t know about you, but in the 7th grade I certainly wasn't composing amazing collaborative pieces like this one, let alone being featured on local TV. I'm so proud to be part of these students' musical journeys. Moments like these make our work incredibly rewarding. Many thanks to FOX32 Chicago and Anita Blanton for providing this incredible platform to showcase our talented students and to share the transformational experiences we offer Chicago youth at The People’s Music School. https://lnkd.in/gV6JgcW9

Thank you, Reverb, for enabling our students to make music today and every day! 🎶 #MakeMusicDay #MakeMusicChicago

What an amazing day of making music ☀️ 🎵 At this year's Performapaloozathon, we closed out the school year with over fifty performances by 700+ students. We enjoyed pieces performed by People's first cross-site symphonic orchestras - look at that stage! Best of all, we did it surrounded by our incredibly dedicated community. Thank you to all the students, families, volunteers, faculty, staff, and friends who made this day extraordinary! And a special thank you to our partners who made this day possible: Northeastern Illinois University, Third Coast Percussion, Chicago Sinfonietta, Microsoft (thank you Nisaini R. and Kevin Fair!), 97.1 FM The Drive, Chicago Eats Marketplace, Lincoln Dogs Chicago, and Tacos Las Manitas.