Welcome to the Chicago Music Association

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 is in residence at South Shore Cultural Center and has been an arts partner with the Advisory Council of South Shore Cultural Center and The Chicago Park District since 2000.  

The main objectives  of CMA and NANM, Inc. are:

• To develop world-wide love and appreciation for classical,  traditional and contemporary music, especially that by Black composers;
• 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 and minority 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 and NANM educators, professional musicians, amateurs and patrons of the arts come together to participate in the total experience that is music. Membership is open to all who embrace the objectives of CMA and NANM, Inc.

Current officers are:

• Dr. Barbara Wright-Pryor, President
• Dr. Maurice A. Collins, 1^st Vice President
• Dr. Edna Williams, 2^nd Vice President   
• Claudette M. Douglas, Financial Secretary 
• Frances J. Clark, Membership Secretary     
• George L. Nearing, Recording Secretary
• Dorothy J. Canady, Treasurer
• William D. Burnside, Jr. & Youth Director      
• Howard Savage, George Cooper and Dolores White, Composers-in-Residence
• Wendell P. Weaver, Poet-Laureate

Chicago Music Association is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization.