Sigma Alpha Iota

saI-NaTIONal.ORg WINTER 2015 PAN PIPES 13 By CynTHia PinkerTon I n Feburary 1976, when a small school in a one-room storefront in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood announced free music lessons, few thought it could last. But almost 40 years later, e People's Music School is thriving and growing. e secret to its success lies in an amazing woman named Rita Simó, who is the subject of a new biography by Cynthia Willis Pinkerton, Evanston Alumnae Chapter member. Born in the Dominican Republic, Simó's extraordinary musical talents were discovered at an early age, and the government of Raphael Trujillo provided her with free piano instruction up through her high school years. While the regime was responsible for her musical training, the atrocities of the Trujillo years also cast a dark shadow over young Rita's life and that of her family, stories that are shared in the book. In 1956, Rita won a piano competition that included a stipend for further music study, and she auditioned at Juilliard and received a full scholarship. Arriving that fall, speaking very little English, Rita quickly found that music study was the least of her challenges, though encouragement and guidance from her piano teacher, Katherine Bacon, and her theory professor, Vincent Persichetti, helped her overcome many difficulties. In 1961, Rita embarked on a solo recital career with bookings throughout the eastern half of the United States, but she soon became disenchanted with the life of a traveling artist. Even more important, she was becoming troubled by the observation that in this "great land of democracy," the study of music largely seemed reserved for those able to pay for expensive lessons. Volunteering in local settlement houses, she found many students eager to study music, yet unable to afford either instruments or lessons. It was from this awareness that Rita became committed to the creation of a special school for young people like these. Realizing she would need support in her dream, Rita turned to the only large organization she knew that was committed to education and social service: the Catholic Church. In the fall of 1963, she entered the convent of the Sinsinawa Mound Center in southwestern Wisconsin, where she completed studies to become a Dominican nun. e story moves ahead to relate Rita's years as a professor of piano at Rosary College (now Dominican University), her efforts to start her free music school through the Catholic Church, her frustration at the Church's disinterest in her plan, her continuing studies through the Master's degree program at Juilliard and the PhD program at Boston University, and her move to the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, following her release from her Catholic vows. e remainder of the book deals with how, through sheer determination and against tremendous odds, Rita created a program that has provided free theory and performance instruction to many thousands of students from Chicago's lower income neighborhoods, while also providing a supportive family environment. All teachers must be degreed professionals, and over the years, many have taught with no or very little pay as a way to give back to the profession that has meant so much to them. e school has always operated on a first-come-first-served basis, which, by the early 2000s, resulted in such long registration lines that a new lottery system had to be adopted. In 1995, the school inaugurated a two-story building, complete with ten practice rooms, a concert space, a music library and an outdoors performance space. For over a year, volunteers from the Evanston Alumnae Chapter helped sort, document, and catalog the contents and donations in the school's library, an effort for which the Chapter received an SAI Annelle Chandler McAdams Alumnae Service Award. In addition to onsite programs, teachers from e People's Music School have been involved in numerous outreach instructional projects in area schools and institutions. In 2009, the school pioneered Chicago's first El Sistema experiment, creating an El Sistema "nucleo" at the Hibbard Elementary School, a project that has received accolades from educators from around the world. While lessons at e People's Music School are free, they require not only strict adherence to attendance and practice standards, but also a substantial volunteer time commitment from students and parents. As Rita is fond of saying, "is is not my school, it is the people's school, and it can only work when we all share our time and talents to keep it alive and well." Cynthia Willis Pinkerton is an initiate of Beta Chapter at Northwestern University and a current member of the Evanston Alumnae Chapter. She is a recipient of the Sword of Honor, Rose of Honor, and the Rose of Dedication. A former English teacher at New Trier High School in north suburban Chicago, Cindy also spent a number of years as a newspaper publishing executive. In 1972, working with Kalman Novak, director of the Music Center of the North Shore, now the Music Institute, she was the founding president of the Chicago chapter of Young Audiences, Inc. PEOPlE'S mUSIC SChOOl Creating a New Venue for the Arts From left, Rita Simó and Cynthia Pinkerton with a copy of Cynthia's biography of Rita at The People's Music School in Chicago.

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