Music Community Overview

The Yale School of Music is dedicated to ongoing, active involvement in our communities – locally in New Haven, as well as on a national and international scale. Please read on for brief descriptions of some of our community programs, and see the links on the left side of the page for more details.

The School of Music has long supported arts education programs in the New Haven Public Schools, in our role as one of the leading arts organizations in New Haven. This effort was confirmed and enhanced with the establishment of the Music in Schools Initiative in 2007, thanks to the generous 50th reunion class gift by the Yale College Class of 1957. In recognition of the value of music and arts education in the public schools, these visionary Yale alumni established an endowment to ensure the continuing development of music programs in New Haven. The endowment identifies three main responsibilities for YSM:

1. To provide programs in New Haven Public Schools that complement the work of full-time music teachers
2. To host a biennial symposium for teachers in public schools from around the United States
3. To host visiting professors to work in music education and train School of Music students and New Haven Public School teachers

YSM provides graduate teaching artists to more than a dozen New Haven Public Schools, serving the dual purpose of supporting NHPS music teachers and training our students in school-based work. The School also hosts All-City Honors Band and Chorus groups for the district’s most talented young musicians. More information on all of these programs can be found at Music in New Haven Public Schools.

Once every two years, YSM hosts a Symposium on Music in Schools, honoring fifty outstanding public school music teachers from around the country. These Distinguished Music Educators attend a three-day conference, where they participate in a series of workshops and discussions about music education in the United States.

In addition to the Music in Schools Initiative, YSM’s work with New Haven Public School students is supported by a new endowment from Lester and Enid Morse. With this endowment, the School of Music has created the Morse Summer Music Academy, an intensive summer music program for NHPS students. The program provides students with the unique opportunity to focus on their music study through various daily activities, with several public performances attended by families and friends.

In all of these programs, the School of Music is committed to ensuring that the role of music in the public schools continues to grow and evolve.

For questions about any of these programs, please contact Rubén Rodríguez, Lead Teacher (ruben.rodriguez[at]yale.edu) or Michael Yaffe, Associate Dean (michael.yaffe[at]yale.edu). NHPS students and their families can also talk to their music teachers for more information.