Chicago West Community Music Center soon celebrating 25 years of impacting young people's lives
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A program on Chicago's West Side is bringing new experiences to students using the power of music.
It's celebrating 25 years of making an impact on the lives of young people.
For years, Howard Sandifer has been striking the perfect balance, as his Chicago West Community Music Center uses classical music to bring different communities together.
First founded in 1999 by Sandifer and his wife, Darlene, in their kitchen, as the Lawndale Community Music Center, the then-music conservatory without walls has grown to become so much more.
The West Siders said it started as a dream to bring the joy of orchestra music and string instruments to Black and brown children.
"We started with about 20 students our very first year. We had an intergenerational guitar program. Over the years, it has grown, where we have a community orchestra. We have a string program, a couple of after school matters programs, as well," Sandifer said.
Now housed in the Garfield Park Conservatory and using space at a nearby high school, the music center expects to impact around 5,000 students this year.
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Ninety percent of the instruction is free, and students are loaned instruments if they can't afford their own.
But, beyond the music, students learn life skills and more.
"We want them to be creative problem solvers, and they are doing that, so we're trying to share those skills with them, as well," Sandifer said.
No longer a hidden gem, the school has a 40-person community orchestra and partners with music schools around the country.
The center draws students of different ethnicities and backgrounds from all over the city and suburbs, like Logan Square resident Quincy Loghmanee.
He and his sisters have been students for years.
"I have some really good friends and they are all from like different backgrounds. I find it kind of cool that they're all here, because, as you said, not a lot of people actually expect that," Loghmanee said.
"We just really wanted our kids to be in a community and not just at a music school," CWCMC parent Chelsea Loghmanee said.
And as the Chicago West Community Music Center prepares to mark its 25th anniversary in June, the community it's created will continue to be a beacon of light on the city's West Side and a symbol of the greatness to come.
