Music Institute of Chicago to Celebrate 85 Years at Annual Gala in May
By: Tyler Peterson Mar. 17, 2015
?Music Institute of Chicago, now in its 85th year, hosts its annual gala Monday, May 11 at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, 120 East Delaware Place. The oldest community music school in Illinois and one of the three largest community music schools in the nation, the Music Institute is planning a celebratory evening highlighted by the presentation of the Dushkin Award to John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association President Deborah F. Rutter.
The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, followed by an elegant dinner and awards presentation. Musical performances throughout the evening include some of the Music Institute's talented Community School students and award-winning students from the Music Institute's Academy for gifted pre-college musicians. The prestigious Dushkin Award, established 29 years ago and named for the Music Institute's visionary founders Dorothy and David Dushkin, recognizes international luminaries in the world of music for their contributions to the art form, as well as to the education of youth. Past recipients include André Previn, Lang Lang, Stephen Sondheim, Riccardo Muti, Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Fleisher, Renée Fleming, Placido Domingo, William Warfield, Isaac Stern, Sir Georg Solti, Pierre Boulez, Samuel Ramey, and Bruno Bartoletti, among others. This year's recipient, Deborah F. Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is the artistic and administrative director of the world's busiest performing arts center, managing all facets of the facility, including expansive theatre, contemporary dance, ballet, chamber music, and jazz seasons as well as its affiliates the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera. From August 2003 through June 2014, she served as president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA), overseeing the operations of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO); Symphony Center Presents; the Institute for Learning, Access and Training (including the Civic Orchestra of Chicago); and the Chicago Symphony Chorus. The appointment of the legendary conductor Maestro Riccardo Muti as the CSO's 10th music director and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma as the first Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant (both past Dushkin Award recipients) are two highlights demonstrative of Rutter's leadership in Chicago. Working with the CSO's board of trustees, Rutter helped reinvigorate educational programming in 2008 by establishing the Institute for Learning, Access and Training, which engaged more than 200,000 people (with primary emphasis on ages 3 to 30) across the broadest possible socioeconomic and ethnic spectrum each year. In 2011, the Institute launched its Citizen Musician initiative, which seeks to sustain and expand the role of music making in civic and cultural life.The Music Institute of Chicago is a community music school dedicated to transforming lives through music education. The institution exists to lead everyone in its community toward a lifelong engagement with music. Founded in 1931, the Music Institute has grown to become one of the largest and most respected community music schools in the nation. Offering musical excellence built on the strength of its distinguished faculty, commitment to quality, and breadth of programs and services, the Music Institute is a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Pre-collegiate Arts Schools (ACCPAS). Each year, the Music Institute's teachers and arts therapists reach thousands of students and clients of all ages and levels of experience. Music Institute locations include Chicago, Evanston, Winnetka, Lincolnshire, Lake Forest, and Downers Grove. In addition, the Music Institute is proud of its longstanding partnership with the Chicago Public Schools through its Arts Link program. The Music Institute offers lessons and classes, creative arts therapy, and concerts through its Community Music School, Academy, Institute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA), and Nichols Concert Hall.
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