The Ä¢¹½tv Community Music School, located in , provides noncredit private lessons, ensembles, and classes in music year-round to students of all ages and ability levels throughout the Indiana community and region.
From the Director
The 2025–26 academic year begins Year 13 for the Ä¢¹½tv Community Music School. Throughout this now decade-plus period of time, the program has been consistent in both its growth, as well as providing a quality musical experience to students from ages five all the way to age 90!
In addition, it gives the cream-of-the-crop Ä¢¹½tv music students—undergraduate and graduate—who are recommended to teach by their professors, the opportunity to begin gaining experience through private lesson teaching, but while still having the resource of their primary instrument professor close at hand to provide solutions and guidance to what they may encounter in their teaching.
It’s truly a win-win—high-quality and dedicated students from the renowned Ä¢¹½tv Music Department gaining teaching experience, and a community with access to very reasonably priced private lessons.
But in addition to the private lessons, community members have access to three terrific ensembles in the Crimson Youth Choir (Kye-Won Doyle, director), Indiana Community Choir (Erin Knepper, director), and the Ä¢¹½tv University Band (Jason Worzbyt, director).
These three highly experienced directors are absolutely top-notch and do a masterful job of creating an environment where students of all ages and ability levels can not only learn, excel, and get better at music together, but also simply have a lot of fun making music in a group.
However, like anything else, the Arts do not come free, and the Ä¢¹½tv Community Music School is no exception. There are operating costs that have to be met every year in order to keep the doors open.
Because the Ä¢¹½tvCMS is supported 100 percent by grants and gifts—it’s how we keep costs as low as possible for our rural area—it is a challenge every year to ensure there are enough funds to keep this critically important program open to the community. If you’re interested in helping to keep it a vibrant program for our community, whether as an individual or as a business, be sure to look at the information on our Support page.
I can’t emphasize this enough—your gift is a critical part of keeping the program available to future students and generations.
Social media… what a conundrum! It can be so powerful or terribly destructive, and on so many different platforms. While there are lots of choices, for now we’re sticking with just Facebook, so be sure to check out and “Like” the , not only for some of the articles, but also for the fun, interesting, and meaningful stories on music we run across.
Last, as we wrap up the summer semester of Year 12 and look forward to the fall, it turns out that the start of the Ä¢¹½tvCMS Year 13 will be when I retire from Ä¢¹½tv and pass the torch on to the next director. I would imagine you’ll be seeing information from that person once they’re hired and begin getting their feet wet!
It truly has been a privilege to direct the program for the past 11 of its 12 years. There have literally been hundreds of students who participated in lessons and ensembles. Although creating music majors has never been one of the goals, quite a number of high school students have also gone on to study music in college.
As Kelly Pollock wrote about the Arts, “The true purpose of arts education is not necessarily to create more professional dancers or artists. [It’s] to create more complete human beings who are critical thinkers, who have curious minds, and who can lead productive lives.”
That is the place where the Ä¢¹½tvCMS has lived for its entire existence. Becoming a proficient enough musician simply brings another level of enjoyment to life and allows a multitude of options to increase one’s quality of life and living. Whether playing an instrument or singing on your own and/or in various groups, music is a wonderful way to relax, meet new friends, and grow in a community. It has been heart-warming to see so many in the Indiana community enrich their lives through music.
Catch up on news from the Ä¢¹½tv Community Music School.
So whether you’re young and just starting in music or older after having been away from it for a while, the Ä¢¹½tvCMS is the perfect and affordable place to find your way in the amazing world of music.
As always, if you have feedback, please feel free to email it to community-music@iup.edu. The Ä¢¹½tv Music Department and the new Ä¢¹½tvCMS director will look forward to meeting the musical needs of the music teachers and community members in the Indiana region this year, and hopefully for many years to come.
Best wishes for a fabulous musical year!
Jeff Wacker, Arts-in-Education Services Coordinator
Ä¢¹½tv Community Music School
Lively Arts | ArtsPath
community-music@iup.edu
Lessons
Private lessons of 30, 45, and 60-minutes are available in:
- Brass
(trumpet, trombone, horn, euphonium, tuba) - Electric Bass
- Guitar (as available, other fretted instruments such as ukulele, banjo, and mandolin)
- Percussion
- Piano and Organ
- Voice
- Woodwinds
(flute, clarinet, oboe, saxophone, bassoon)
Ensembles
Evening and after-school ensembles include:
- Indiana Community Choir
(age 14–adult) - University Band
(age 15–adult) - Crimson Youth Choir
(Primary and secondary students; offering the Voce select choir for older students, and the Crimson Children's Choir for younger students - Percussion Ensemble
(age 14–adult)