Inside an iconic red brick building in Milwaukee, the sound of cellos, pianos, and guitars have reverberated through its walls for more than 100 years. Congratulations to the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music (WCM) on celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.
During that time, the conservatory has taught hundreds of thousands of students. They have a long list of alumni like Gene Wilder, Liberace, and Justin Hurwitz, who won an Oscar for scoring the film La La Land.
The current list of students continues to grow. The WCM has about 1,000 students per semester. That includes people like Josiah and Andrea Chu. They are the youngest of six siblings who have all taken lessons at the WCM.
“I’ve actually had three different teachers, and I think that every single one of those teachers has helped me significantly," Josiah Chu, a cellist, said.
“I honestly think it's really fun because sometimes whenever we're bored we’ll all just come together and play like random songs that we like," Andrea Chu, a cellist said.
The WCM has a storied past. It opened in 1899. Originally it was called the Wisconsin College of Music. Students could major in many different instruments, classical
music, and jazz. The college even had a dance and theater program for a short time. The school eventually offered master's programs too. Many of the students went on to become educators.
In 1986, the Wisconsin College of Music transitioned to the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music to focus on community music education. The switch was in part due to financial constraints and the abundance of collegiate-level programs in the state.
Since 1899, there have been a myriad of courses offered to students. Some of the less traditional classes include harp, flamenco guitar, whistling, heavy metal guitar, and orthophonics which is the study of high-quality vocal recordings for phonographs. The more standard music courses that are still taught today include voice, cello, violin, guitar, and piano.
Watch the story on the Wisconsin Conservatory's 125th Anniversary and hear incredible musicians play...
While there has been much change in the WCM's history, the constant has been teaching music.
“Providing music education to any adult or child that wants to pursue that," Eric Tillich, the president and CEO of the WCM, said.
In the past few decades, the WCM has emphasized bringing music education to local charter and public schools. The WCM partners with districts and schools to offer robust programs.
“It’s a lot different than just coming in and saying hey this is a trumpet. This is what it sounds like. It’s really providing the core curriculum for kids," Tillich said.
The WCM's mission of providing music for all is made possible in part by its teaching faculty. Instructors like Kari Johnson have taught hundreds if not thousands of students.
"There is a lot of kids that would not have music if they did not have a conservatory faculty member filling in as their music teacher. And even as I this morning was teaching the early childhood classes, I was teaching babies who you can see after a few months of doing these classes are starting to respond and just really getting a lot out of it even at that young age, which is really really amazing," Johnson, a piano teacher, said.
Since 1899 the Conservatory has been dedicated to music education. While the name and structure have changed, the core mission has been the same - make music education accessible to everyone. Going forward, Tillich said that the WCM will emphasize its school programs.
"I think you're going to see some of the building blocks that we've put into place and you're going to see more children from Milwaukee who hadn't had accessible music education. Really lean into it more and the organization is going to kind of propel that to new levels," he said.
After all, it's the students of past and present who have set the foundation and will carry on the legacy of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music for the next 125 years.
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