Mission Statement

Our Mission and Core Values

Levine School of Music, the Washington DC region’s preeminent center for music education, is a welcoming community where children and adults find lifelong inspiration and joy through learning, performing, listening to, and participating with others in music.

Levine’s core values, excellence and opportunity, infuse everything we do. Our distinguished faculty offers a broad and well-rounded curriculum that provides a strong musical foundation for students of different ages, abilities, and interests. We strive to make Levine education available to everyone. Hundreds of our students receive substantial scholarship assistance; many hundreds more receive free instruction through outreach programs.

Our Mission and Core Values in Action

At each Levine campus, our students find a diverse range of musical activities, a supportive environment, and dedicated teachers to challenge their creative limits and to guide them. In addition to traditional one-on-one music education, such programs as our Summer Camp, Early Childhood and Elementary Music program, and adult Community Choruses foster musical discovery in inviting group settings. We encourage students to join in our jazz ensembles, chamber music groups, choruses, musical theatre, and rock groups, to gather with friends informally around a musical activity, and to participate in collaborative programs with other leading music and arts organizations across the National Capital region.

We also believe that opportunities to hear great musicians, and to perform, can be important parts of a well-rounded music education. Levine’s performance series (Levine Presents) offers master classes with visiting artists of international renown and faculty performances in prominent venues.  We also offer student recitals, workshops, juries, and competitions that offer additional opportunities for learning and enrich the lives of both performers and audiences.

History

Levine was founded in 1976 in memory of musician and prominent Washington attorney Selma M. Levine. Started by Diana Engel, Ruth Cogen and Jaclin Marlin in the basement of a small church, Levine has grown into one of the country's leading community music schools. It is one of the few community music schools accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music and the only All-Steinway community music school in the world. Levine is also certified by the National Guild of Community Schools of Arts as exemplifying the highest standards of excellence and access in community arts education. Learn more about Levine's history