PLATINUM2023

Manhattan School of Music

Those who excel, reach the stars

New York, NY   |  www.msmnyc.edu

Mission

Manhattan School of Music is deeply committed to excellence in education, performance, and creative activity; to the humanity of the School's environment; and to the cultural enrichment of the larger community. A premier international conservatory, MSM inspires and empowers highly talented individuals to realize their potential. We take full advantage of New York's abundant learning and performance opportunities, preparing our students to be passionate performers, composers and teachers, and imaginative, effective contributors to the arts and society.

Ruling year info

1947

Principal Officer

James Gandre

Main address

130 Claremont Ave

New York, NY 10027 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

13-1656667

NTEE code info

Arts Education/Schools (A25)

Performing Arts Schools (A6E)

Music (A68)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2023, 2022 and 2021.
Register now

Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

This profile needs more info.

If it is your nonprofit, add a problem overview.

Login and update

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

College and Precollege Programs

Performance opportunities; Resident Ensembles; Community and Educational Outreach; Academic Curriculum; Prepatory Division; Summer Programs - Professional Musical Theater Workshop and The Summer Music Camp.

Population(s) Served
Young adults
Older adults
Children
Preteens
Artists and performers

We offer degree and diploma programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels, with majors in all orchestral instruments, voice, piano, accompanying, composition, saxophone, guitar, organ, conducting, and jazz. All our programs are founded on strong faculty/student relationships. Our Precollege Division instructs pre-college-age children and young adults on Saturdays and our various special programs offer interesting and unique ways to learn about music in a variety of formats.At Manhattan School of Music, performance is not simply a goal for students; it is already an integral part of their lives. With over 400 concerts, recitals, and master classes each year, the School resounds with the energy of working musicians.

Population(s) Served

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Total number of classes offered

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Degree and Performance Program

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

Total number of classes offered includes studio lessons.

Number of full-time equivalent students per full-time faculty member

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Degree and Performance Program

Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

The School takes a census of student/ faculty ratio every fall.

Number of students enrolled

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Degree and Performance Program

Type of Metric

Other - describing something else

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

In the 2022 - 2023 Academic Year, there were 1050 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at Manhattan School of Music.

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Manhattan School of Music is deeply committed to excellence in education, performance, and creative activity; to the humanity of the School's environment; to preparing all our students to find their success; and to the cultural enrichment of the larger community. A premier international conservatory, MSM inspires and empowers highly talented individuals to realize their potential. We take full advantage of New York's abundant learning and performance opportunities, preparing our students to be accomplished and passionate performers, composers, and teachers, and imaginative, effective contributors to the arts and society.

MSM's strategic five-year plan, launched in 2019, has four central goals that support our vision and mission as a leading independent music conservatory:

To ensure artistic and academic excellence
Create time and space for academic and artistic curiosity; develop and recruit faculty to support our students; and design and strengthen pathways to enhance students' training and experience.

To optimize our human, financial, and physical resources to improve students' experience
Optimize MSM's resources to enhance efficiency and increase the academic and performance opportunities available to students; develop and invest in our faculty and staff to improve the quality of the education and services MSM offers; and ensure that our costs by function are aligned to the opportunities and responsibilities of our students, faculty, and staff.

To enhance our long-term fiscal well-being
Grow earned revenue from partnerships, strategic alliances, and other opportunities, including degree and non-degree offerings; strengthen connections to alumni, parents, artists, audiences, and the many other friends and benefactors of the institution; and source and execute initiatives that reduce and mitigate costs.

To increase our visibility and recognition
Leverage the communications potential of the wider MSM Community, including alumni, current students, faculty, and staff; ensure a powerful integrated vision for MSM communications across all media; and expand off-site performance and presentation opportunities.

