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December 2023 by Kevin Roman
I’ve been taking piano and vocal lessons at ACM for a couple years and I love it! My teachers are great at challenging me while keeping their expectations fair and realistic for my current level as a student. The teachers have their own specialties and teaching style, which helps create new learning opportunities for us as students. My current teacher is a wealth of information and has given me guidance and exercises that have helped me improve tremendously and become more confident as a musician in training. Thank you ACM!
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June 2022 by Robert Sabala
We differed from our daughters teacher about the direction of her instruction and decided that we didn't want to continue lessons. We requested a refund for the remainder of the month and never heard back. No one said anything - not "sorry to see you go" or even an acknowledgment of our request for a partial refund.
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March 2022 by Melissa Schulze
We love ACM! My children have been taking piano lessons here for 3 years and we are very happy with the teachers, the facility and the community. The teachers are kind, good at what they do and best of all, my children love working with them. I really appreciate that ACM as an organization actively supports current composers - and give their students opportunities to compose, showcase their work and hear contemporary classical music at events throughout the year. This is a great learning environment and we are happy to be a part of it!
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March 2022 by Carey Goldblatt
Terrific, knowledgable teachers. My son has been very happy to be a student at ACM for years!
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March 2022 by Steven Calderwood
From my first interaction with ACM in 2016, the school has been nothing short of impressive when it comes to communication, acceptance, instructor skill, and meeting you were where you are at.
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March 2022 by Dreski DaGoat
I love the school the staff is so nice. The school is a also a lovely school and they keep the school clean and really care for there studentsKeep up the great work
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March 2022 by brianna garrett
ACM is such a great school! Cool atmosphere.
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June 2021 by Charles Mueller
Openness in every aspect of instruction and business; respect for both traditional pedagogy and valuing musical improvisation
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March 2021 by Jessica Richardson
Not your average music school! My son took piano lessons here for several years. He absolutely loved his teacher, Christy. All the teachers are very talented and provide individualized learning plans for their students. Prices are very affordable. Front desk staff are super friendly and helpful. Highly recommend this school!
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March 2021 by Zelda Hessler
I have been taking adult piano lessons for about 1½ years now with Christy Bennett with my only prior experience being from a few years of Flute in childhood. Christy has been a wonderful teacher and has helped me greatly improve my piano skills (way more than I would have thought I could do in such a short amount of time) and has also encouraged me to compose and present two pieces which I'm very proud of. I don't think I could have asked for a better teacher and I look forward to many more lessons with her.
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March 2021 by Jennifer F.
Our daughter is 8 and has been taking private piano lessons at ACM since 2018. She came in with some basic music knowledge, but has flourished under Christy in the past 2.5 years and her piano playing has improved tremendously. The best part about Christy is that she is incredibly patient, teaches music theory while making it fun, and has been amazing at inspiring our daughter's creativity as she composes her own original songs. Big shoutout to Trevor for his incredible management of the Ravenswood location as well. The transition from in person to virtual lessons has been seamless. Highly recommend.
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February 2020 by Marcelo Nobrega
We enrolled our six and four year old in piano lessons. We never got feedback from the teacher for a few weeks until he approached us to say 1) that our 4-year old was too young for lessons (they could have told us upfront), and 2) that the 6-year old was not showing interest and hence he suggested switching teacher. We were caught aback by this radical proposition on his first communication with us, but took it in stride, talked to our son and urged him to be attentive and apply himself. We made an effort to practice every day at home, even at no guidance or with no feedback from the teacher. Two months later we receive a message fro the director of the school informing that our son had another bad day, and once again urging us to switch teachers. We were appalled at how the poor communication of the teacher once again reverts to an extreme measure, how there was no mechanism to incentivize a 6-year old, no patience in understanding that they sometimes have bad days, no effort to bring us in so we could work with our son. We are despirited at how ACM and the teacher, Elider, handled this all, and decided to remover our son from classes, and look for another venue for him to learn.
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August 2019 by Roseann M.
Year 2 of my attendance, and Thirsty Ears just gets better and better. It still occupies only two blocks of Wilson Avenue, but there are more and better vendors. Empirical Brewing was selling beer and wine. There were two food trucks and another food vendor in a booth. There were children's activities, most of which were oriented to learning to play an instrument. The artists, whose performance was at least 95% new and original music, were excellent. I will say that there were a couple performances that were not my cup of tea, but hey -- the beauty of $10/day for all sort of artists mean that you are exposed to new and different acts. It all works. There was plenty of seating before the stage, but that didn't stop attendees from getting comfortable in other ways. Many people bring their own chairs and set up alongside the church, where they are close to the stage but in the shade. Other people threw blankets on the grass and reclined there. Thirsty Ears is a delightful, very small, neighborhood festival. I highly recommend it. And who knows? If it continues its success, it may even expand to three blocks of Wilson Avenue.
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August 2019 by Martin McKune
What a wonderful afternoon at the Thirsty Ears Fest! It was a joy to experience so much talent in the few hours I had the pleasure to just sit and listen.
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August 2018 by Brandon B.
This festival has been going on a few years now, founded by ACM (which is on this street) and featuring street-fair like performances of classical music outdoors, the first of its kind in Chicago. I love it, I have stopped by all 3 years for a little bit: the weather has been nice, the crowd is select and small, the peripheral noises of the city are there but are minimal, and the musicians are high-level. There is a particular focus on new and recent music which is amazing, there are some classics but they are just part of the spectrum. There are food cars and a few good restaurants in the area and you can make most of an afternoon/evening out of it. Great job, continue the good work!
