NOTE: Many of the city’s most revered music schools (including several listed below) are members of the New York City Coalition of Community Schools of the Arts. Consult the coalition’s Website, nationalguild.org, and click on “member schools” and “New York” for individual schools’ contact information.

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
58 Seventh Ave., at Lincoln Pl., Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-622-3300
brooklynconservatory.com
Housed in a Victorian mansion, this 100-year-old community music school takes on students 18 months and older. BCM focuses on jazz and classical music, offering group classes, private instruction, choruses, and ensembles. Music Adventures offers toddlers an introduction to music through dance, painting, storytelling, and play acting. Weekly group lessons: $45–$395 per sixteen-week semester; private, $512–$784.

Brooklyn Music School
126 Saint Felix St., near Hanson Pl., Fort Greene, Brooklyn
718-638-5660
brooklynmusicschool.org
The Brooklyn Music School focuses on building confidence and encouraging kids to think creatively. Offerings in the preschool division range from creating music in the parent-child Kindermusik class (ages 1–6) to dance games in Creative Movers (ages 3–5). Older students can partake in the Preparatory Division’s private lessons, ensembles, and theory classes. Preschool, $13.50 per class; private lessons, $29–$41.

Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music
42-76 Main St., at Blossom Ave., Flushing
718-461-8910
brooklynconservatory.com
This Queens branch of the Brooklyn Conservatory offers most of the same classes, ensembles, and lessons as its sister school. Kids 4–6 can take group classes such as Keyboard Adventures (piano), Violin Adventures, and Rhythm Adventures (percussion). Weekly group lessons, $45–$395 per sixteen-week semester; private, $512–$784.

City Music Schools
357 W. 36th St., near Eighth Ave., third fl.
212-563-6781
citymusicschools.com
CMS offers some of the most affordable private lessons in the city. Kids ages 6 and older (and some 4- and 5-year-olds, subject to interview) can study everything from piano and violin to folk harp and zither. All registered students have access to free practice space, and rentals are available. Private lessons: four half-hour lessons, $64; seven half-hour lessons, $105; four one-hour lessons, $120.

Dorothy Delson Kuhn Music Institute of the J.C.C. of Staten Island
475 Victory Blvd., at Forest Ave., Staten Island
1297 Arthur Kill Rd., near Woodrow Rd., Staten Island
718-981-1500
sijcc.org
With a range of programs for toddlers to high schoolers, DDKMI is a good bet for students of all abilities. While the institute offers a traditional Orff class for kids 3–6, the Musical Moments class for toddlers and accompanying adults has kids learning to sing, rhyme, and move to the tune of folk songs. There’s also an Elementary Vocal Class for kids 6–9. Starting at age 5, kids can enroll in private lessons and play in ensembles, too. Preschool classes, $150 per twelve-week semester; private lessons, $21–$37 per class.

Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow St., near Seventh Ave.
212-242-4770
gharts.org
Approaching its centennial year (2005), Greenwich offers private lessons (piano, clarinet, even banjo) to kids starting at age 4; at 7, they can learn composition; at 8, woodwinds and guitar. Alumni include John Cage, Edgar Varese, and, hm, Ed Koch. Group lessons, $186–$258 per twelve-week semester; private, $432–$576.

Harlem School of the Arts
645 St. Nicholas Ave., at 141st St.
212-926-4100
harlemschoolofthearts.org
Children 4–8 can take a prep course in pitch, rhythm, and notation before signing up for more advanced group or private lessons. HSA offers instruction in orchestral instruments—piano, organ, guitar, and voice—as well as music theory and ear training, in Western, African-American, world music, and folk traditions. Group lessons from $80 for fourteen 30-minute lessons; private classes from $260 for fourteen 30-minute lessons.

The InterSchool Orchestras of New York
Call 212-410-0370 for rehearsal locations
isorch.org
Students 7–19, from beginner to advanced, can audition for five orchestras, a symphonic band, a chamber-music program, and a percussion workshop. Ensembles rehearse weekly in various locations throughout the city, and perform between four and eight times a year. Past performances have been at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. $550 per year, plus a $50 registration fee.

Jewish Community Center in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave., at 76th St.
646-505-4380
jccnyc.org
Inside this shiny new building, parents can sign up (with their babies) for Little Maestros, a singing and listening class with a repertoire ranging from Bach to rock. My Daddy and Me invites dads to get goofy with their little ones, while kids ages 8–10 can learn to sing, dance, and act in On Broadway, a class that wraps up with a musical variety show. Fall semester classes are $240– $480 for eleven to fourteen classes.


Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Center
129 W. 67th St., near Broadway
212-501-3360
ekcc.org
Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, Lucy Moses offers courses like Sing, Move and Play, Keyboard Together, Group Piano, Suzuki Violin and Cello, and Dalcroze classes, the popular music and movement method for kids ages 21⁄2–8. Private lessons in most band and orchestra instruments are also available. Group lessons, from $290 for fifteen weeks; private, from $845.

The School for Strings
419 W. 54th St., near Ninth Ave.
212-315-0915
schoolforstrings.org
This place is all about the Suzuki method: violin, cello, and piano, from age 3. Lessons start at $375 for twelve weeks; or consider the startup program, which offers 32 weeks of lessons taught by teachers-in-training for $320.

Third Street Music School Settlement
235 E. 11th St., near Second Ave.
212-777-3240
thirdstreetmusicschool.org
Third Street offers courses to kids of any musical appetite, from beginners to aspiring Mozarts. While preschool programs include creative movement for toddlers, Young People’s programs target older students with more traditional classes in theory and performance. Private lessons start at $30.25 per lesson; preschool one-week classes from $592.

Turtle Bay Music School
244 E. 52nd St., near Second Ave.
212-753-8811
tbms.org
Turtle Bay features the Orff Schulwerk Approach, a system of teaching early-childhood music that’s based on singing, clapping, counting, dancing, and playing instruments like xylophones, ukuleles, maracas, and bongos. Post-Orff, kids (of any age) can sign up for private instruction in brass, string, percussion, and some woodwind instruments. Prices for group classes vary widely; private: $664–$1,016 for sixteen weeks.

Young People’s Chorus of New York City
In Residence at the 92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Ave.
212-289-7779
ypc.org
Composer-conductor Francisco Núņez's much-acclaimed program encompasses various choruses, bringing together kids, starting at age 8, from more than 150 city schools. The award-winning Concert Chorus provides children with the rare opportunity to perform newly commissioned works by some of today’s top composers, rehearses twice a week, and performs 30 to 40 times a year, sometimes abroad. The other choruses rehearse once a week. Auditions are required; annual tuition is $550.