Message from the Board Chair and President

With the magic dust still settling on MSM's 100th Anniversary, we began FY20 with optimism and hope for the next hundred years of our beloved School. We entered our second century with a campus that had been dramatically enhanced with the completion of the Centennial Project, a $16.5-million initiative of major campus improvements. The project's centerpiece was the transformation of Neidorff-Karpati Hall, our mainstage performance venue, into a state-of-the-art showplace. Enrollment was robust, and a full calendar of performances and master classes showcasing MSM's exceptional student musicians, distinguished faculty, and acclaimed guest and master class artists was well underway.
Then the unthinkable happened. Not only to us at MSM, not only to New York City, but to the entire world. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the School's students, faculty, and staff to find extraordinary new ways to adapt. And adapt we did, establishing a hybrid learning model and finding fresh ways to teach and to share music online - all while wearing masks, standing six feet apart, and working from home.
As many things changed, our commitment to providing our students with a music education of the highest quality never wavered. And we continued to respond to the pressing issues of our time, with a commitment to diversity and to the Cultural Inclusion Initiative we began in 2019. In the 2020-21 performance season, we launched Artist Scholar and Black Creators initiatives, programming inclusive content and sponsoring events themed around the artist and social change. In 2021, we launched an important new endeavor, the Global Conservatoire, an ambitious digital learning environment. We also continued to make much-needed capital improvements, including the new Linda Bell Mercuro and Tobias G. Mercuro Student Union and the renovation of the Neidorff-Karpati Hall Lounge.
During these supremely challenging times, MSM has truly risen to new heights, creatively deploying our expertise to provide a deep learning environment in which our students can flourish musically and as individuals. We are proud of what has been accomplished over the past two fiscal years, not least of which was adjusting to a complex and ever-evolving global health crisis, while keeping our on-campus community safe. At the same time MSM offered a full array of courses to our students here in NYC and in far-flung places around the world, online as well as safely in person. We kept the music playing ... abundantly!
This continues to be a historic moment, and MSM will use all that it has learned to inform our future efforts and enhance the educational experience of our immensely talented students. As laid out in this report, the successes of the past two fiscal years have been the result of thoughtful, responsible, and flexible decision making, founded on the resilience and creativity of the entire MSM Community.

Lorraine Gallard, Chair
James Gandre, President

Centennial Book
An award-winning commemorative book, Manhattan School of Music: Celebrating 100 Years (1918-2018), was published as the capstone to the School's Centennial celebrations. A talented in-house team, spearheaded by project manager and principal author John K. Blanchard (MM '89), MSM's Institutional Historian and Director
of Archives, prepared the deluxe 304-page book celebrating the School's history. Decade by decade, year by year, the story of the school is illuminated with more than 690 historical photos and scanned documents, chronicling the growth of the institution from a modest community music program in a settlement house to one of the world's finest conservatories, and including an architectural history of the campus. More than 200 statements from alumni sharing their personal experiences and giving testimony to the School's influence are featured, as is an overview of the state of the current institution. Calling the book "stunning," the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awarded it a 2020 Circle of Excellence "Grand Gold" Award.

The Cultural Inclusion Initiative
MSM's Cultural Inclusion Initiative, launched in 2019 with a mission to foster diversity, equity, and inclusive practices. An institution-wide program, it includes an audit of current practices, identification of areas where additional attention is needed to achieve change, and regular forums for discussions led by expert consultants. In its first year, the Initiative offered 13 training opportunities for students, faculty, and staff. Through MSM's new Black Creators Initiative, all performances at the School in FY21 included a Black artist or an artist from the African diaspora, resulting in programming that presented the work and vision of over 60 composers and other creators, including 2021 Pulitzer Prize winner Tania Le6n, Adolphus Hailstork (BM '63, MM '65, HonDMA '19), Florence Price, Roy Hargrove, William Grant Still, and Julia Perry. Additionally, MSM commissioned and developed new works that told Black stories, including Iron John: An American Ghost Story by Jacinth Greywoode and Rebecca Hart and Le Comte Noir by the writing team Burwell & Sasser. In 2020-21, the initiative expanded to include a new program to highlight artists, administrators, and other creators and bring them to the School. The inaugural Artist Scholar program included such luminaries as composer Anthony Davis (Hon OMA '21), Oprah Book Club author Tayari Jones, and NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington (Hon OMA '20). Artist Scholars contributed panel discussions, special performances, and master classes.

The Global Conservatoire
In April 2021, MSM announced an innovative online program in collaboration with three other prominent international conservatories: the Royal College of Music (London), the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The program allows students to pursue studies in an international 'classroom'.

Financials

Manhattan School of Music
lock

Unlock financial insights by subscribing to our monthly plan.

Subscribe

Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more about GuideStar Pro.

Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Manhattan School of Music

Board of directors
as of 12/14/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Lorraine Gallard

Lorraine Gallard

No Affilition

Noemi K. Neidorff

No Affiliation

Leonard Slatkin (HonDMA '13)

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

David G. Knott, Ph.D.

Vice Chair

Terence Blanchard (HonDMA '17)

Delano R. Copprue, Ph.D.

Manhattan School of Music

Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ’08, HonDMA ’22)

Metropolitan Opera Artist

Susan Ennis

Eric Gronningsater

Nancy Freund Heller

Treasurer

Han Jo Kim, M.D.

Bebe Neuwirth (HonDMA '15)

Bill O'Connor

Paul T. Schnell

Bernie Williams (BM '16)

Yvonne Tsao

Angel Sosa

Nicholas Mann

James Gandre, EdD

President

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 12/8/2023

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Male, Not transgender
Sexual orientation
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or other sexual orientations in the LGBTQIA+ community
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

Transgender Identity

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 11/02/2023

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
  • We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
Policies and processes
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.