An environment where every student musician belongs.
The Lakewood Chamber Music Collective offers chamber music coaching and performance opportunities to middle and high school students on Cleveland’s westside. No audition required.
The LCMC Experience
All are welcome here
LCMC is a nonprofit, performance-based, equal-opportunity educational program for string, piano, and harp players. There is no audition: ensembles are formed based on age, previous experience, and their potential to learn from and inspire one another.
In a chamber ensemble, there is no conductor and no section to hide in. Students must collaborate to achieve their musical goals, and that collaboration builds leadership, responsibility, and confidence that lasts well beyond the rehearsal room.
Our Values
What guides us
Bravery
Performing chamber music means being heard. Students learn to take musical risks and stand behind their part.
Empathy
Listening is half of playing. Students tune into their ensemble-mates, musically and personally.
Adaptability
Tempos shift, parts change, concerts surprise. Students learn to adjust in the moment and keep playing.
Responsibility
No conductor, no section to hide in. Every player owns their part, their preparation, and their group’s success.
Leadership
Every student leads: cueing entrances, shaping interpretation, and guiding rehearsal. And every student learns to follow well, too.
Collaborative Teaching
Coached by working musicians
Our faculty are professional musicians from across Northeast Ohio: performers, community pedagogues, and educators. Coaches rotate, so every ensemble works with more than one teacher over the course of a session.
Hearing multiple interpretations teaches students that there is more than one right answer in music, and gives each group room to find its own creative voice.
Meet the Team
The people behind LCMC
Abi Dudzik
Executive Director
Abi is a musician and educator rooted on Cleveland’s westside. Her own years in student ensembles shaped how she thinks about music education, and LCMC grew out of that experience.
Emma Carson
Artistic Director
Emma is a performer and teacher from Northeast Ohio. She has spent her career in small ensembles, and brings that love of collaborative music-making to every LCMC session.
The Tradition
What is chamber music?
Chamber music takes its name from the rooms it was made for: small gatherings held in the chambers of palaces and homes, where a full orchestra could never fit. It is music for small ensembles, one musician to a part and no conductor, so every player leads and every player listens.
Where We Meet
Lakewood, Ohio
Rehearsals and coaching sessions take place in Lakewood, easy to reach from anywhere on Cleveland’s westside.
Join us for the fall session.
Registration opens soon. Leave your email and we’ll keep you posted.