Prep Programs

The University of Cincinnati’s Next Lives Here strategic direction informs how CCM Prep connects with our community. With a strong emphasis on the CPS Strong Pathway, CCM Prep is working with the Cincinnati Public Schools’ Arts Curriculum office to support students in their schools and neighborhoods.

Music participation and education have immense potential for building a stronger community. They teach crucial life skills such as perseverance, self-efficacy, responsibility, accountability, attention to detail and communication: all skills that are transferable to any other school subject or profession. All students deserve the opportunity to develop their creative interests and develop essential skills.

CCM Prep is grateful to our generous supporters: ArtsWave, Ingalls Foundation, The Louise Taft Semple Foundation and Preston Brown Foundation.

Our city is only as strong as our public school system. CPS Strong is working to establish an institution-wide model to engage and empower Cincinnati Public School students. By aligning programs and services to ensure readiness, create access and foster success, we can achieve educational transformation and positively impact the future of our university and our city. Learn more about CPS Strong.

The CCM/CPS Summer Jazz Academy was the first collaborative effort between CCM Prep and CP-. The Jazz Academy offers an outstanding experience to study jazz performance with professional musicians and other students in a friendly and encouraging environment. The week long experience provides daily classes including jazz ensembles, jazz history, jazz theory, jazz improvisation as well as jazz arranging and college audition preparation for high school students. The faculty boasts leading jazz performers and jazz educators from CCM, CPS and the Greater Cincinnati region. The week concludes with a performance by all student groups. The program is offered free of charge to CPS students and for a highly discounted tuition for regional students.

The relationship between CCM Prep and CPS developed because of the success of the CCM/CPS Jazz Academy. Because of this, CCM Prep was approached by Cincinnati Public Schools to facilitate a new kind of music partnership at Hays-Porter Elementary. District leaders saw the potential for students to thrive, both academically and socially/emotionally, through learning to play music in an ensemble. Isidore Rudnick, CPS Arts Curriculum Manager, saw the potential for an instrumental music program focused on strings at Hays-Porter. This program is the first of its kind at Hays-Porter Elementary. In the initial year, all third-grade students received group lessons in their music classes.

This project provides professional instrumental music teaching artists and much-needed institutional resources to CPS and Hays-Porter Elementary and works alongside CPS Strong’s mission of making high-quality and meaningful academic and extra-curricular experiences possible.

The success of the first year led to expansion of the program to all Hays-Porter fourth graders and the addition of Woodford Academy fifth and sixth graders in the 2023-24 school year.

With the success of the CCM/CPS Strings partnerships, CCM Prep envisioned a new expanded direction for school partnership that would bring access to dance and theatre arts education to school communities. Again, collaborating with Cincinnati Public Schools with support from the Preston Brown Foundation, students at Roll Hill School and College Hill Fundamental Academy have weekly after-school experiences with professional teaching artists in dance and musical theatre. The focus of the programming includes introducing these performing arts experiences as a powerful outlet, able to change the trajectory of the students’ lives and build self-esteem through creative expression.

Lives United/Vidas Unidas (LU/VU) is a community music and arts initiative that provides cost-free programming to enhance the vibrancy of Mt. Auburn and its surrounding neighborhoods, connect underserved populations to enriching arts opportunities, and provide an excellent performance venue for young musicians in Cincinnati.

LU/VU is headquartered at Church of Our Saviour / La Iglesia de Nuestro Salvador, 65 East Hollister Street, where it serves people from all walks of life, but especially the Hispanic community. In addition to the church community, LU/VU engages in active partnership with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Prep Division, and regularly collaborates with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Nouveau program, Cincinnati Public Schools Jazz Academy, and William Howard Taft Elementary School.

The organization’s core programming includes weekly Community Piano Lessons held on Sundays at the church and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Taft Elementary School. A Concert Series featuring local musicians and ensembles. occurs roughly once a month. The organization also provides free reservations of the performance space at the church to any local musicians or artists who would like to use it.

For more information, please contact Anne Cushing-Reid at CCM or the LU/VU Program Director at Church of Our Saviour/La Iglesia de Nuestro Salvador.

ArtsWave, a nonprofit serving the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Region, is the engine for the arts. Strong funding for the arts has allowed Cincinnati’s arts and culture scene to become a national draw and regional asset, creating a wave of economic and community benefits. Each year, ArtsWave supports the work of over 150 arts organizations, school outreach programs, festivals, community centers, neighborhoods, and various collaborations through impact-based grants. You can support efforts like these by making a gift to ArtsWave at artswave.org/give.

The Benjamin Carlson-Berne Scholarship Fund (BCB) was established in 2004 by Susan Carlson and Philip Berne, in memory of their son Ben whose passion it was to expose economically disadvantaged children and youth to classical music. 

Now operating in partnership with CCM Prep, the purpose of the fund is twofold: provide instrumental or vocal classical music lessons for underserved youth in the Cincinnati community and provide support to select Cincinnati Public School instrumental music programs. An endowment fund has been created at the University of Cincinnati Foundation to support these efforts.

Additional information, including funding eligibility, will be provided soon.

CCM Prep is proud to be fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Schools of Theatre and the National Association of the Schools of Dance. 

We are a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education, the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, the Greater Cincinnati Alliance for Arts Education, the Cincinnati Music & Wellness Coalition, and the Suzuki Association of America. CCM Prep is a founding member of the Music Development Program.

• National Association of Schools of Music
• National Association of Schools of Theatre
• National Association of the Schools of Dance
• National Guild for Community Arts Education
• Ohio Alliance for Arts Education
• Greater Cincinnati Alliance for Arts Education
• Cincinnati Music & Wellness Coalition
• Suzuki Association of America
• The Royal Conservatory

CCM Prep is grateful to the following grant funders for their support of our CPS Strong strategic initiatives:

• ArtsWave
• Ingalls Foundation
• Louise Taft Semple Foundation
• Preston Brown Foundation