The Shedd Institute's Community Music School offers classes and private lessons for all ages in a wide range of musical instruments and styles. The school also offers summer music camps, a school music enrichment assembly program, and special workshops associated with select Shedd concerts.

The Shedd Community Music School offers need-based financial aid for youth and adult students alike, thanks to the generosity of donors and corporate sponsors, so that cost is not a barrier to learning music. Confidential financial aid applicaiton forms can be downloaded online from our eDocument archive or picked up at the Registrar's office. Submit the appropriate form for either a class or private lessons to the Registar. Get financial aid forms from our eDocument archive here.

The Shedd Community Music School is extremely pleased to announce the naming of our musical theatre department as The E. Y. Harburg Academy for Musical Theatre in honor of renowned American lyricist E. Y. “Yip” Harburg (1896-1981), who, within a rich long career, wrote the lyrics Finian's Rainbow, Cabin In The Sky and The Wizard of Oz . This past spring, the Harburg family officially accepted our request to make this change in its acknowledgement of The Shedd Institute and Community Music School’s ongoing commitment to classic musical theatre and training in all the aspects that go into making a musical...and of our especial love for Yip Harburg as one of the greatest and "most fun" lyricists of the Classic Songbook. [continue reading...]

The Shedd Institute's mission is "to serve as a cultural center where people find and nurture community through discovery, creation, and celebration.” Our Community Music School reflects this mission in practice by encouraging experimentation (with instruments, instructors, musical styles) and the joy of making personal connections; responding to inquiry and supporting collaborations; and eliminating the stultifying “pressure of excellence” when celebrating student learning.