The Sandifers and CSO’s AAN salute music pioneer James Reese Europe
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, a West Side community center will introduce its students to a composer who might have been a kindred spirit had he lived a century later.
Established two decades ago by Howard and Darlene Sandifer, the Chicago West Community Music Center, 100 N. Central Park, reaches more than 250 students a year from the city’s West Side and suburbs. Its home base in Garfield Park faces challenges of income inequality and crime rates, and “the educational opportunities are not the greatest, which is why we’re in this community,” Howard Sandifer said. The center offers lessons and performance opportunities in classical, jazz, and other genres.