About Pasadena Conservatory of Music
The Pasadena Conservatory of Music (“PCM” or “The Conservatory”) is nationally recognized in the field of community music education. It serves as a welcoming musical hub in a city known for its vibrant, world class, educational and cultural institutions.
In its 40-year history, PCM built its reputation on the excellence of its teaching of classical music, later adding programs in jazz and world music. It has expanded from a small, rented house to the 67,000-square-foot campus it owns in the heart of Pasadena. Its annual budget increased from $200K to $3.5M, and its assets soared from $200K to $17M.
The school, through its Common Ground initiative, will soon debut an $11 million remodel and expansion of its campus. The project includes an outdoor amphitheater (adding a third performance venue to the campus), and a new music learning center with additional classrooms and teaching studios that will expand multicultural programming, as well as programming in Adult Studies, preschool music, and music production and technology. The administrative wing also has been renovated.
Each year, the Conservatory presents 200+ performances on and off campus. More than 1,000 students attend the school annually and more than 3,000 students in schools throughout the Pasadena Unified School District and San Gabriel Valley also benefit from its programs.
The Opportunity
PCM has aspirations and ambitions for sustained, substantive, and strategic growth in the breadth and depth of its mission and impact.
The Conservatory is committed to retaining its strong, warm, and existing community while also making itself as inclusive and accessible as possible to and benefiting from the cosmopolitan metropolis around it. That includes not only the City of Pasadena, (pop. 150,000) which is 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, but also the greater Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Valley. Southern California lives up to its reputation as the Entertainment Capital of the World, as well as a longtime global trendsetter in music, including classical, jazz, and global art forms.
The core challenge at the Conservatory is to ensure the robust flow of financial and community resources to support PCM’s musical excellence and high aspirations. The incoming executive director will lead the school through a period of more growth, innovation, and expansion in the coming years.