American Conservatory of Music

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American Conservatory of Music
The Coat of Arms
Established: 1886
Type: Private
Location: Hammond, Indiana, USA
Campus: urban, commuter

The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) is a musical conservatory university once located in Chicago, Illinois and now located in Hammond, Indiana. Founded in June 1886 by John J. Hattstaedt, it ranks among the oldest music schools in the U.S.

By the 1970s, the Conservatory ranked as a sister school to the Curtis Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, the Peabody Institute, the Boston Conservatory of Music and other prominent US conservatories, and was a daughter institution to the Juilliard School.

The Conservatory was housed in the Fine Arts Building (Chicago) for several decades, and featured a faculty of considerable impact and reputation. At that time, the ACM had dozens of faculty and over a thousand students, including matriculated collegiate and post-graduate and private non-credit students. ACM provided a foundation for the training of hundreds of outstanding musical artists, who performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, the Telemann Society of New York, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera. Facilities included a large library, instruction and practice studios, recital halls, and large studios for master classes, ensemble, and concerts. Commencement Exercises were held at Symphony Center in Chicago and featured vocal, symphony, concerto and ensemble offerings. During this period, students at the ACM completed academic coursework through the University of Chicago and the ACM was a regionally accredited educational institution offering Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees in Music with many sub-specialities.

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[edit] Financial difficulties and resolution

In the late 1980s, the Conservatory encountered financial and management difficulties. Several friends of the Conservatory organized efforts to stop financial mismanagement and misappropriation of its endowment. This was done by transferring the Conservatory's assets and accreditation to a new corporate entity in 1991. After the transfer, the old entity was placed into bankruptcy. The Conservatory continued normal operations throughout this period with the same dean, faculty, and students. After the creditors of the old entity were satisfied, it was dissolved.

In late 1992, the Conservatory asked the Illinois Board of Higher Education about funding sources. In response, Illinois authorities attempted to assert licensing jurisdiction over the Conservatory that would have caused the Conservatory to lose control over its curricula, tuition policy, and governing structure. The Conservatory claimed exemption from the Illinois Private College Act of 1945 and the Illinois Degree Act of 1961 as an existing institution from prior to when these laws were enacted. Discussions continued for four years when the Conservatory learned the Illinois Board of Higher Education was planning to close the Conservatory without notice. The Conservatory sued to prevent this.

[edit] Reorganization

In 1998, the Conservatory incorporated under the ecclesiastical charter of the Orthodox Church in Belize. Because of the Conservatory's ongoing problems in Illinois, the Conservatory decided to move the campus from Chicago to nearby Hammond, Indiana in 1999, and thus have the Conservatory chartered in Indiana. The Conservatory officially moved to its new campus there in 2000.

Today the Conservatory is affiliated with the Orthodox Church in Belize and has two campuses, Santa Elena, Belize, and Hammond, Indiana.

[edit] Former faculty, guest teachers and associates

Over the period of a century, many prominent artists such as Sergei Rachmaninoff's colleage Josef Lhévinne and decades later, his student Adele Marcus taught master classes in piano and other instruments at the American Conservatory. The Conservatory's Chairman Emeritus Richard Schulze played a prominent role in saving Carnegie Hall in New York subsequent to the New York Philharmonic's move to Lincoln Center. From the post-WWII years to the late 1960s, Irwin Fischer, composer, pianist and conductor served as Dean of Faculty and conductor of the American Conservatory Orchestra. Violinist Scott Willetts coached many members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1940 to 1974. Pianist Wilhelmina Pouget, student of Walter Gieseking, specialized in late romantic piano technique in the 1970s. Acclaimed Pianist William Browning, heir of the Brahms-Schumann piano dynasty and one of the legendary pianists and teachers of the 20th century, was on faculty from 1957 to 1989.

[edit] Other notable alumni

[edit] Other notable former faculty

[edit] External links