Cleveland Music School
A hidden gem of University Circle, The Music Settlement offers music therapy, early childhood education, and music instruction to people of all ages and levels of experience in Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Founded by Almeda Adams in 1912 as part of the Settlement movement and featuring a campus that includes the 1910 Burke Mansion and the Bop Stop, The Music Settlement is the most beautiful place to learn music in Cleveland.
The mission of The Music Settlement is to create a community where artistic expression belongs to everyone by serving those who seek personal growth through the arts.
Our vision is to be a welcoming and dynamic community school that serves the entire community, rich and poor alike, through excellent programs in music and arts instruction, music therapy, and early childhood education.
The Music Settlement is a community where artistic expression belongs to everyone.
Almeda Adams, The Fortnightly Music Club, and prominent Clevelanders -including the Blossom, Drury, Ferris, Otis, and Mather families- founded The Cleveland Music School Settlement in 1912. Miss Adams legally incorporated the Settlement as a place for “both children and wage earners” to receive the best musical instruction at a modest price, to provide scholarships to talented but impoverished students, to foster the love of music, and become a factor in the musical life of Cleveland.
In 2008, we shortened our name to The Music Settlement.
Many of our music students have grown to become professional musicians, while others become lifelong arts aficionados. Children who start their education in our Preschool and Day School programs go on to enjoy terrific academic success. Many of our Music Therapy clients have been coming to The Music Settlement for decades, resulting in a therapeutic consistency that benefits all.
Famous Alums of TMS include singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, “The Soloist” Nathaniel Ayers, Jamie Laredo, and Melvin Ritter, former St. Louis Orchestra concertmaster who left us a 1749 Amati violin and Kittell bow worth more than $500, 000 in his will. Many of our faculty are also musicians of the “World’s Favourite” Cleveland Orchestra.