Mission

Community Music Center makes high-quality music accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, regardless of financial means.

What We Do

CMC celebrated its Centennial in FY2022. It is a cornerstone San Francisco cultural institution and a vital hub for music education and performance anchored in the Mission District. We envision students and faculty who are engaged and fulfilled in making music together, and audiences who are energized by their experiences. Inspired by their training, our students are empowered to find their own voice, develop lasting relationships, embrace learning, and give back to their communities.

We emphasize diversity in ethnicities, genders, musical genres, curricula, and teachers, and a holistic, community-based, student-centered approach to arts education. All students are taught by a highly skilled and experienced 130-member teaching faculty, which includes noted professional artists, Grammy Award-winning performers, and nationally recognized teachers. CMC has 15 full-time and 4 part-time staff and a 24-member Board of Directors. All have a passionate commitment to community arts and the benefits they can bring to the families, schools, and neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Despite the brutal challenges of the pandemic, CMC has weathered the storm and emerged stronger than ever. We celebrated our Centennial year in 2021-2022 with two commissions of new work, a commemorative Centennial series of short films, special faculty concerts, the debut of our Black Music Studies Program, a deepened commitment to creative skill building and expression that embraces social-emotional learning, and the groundbreaking ceremony for our Mission District campus expansion.