Cleveland Institute of Music

The mission of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is to provide exceptionally talented students from around the world an outstanding and thoroughly professional education in the art of music performance and related musical disciplines. The Institute embraces the legacy of the past and promotes the continuing evolution of music within a supportive and nurturing environment. The Institute also provides rigorous training in programs for gifted precollege musicians and serves as a resource for the community with training for individuals of all ages and abilities.

A guiding principle at the Institute maintains that a liberal arts education contributes to a broad, humanistic perspective and is a vital component of the undergraduate curriculum. Equally important is the faculty’s commitment to incorporating new technologies to complement and enhance the educational program.

The distinguished faculty of the Institute aims to develop the full artistic potential of all its students. Through performance and teaching, the faculty and administration are dedicated to passing along their knowledge and love for this great art and to providing the bridge to an exciting and fulfilling career.

Founded in 1920, the Cleveland Institute of Music maintains its current size of approximately 400 undergraduate and graduate students and 90 full- and part-time faculty members by controlling enrollment through carefully balanced admission policies. In admitting the optimum rather than an unlimited number of students to each performance area, CIM provides personal, individual attention for each student and maximizes the number of performance opportunities.

The unusually intense performance environment encourages students to develop multifaceted skills that include solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic literature. This approach leads students to focus on solo expertise as well as to develop the collaborative abilities necessary for small and large ensemble work. The key is access to faculty members and visiting artists in a challenging but supportive atmosphere of private lessons, master classes, repertoire classes, concerts, and recitals. Students may major in audio recording, bassoon, bass trombone, cello, clarinet, collaborative piano, composition, double bass, eurhythmics, flute, guitar, harp, harpsichord, horn, oboe, orchestral conducting, organ, piano, Suzuki violin pedagogy, Suzuki cello pedagogy, timpani and percussion, trombone, trumpet, tuba, viola, violin, and voice.

Orchestral studies are designed to develop and maintain the discipline and skill necessary to make the smoothest possible transition from school to professional life. Regularly scheduled sectional rehearsals and orchestral repertoire classes are conducted by principals of The Cleveland Orchestra. The Institute’s two symphony orchestras present approximately twenty concerts during the academic year, including multiple performances of two fully staged operas. These ensembles also provide a vehicle through which student composers may hear and record readings of their works.

The sequence of opera courses is devoted to the principles of theory and practice of the various arts that combine to create an operatic performance. Emphasis is placed on vocal, musical, stylistic, linguistic, and dramatic techniques. Study stresses the application of these elements to role preparation for operas of different historical periods.

CIM is located in University Circle, a cultural, educational, and scientific research center situated approximately 3 miles east of downtown Cleveland. University Circle comprises more than thirty institutions that together constitute one of the largest diversified cultural complexes in the world. Located within easy walking distance of CIM are Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), where CIM students have access to all facilities and liberal arts course offerings, and Severance Hall, home of The Cleveland Orchestra, the rehearsals of which are open to CIM students by special arrangement. Also easily accessible are numerous other University Circle institutions, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Western Reserve Historical Society, Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, and Cleveland Botanical Garden.

Program Facilities

CIM recently completed a $40-million expansion project that added practice, teaching, and performance space to its facility. The project provides two major additions, including a new state-of-the-art recital hall and new façade in the addition at its main entrance. The recital hall seats 250 people in a visually and acoustically outstanding space for recitals and chamber music. Another addition at the rear of the main building includes practice rooms, teaching studios, audio recording and distance learning studios, administrative space, and a new student lounge and outdoor patio.

Cleveland Institute of Music’s main building includes a concert hall, classrooms, teaching studios, practice rooms, a library, a eurhythmics studio, an orchestra library, an opera theater workshop and studio, and a music store. Through connection of the entire facility to Case Western Reserve University’s computer network, CIM also provides wireless Internet access as well as a Technology Learning Center that enables students to become aware of and accustomed to the ways in which music and technology go hand in hand.

CIM’s Robinson Music Library holds excellent print collections in all areas of study at the Institute, with emphasis on performance editions of solo, chamber, and orchestral music and books focusing on Western classical music. It also has a growing collection of electronic resources, including streamed audio subscriptions. The Library Media Center provides distributed sound access to the extensive audio-visual collection, enabling simultaneous listening possibilities in its multimedia carrels and group multimedia rooms. A shared online system with CWRU permits the viewing of CWRU library holdings from online public catalogs at CIM. There is also wireless computer access in the library.

The residence hall, Cutter House, is adjacent to CIM. In addition to the usual amenities, each room has fiber-optic computer access. Also adjacent is the Hazel Road Annex, an additional facility for individual practice, chamber music, rehearsal and coaching, master classes, and class recitals.

Faculty

The distinguished faculty, led by CIM president Joel Smirnoff, includes the principals and many section players of The Cleveland Orchestra, with which CIM has a close relationship. All collegiate-level music instruction is conducted by CIM faculty members and not by teaching assistants. Liberal arts, music education, and music history courses are taught by the faculty of Case Western Reserve University.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: December 1. Notification date--freshmen and transfers: April 1. Required: essay, high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, 2 letters of recommendation, audition, SAT or ACT test scores. Recommended: minimum 3.0 high school GPA, interview. Auditions held 1 time on campus; recorded music is permissible as a substitute for live auditions with approval from the department (DVDs only) and videotaped performances are permissible as a substitute for live auditions with approval from the department (DVDs only).

Cleveland Institute of Music

Program Facilities

Faculty

Application Procedures

Undergraduate Contact