Community MusicWorks

Civic and Social OrganizationsUnited States11-50 Employees

Community MusicWorks (CMW) is a nationally recognized community-based organization that uses music education and performance as a vehicle to build lasting and meaningful relationships between children, families, and professional musicians in urban neighborhoods of Providence, RI.

Founded with start-up funding from the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University, the program began modestly in 1997 with 15 violin students. Today, CMW is a thriving organization with 10 professional resident musicians and 100 neighborhood children participating free of charge—some for as long as 10 years—regardless of talent or ability.

CMW is built around the permanent residency of the Providence String Quartet, which was founded in 2001. Our students, who live in Providence’s West Side neighborhoods, participate in after-school programming and receive instruments free of charge.

The retention rate is close to 90 percent, with some children participating for as many as 10 years. In 2006, in response to interest from like-minded professional musicians nationwide, CMW added a two-year Fellowship Program which served to double student enrollment. Since then, providing resources for musicians seeking to create careers that combine artistic and civic goals has become a major component of our work.

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