One Composer, One Community

One Composer, One Community is a yearlong initiative that invites Music Institute of Chicago students, faculty, and audiences to discover the life, music, and legacy of an underrepresented composer.

Throughout the academic year, students of all ages and experience levels explore the featured composer’s work through lessons, classes, and performances. The program culminates in a free public concert at Nichols Concert Hall, bringing the MIC community together to celebrate the composer’s contributions and experience their music onstage.

This program is entirely funded by people like you!

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous trustee,
your gift to One Composer, One Community will be matched, doubling your impact!

DONATE TO One Composer, One Community

Your gift brings the unique contributions of gifted composers from every corner of the world to thousands of students each year. Thank you!

One Composer, One Community Reception 2025

Student pianist at Nichols Concert Hall for One Composer, One Community performance

MIC Faculty Sang Mee Lee at Nichols Concert Hall

Student and Faculty cellists perform at One Composer, One Community Concert

Images from One Composer, One Community 2025 concert featuring MIC students, faculty, and special guests.

Encouraging Curiosity. Deepening Appreciation.

One Composer, One Community gives students and faculty the opportunity to explore exceptional music that has too often been excluded from traditional teaching and performance repertoire. By studying the featured composer’s life, cultural context, and body of work, participants develop a broader and more complete understanding of music history.

Students encounter new musical perspectives, strengthen their skills through unfamiliar repertoire, and see that significant artistic contributions come from people of many backgrounds and lived experiences. Faculty gain new resources and insights they can carry into their teaching—not only during the featured year, but for years to come.

Together, these experiences encourage curiosity, deepen appreciation, and help build a more inclusive musical community in which a wider range of composers and stories can be heard, studied, and celebrated.

Professional Development That Makes an Impact

Each year, One Composer, One Community offers professional development opportunities for MIC faculty and colleagues from other arts organizations. These sessions deepen participants’ understanding of the featured composer’s life, historical context, and body of work while providing practical ideas for introducing the music to students and audiences.

Through shared learning and conversation, educators explore thoughtful approaches to teaching and programming the composer’s music, exchange resources, and consider how a broader range of musical voices can become a lasting part of their curricula and repertoire.

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The History of One Composer, One Community

The Music Institute of Chicago uses the power of music to educate, inspire, and bring comfort to the communities we serve.

Through our One Composer, One Community initiative, MIC partners with a composer and connects MIC student musicians of all ages and levels with their music.

In May 2020, nearly a hundred faculty and staff members gathered to reflect on how MIC could improve diversity and inclusion within our environment. A Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, facilitated by Trustees Carlos Cardenas and Barbara Sereda and comprised of a diverse representation of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and current families, formed.

As part of this process, MIC developed the "One Composer, One Community" program, a curriculum and related performances relevant to and celebrating communities.

Each year, MIC focuses on the music of an under-represented composer that will be highlighted in MIC teaching studios and on stage at Nichols Concert Hall.

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