About Outreach

As an essential community partner and resource, the Conservatory of Music and Dance offers programs and opportunities designed to enhance the Kansas City cultural arts environment by focusing on music and dance education in our community. These programs reach out to children of all ages, preschool children through high school students, and impact adult learners throughout our community.

Click here to learn more about the Conservatory's groundbreaking school outreach programs, collectively known as Conservatory in the Schools.

School Outreach:  Conservatory in the Schools

Berkley Child and Family Development Center and UMKC’s School of Education have partnered with CMDA to present Berkley students with the opportunity to learn more about music through workshops in Berkley's classrooms.

Composers in the Schools (CITS) is a program that aims to increase the knowledge, experience and amount of participation in music by middle and high school students in Kansas City.

Musical Bridges provides talented urban youth with the intensive one-on-one instruction and performance experiences necessary to prepare for auditions into selective university music programs.  Funded in 2008 - 2009 by generous grants from the Francis Family Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, and the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts--Commerce Bank, Trustee, the program aims to provide a "bridge" between Kansas City's urban communities and UMKC Conservatory.  In addition, the Shumaker Family Foundation has awarded start-up funds to purchase instruments for select Musical Bridges students.

Imani Winds School Residencies.  Signature Series artists the Imani Winds will be part of an outreach initiative to expand arts enrichment programming in the Kansas City and Hickman Mills school districts.  Both districts are served by the Musical Bridges and Composers in the School projects.  Imani will be visiting Symington Elementary School and Ruskin High School (Hickman Mills) on March 25, 2010; and Gladstone Academy, Longfellow Elementary, and Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts (Kansas City) on March 26, 2010.  Imani will also give public master classes at the Conservatory.  Imani Winds is underwritten by the Shumaker Family Foundation.

Community Concerts:  A Spirit of Collaboration

ArtSounds, a collaboration between the Conservatory and the Kansas City Art Institute. Faculty partners from each institution join together to produce provocative events that explore a maximum breadth of means, methods, media and music: art sounds and music sees.

City Music, funded through a generous grant from the Ralph L. Smith Foundation, fosters a stronger link between UMKC Conservatory and the greater community by facilitating performances for audiences consisting of traditionally underserved populations.

Conservatory Connections,  a new collaboration between the Conservatory and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  The goal of the program is to combine the visual and performing arts within the spaces of the Museum to offer the public exciting new art interactions.

Gamelan Genta Kasturi is the newest and largest Balinese ensemble in North America.  Directed by Pat Conway, Gamelan Genta Kasturi performs at events throughout the Kansas City metro area.

New Horizons Bands  Directed by UMKC Conservatory professor Lindsey Williams, New Horizons Bands provides a fun, low-pressure learning environment for beginning instrumentalists ages 50 and better.

Gladstone Amphitheatre in Oak Grove Park The Academy will partner with Gladstone Parks and Recreation Department to present the Broad Street Brass on September 27, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.  Click here for more details.

Broadening the Arts Experience

Discounts on Academy on-campus music classes are available for Musical Bridges students, Composers in the Schools students, Stringendo chamber music participants, Kansas City Children's Chorus and Canta Filia members, and Youth Symphony of Kansas City members.