Community Music Center history

As part of its social vision, Community Music School became a founding agency of the Community Chest in 1922.

1923 – The Community Chest (now The United Way) is formed and begins supporting Community Music School, one of the original affiliates.

1926 – The auditorium, upstairs offices and four practice rooms are added to the original building on Capp Street.

Inclusion is not a new word for the CMC: In 1945, its board of directors furthered Field’s humanitarian vision by establishing a hiring process that sought the best instructors, regardless of race.

She focused her efforts on creating a permanent winter home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and staged a fundraiser in 1955, known as “the “El Dorado Party,” raising $400,000 to jumpstart the effort.

In 1959, Los Angeles City and County officials offered to set aside the most prominent civic center site for the project and proposed an unprecedented public-private partnership to fund it.

The original Music Center, a $33.5 million, three-theatre complex, was dedicated as “A Living Memorial to Peace,” on December 6, 1964.

Opened in 1967, the Mark Taper Forum is The Music Center’s smallest and most intimate theater, designed for the production of dramas and experimental theater.

In 1968, she created the Amazing Blue Ribbon 400, a fundraising organization that raised money for the continued operation of The Music Center.

1973 – San Francisco Community Orchestra, San Francisco Community Chorus, and the San Francisco Children’s Chorus are formed as part of Community Music Center.

1983 – Community Music Center opens its Richmond District Branch.

1987 – CMC develops the Comprehensive Musicianship Program, which provides current CMC private lesson students with free theory, musicianship and ensemble classes for the academic year.

1991 – In collaboration with the San Francisco Unified School District, CMC creates the Inner City Young Musicians Program (ICYMP) for low-income middle school students.

1994 – Community Music Center’s Latin music program begins as a residency of the California Arts Council.

1995 – The CMC Teen Jazz Band is founded as a free program.

1996 – The Inner City Young Musicians Program (now YMP) expands to include high school students.

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, Walt Disney Concert Hall (Concert Hall) opened in 2003 as the newest of The Music Center’s four venues.

2006 – CMC pilots the Mission District Young Musicians Program (MDYMP) which serves motivated, predominantly Latino students from low-income families who live or attend school in the Mission District.

2011 – CMC launches the first of its older adult choirs, the Solera Singers.

2018 – CMC launches New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus, a community chorus for people self-identified as transgender, intersex, and genderqueer.