Bloomingdale School of Music’s mission is to provide open access to high-quality music education to anyone who seeks it, regardless of economic status, ability level, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.
We believe music is for everyone. We work with students to overcome financial or personal obstacles by offering aid and flexibility. We provide a variety of ways to perform, learn, and experience music in a vast array of styles, including classical, jazz, rock, and world music.
We are as diverse as the city of New York. We create an environment of multiple voices, where each member is inspired to be their best self, any person feels safe in this self-expression, and every participant is valued for their individual perspective. A community that unites all ages, classes, and cultures, BSM finds common purpose through the language of music.
We welcome all people into our musical world. We celebrate the connections music brings to our community, both within BSM and in our neighborhood at large. We hold our teachers and our students in high esteem, and we regard each person’s musical potential with the utmost respect.
We believe music reflects our humanity and our complexity. Through music, all students have the potential to enhance their personal confidence, community responsibility, discipline, kindness, self-possession, and humility. In addition, it provides a joyful mode of expression and exchange; it assists in social, personal, and cognitive development; it allows students to accept “delayed gratification” and the deeper rewards that come when putting in sustained work over time; and it fosters a strong work ethic. It is a means of expression and connection, of comfort and understanding, and of renewal and inspiration.
We strive for the highest level of achievement in our education, teaching and performance endeavors. We match students with the finest teaching artists available who will shape their lessons to meet the individual drive, talent, and passion of each person. We seek excellence in artistry, education, communication, and exchange. While we work towards top caliber musical results, we are equally focused on the excellence of our process. We want to shape a collective journey where the humanity, individuality, and creative exploration of our students, is prioritized.
During his 24-year tenure as the founding director of the Bloomingdale School of Music, David Greer inspired countless students, faculty, and families to embrace the study of music as an integral part of their lives. He was a truly remarkable man who made it his mission to establish and develop this Upper West Side community music school. Encouraged by his friend and colleague, Ruth Cherry, David hit the ground running and opened the Bloomingdale House of Music, as it was first known, at West End Presbyterian Church where he served as organist. The date was November 7, 1964 and how better to celebrate the opening of a music school than with its first formal concert. With solid grit, determination, and perseverance, Greer expressed his passion for musical study by approaching kids on the street, engaging them in conversation about studying music and attending live concerts. His own dedication to music must have been infectious and the school’s initial enrollment included 75 students in 1964 taking lessons for 50 cents or a dollar. By 1966, enrollment had reached to 500 students.
From humble beginnings, Bloomingdale brought amazing vitality to the Upper West Side community that was already growing in diversity. With the Juilliard School only a short distance north on 122nd Street, the neighborhood was filled with the opportunity to establish greater musical awareness and Greer was clearly the man to harness that awareness to inspire younger people toward musical study. By 1972, Bloomingdale moved to its new home on 108th Street boasting a roster of 1000 students each week. His ambition for the school created a concert series of weekly recitals performed at the school and at Symphony Space by established, emerging, and faculty musicians, as well as the Bloomingdale Orchestra. His most significant contribution to the community was his commitment to an “open access” policy – the mission to provide music instruction to students regardless of their financial means. This mission still remains central to the Bloomingdale School of Music and has been supported by the efforts of subsequent executive directors, Paul Fran (1988-1991), Lawrence Davis (1991-2013), Erika Floreska (2014-2020), Erika Atkins (2020-2026), and currently, Rachel Black who brings her long experience as a professional actor and former director of Greenwich House Music to the helm of Bloomingdale.
Throughout the history of Bloomingdale, the school has engaged an exceptional faculty roster of professional musicians trained at the most prestigious music conservatories and universities throughout the world. As directors changed, the school continued to grow with new programs that raised the standard of study and performance by the student body. Under Lawrence Davis’ leadership, the school initiated the advanced Music Access Project (MAP) and the Bloomingdale Training Program in addition to the yearly all-school “Performathon” fund-raising event, yearly department festival concerts – the Piano Project Concerts, the Guitar Festival, the Voice Festival, the Percussion Festival, and A4TY (Student Composers Concert) – while he also conducted the Bloomingdale Chamber Orchestra in two concerts each year and supported a vital faculty concert series with over 40 recitals each year. Keeping pace with new innovations, Lawrence established internet concert projects on Bloomingdale’s website such as the Messiaen Project showcasing new compositions by faculty member, Jesse Stacken, inspired by works of Olivier Messiaen, in addition to Lawrence’s own reflections “Reaching In.” After a two-year collaboration with the entire administrative staff and selected faculty, he developed the first online theory program by a community music school – Theory in a Box – which has benefitted Bloomingdale students and schools throughout the U.S.
Currently, students perform in all the programs offered by the school in addition to sharing hour performances, studio recitals, and yearly performance competitions. Throughout the years, new directors have broadened Bloomingdale’s reach to embrace partnerships with schools outside the Bloomingdale brownstone and to engage a wider range of student participation of all ages from toddlers to adults as well as provide online theory and music appreciation classes.
In 62 years from its founding, Bloomingdale has reached beyond the Upper West Side to an enormous audience through its online presence of its faculty concert series which has been viewed as far as Japan and Australia. The hunger for exposure to great music cannot be diminished and David Greer clearly understood that. Bloomingdale’s newest director, Rachel Black, brings a similar vision to the school. Like her predecessors, she believes in “the power of music education [and that] you can come here to learn an instrument, but along the way, you learn something about who you are and who you might become.”
– Written by Monica Verona, Resident Teaching Artist; Director of Piano Studies; Author:“Setting the Tone: The Bloomingdale School of Music”
