Welcome to the Chicago Music Association Website
Chicago Music Association (CMA) was founded March 3, 1919, in order to provide a performance venue for classically trained Black musicians who were traditionally denied access to major concert halls and opera houses throughout the country. In July, 1919, musicians from Washington, D. C., met with the newly-organized CMA In Chicago at Bronzeville’s historic Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A., and organized the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM); CMA became the first branch. CMA and NANM have awarded more than 175 financial scholarships and awards to talented young musicians, including Marian Anderson, the first recipient In 1919, Florence B. Price, Margaret Bonds, Grace Bumbry, Leon Bates, Stan Ford, Ashley Horne, Joseph Joubert, Awadagin Pratt, Anisha McFarland and many others. Many of CMA’s contestants have won first place in NANM’s scholarship contests. In 1999, CMA established a partnership with the Advisory Council of South Shore Cultural Center where it is in residence.
The purposes of CMA and NANM, Inc. are:
- To assist in maintaining a world in which all people may live in peace and harmony.
- To develop world-wide love and appreciation of traditional and contemporary Black music.
- To foster larger public appreciation for education in good music.
- To resist the desecration of Negro spirituals and encourage their use as a basis for compositions.
- To develop higher professional standards through lectures, conferences, and conventions among fellow musicians and lovers of music.
- To create wider exposure for Black performers, composers and scholars in music.
- To discover, encourage and assist the cultivation of musical gifts among talented, deserving Black youth.
- To establish and maintain a fund for scholarship.
In CMA educators, professional musicians, amateurs and patrons of the arts come together to participate in the total experience that is music.