Background Statement
Incorporated in 2005 as Mountain Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Society of Greater Denver (CMS) has been a partner of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education program since 2007. Over the past seventeen years, CMS has worked with schools within the SCFD seven-county district to develop, promote and advance arts integration programs for elementary school children, as well as lead workshops for teachers.
CMS' key partners during this period have been Jefferson County Schools, Denver Public Schools and the St. Vrain Valley District. With the Belmar School of Integrated Arts in Lakewood, CO, CMS has conducted multiple workshops, as well as sponsored teaching artists from the Kennedy Center to engage students, faculty and staff in nationally recognized and locally designed arts-integration programs.
As a longstanding Colorado representative of the Kennedy Center's Partners in Education program, CMS executive director Laura Schulkind has been at the center of the state's arts integration efforts for over 15 years. Schulkind and CMS bring much needed definition and commitment to the advancement of STEAM-based learning in our state's elementary schools.
Since its inception, CMS has also raised awareness and appreciation of chamber music through annual series of concerts that spotlight the depth and diversity of compositions for small chamber ensembles.