Performing Arts - Music
The following list is by no means inclusive of student opportunities in the Twin Cities area. If your student has participated in a program not mentioned here that you would like to recommend to others, please contact us.
An additional option to those below, for orchestral students still serious about continuing their musical education after having taken music lessons for a few years, would be to contact the Minnesota Orchestra or St. Paul Chamber Orchestra to ask which musicians have teaching studios.
Bud’s Music Center
820 Mainstreet
Hopkins, MN 55343
(952) 938-6341
www.budsmusiccenter.com
Bud's family business of more than 50 years provides lessons, instrument repair, and music books and accessories.
Eden Prairie String Academy
Michelle Persian, Director
10663 Lee Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55347
(952) 947-9400
www.epstringacademy.org
The Eden Prairie String Academy provides 5 different string orchestra experiences, starting with Harmonia for beginning students entering grades 2-4 and progressing through Concertino for advanced and committed students most of whom are in grades 10-12. Kindergarten and 1st-grade students may be accepted at the beginning level. Auditions are held for the top 3 orchestras. Regular classes and rehearsals for Harmonia and the 2nd-level orchestra are held at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie, regular rehearsals for the top three orchestras are at Prairie Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie, and all dress rehearsals and concerts are at Community of the Cross Lutheran Church in Bloomington. Tour opportunities are available each year for the more advanced students.
Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS)
528 Hennepin Avenue, Suite 404
Minneapolis, MN 55403-1810
(612) 870-7611
www.GTCYS.org
GTCYS has six orchestras for musicians through the 12th grade. Students are placed in the orchestras based on ability (as judged through an audition), age and GTCYS’ instrumentation needs. Orchestras meet at the FAIR School in Crystal, the International School in Eden Prairie, Hopkins High School (one on Mondays, another on Tuesdays), Shir Tikvah Synagogue in Minneapolis, and Colony Park Church in Edina. Each orchestra performs four concerts every season, with the Symphony orchestra adding an additional concert in the fall and in the spring.
GTCYS commissions and performs new orchestral pieces and collaborates with top local performing arts groups.
Groth Music
8056 Nicollet Avenue S.Bloomington, MN 55420
(952) 884-4772
www.grothmusic.com
Groth Music has deservedly won many City Pages Twin Cities' Best Music Store awards. This superstore provides everything: instruments of every kind for sale (including some used instruments and every imaginable percussion instrument), yards of file cabinets containing sheet music, a music gift department, an excellent repair shop, music lessons, and lots of accessories that can be found in the various departments staffed by people with the experience to help you with your questions.
MacPhail Center for the Arts
1128 LaSalle Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 321-0100
www.macphail.org
MacPhail Center for the Arts provides quality music instruction for all ages and abilities, whether the student is elderly, very young or has special needs. Early Childhood Arts classes are for ages 6 weeks to 8 years, employing many ways to reinforce musical concepts: singing, creative movement and dramatics, literature, visual arts, rhyme, and instrument exploration. Classes and ensembles and individual lessons are available from age 5 to adult, while the Suzuki program begins at age 3 and continues to age 18. Music therapy is available from birth to adult. Students ages 13-18 may take part in an intensive training program – a singer-actor performance lab - for highly motivated high school singers. There is a two-year performance oriented program for highly motivated students ages 14 to adult. MacPhail also provides professional development for music teachers, with credit units available.
Minnesota Youth Symphonies
790 Cleveland Avenue S, Suite 203
St. Paul, MN 55116-1958
(651) 699-5811
www.mnyouthsymphonies.org
Minnesota Youth Symphonies is dedicated to pre-conservatory orchestral training for children through comprehensive, affordable music education. They have four advanced orchestras (three full orchestras and one strings-only orchestra for intermediate string players) that rehearse on Saturday mornings during the school year, summer workshops that include strings instruction for beginners and composition training, the String Studio that offers free violin lessons to students in grades 1-4 in specific inner city areas, Music & Melody Makers for pre-school and elementary children to get hands-on experience with orchestral instruments, and Children’s Concert Club that gives qualified groups of children the chance to attend orchestra concerts at reduced rates.
Music Studios of Jan Erickson
16550 W. 78th Street
Eden Prairie, MN 55346
(952) 937-5305
Music Studios of Jan Erickson has been instrumental in supplementing school music instruction for Eden Prairie students with private band, orchestra or voice lessons. The Eden Prairie location has 21 studios for music instruction and a recital room. Instructors are highly qualified, with some Ph.Ds, many master’s degrees, and across-the-board experience in performance. Most teachers still perform today. Instruction is available for children and adults, kindergarten age and up. Two other locations for the music studios may offer needed schedule flexibility, with one in Glen Lake and the other in Plymouth.
Schmitt Music
3200 Galleria
Edina, MN 55435-4218
(952) 920-5080
14200 Wayzata Boulevard
Minnetonka, MN 55305-1746
(952) 546-0555
www.schmittmusic.com
Schmitt Music, like Music Studios of Jan Erickson, works with the Eden Prairie Schools to supplement school music instruction with private lessons. They also supply instruments for rental, sell many new instruments and accessories, as well as sheet music and books, and provide instrument repair. The Edina Galleria and Minnetonka stores are the most convenient to Eden Prairie students of the 8 Twin Cities stores.