Merit School Of Music

I send my 8 month old daughter to the bilingual music class. She really loves it! She has a lot of fun playing with other babies and banging on the instruments. The instructors do a great job keeping her entertained. I like the convenient location and how there are lots of class times so I can find something that works with her nap schedule.

Merit has been a great experience for both my girls. My oldest met some wonderful instructors and friends And is now in cello performance with Northwester. My youngest has been willing to continue voice lessons that she had loss interest in. The summer program help rebuild her confidence and encouraged her to stick with it. The instructors and students really came at the perfect time for my girls. So happy to have Merit as a program for my girls!

I love going to merit and hearing all the different music going on, it's a great environment :

If this is the original Merit off of Dearborn st downtown chicago do you still show or have videos of recitals and duets film on Chanel 11? Best times of Chicago!

My family loves Merit Music. My daughter studied with Ms. Elena for 12 years. Her instruction was caring and deeply informed; Ms. Elena is an inspiring artists. My nephew and neighbors have enthusiastically attended various classes over the years. I highly recommend Merit.

Our toddler has been in Ms. Annaeka's class for several sessions, and I can't say enough about her. She's a wonderful teacher who understands and appreciates young children, and she's worked incredibly hard to make virtual classes during COVID a good experience. Our son looks forward to class each week and is developing a love of music and movement thanks to Ms. Annaeka! If your child or family has the opportunity to take one of her classes, I highly recommend it.

Our Little babies looooove LOOOOOVVVEEE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEE this class and look forward to it all week. We were wondering how well the engagement would work during COVID, but the instructors were amazing and super engaging and were able to help our kids stay focused and engaged and excited. Highly recommend this class!

We've loved Merit's virtual music class for our 1.5yo son. Exposure to music (and in both English and Spanish) at such a young age is so important. He loves singing, dancing and playing "instruments" with Ms. Sally!

Merit School has been amazing in providing services in person and through Zoom. Ms. Sally has been so phenomenal and supportive of us and our school.

In times of Covid, Merit has been a consistent bright spot for our family. No, it's not the same as being in class, but Merit has pivoted quickly to figure out how to keep children engaged and singing and exploring beats even virtually. Also, we love Miss Kristen Regester's playfully imagination, like camping-theme sessions. Thank you Merit!

I am an adult piano student at Merit and am very happy with lessons here. The calibre of teachers and professionals is tops and I witness how they inspire dedication and love for music in their students, which inspires me to keep learning and practicing.

Critical: Professionalism, Quality Unprofessional, I believe they only have one teacher. They charge a lot of money and it is not worth it. I switched my kid for another day of the class and it is the same teacher. The only thing she do is sing and read stories. Disappointing for music class.

My child started taking group piano classes with Merit during the pandemic in summer, to my surprise, the introductory online classes worked well with my child and he became very interested in piano. We have since switched him to private classes simply because we wanted to have more one on one attention and he is doing very well. Thanks Merit!

We love Merit and we love ms Annaeka! My son has been attending Merit since he was five months, and we are still enrolled. Music therapy has been greatly shown in studies to help in the development in young minds, and we have seen it first hand. Ms. Annaeka is great at incorporating not just different types of music, but also baby sign language and basic developmental skills.

My experience at Merit was awful and honestly disappointing. I attended a summer camp there and many of the music teachers were extremely unprofessional and inappropriate. One of my encounters with a flute teacher (I think her name was Susan Crandall) was particularly harsh. She told me that I "sucked" at flute, and was put into the highest band at my high school because people "felt sorry for me." Her words were very cruel and discouraging; she was insulting.

I told my parents about what this teacher said and they called Merit many times but nobody answered, even though the school promised us an explanation. Obviously Merit had no explanation for what had happened. There had been various encounters before this one, too. This teacher wasn't the only person who I had seen act unprofessionally. If you/your child is interested in taking music lessons, do not go to Merit. It is a waste of money and time.

A complete waste of $ for the toddlers' music class. To call it a music class and hold it at Merit is a shame because Merit is FAR greater than this. Where to start? The teacher is extremely rude to parents and caregivers. There have been times when a parent or caregiver has brought along a grandparent to spend precious time with their grandchildren.

You would think the teachers/program would be OK with this, especially since parents are paying a hefty price for this "program, " but we have witnessed teachers publicly berating, questioning, and/or humiliating the family for having a second adult attend with a single child. They have literally said aloud in class, "Does a child really need to have two adults with them?" What the heck?

First of all, it's family. Second of all, the teacher has no idea what the circumstances of the family are. Maybe the child has a disability and needs additional help to move around/care for; maybe the parent has a disability and needs the additional help; maybe the kid is super rowdy and needs two people there to keep him/her calm so as not to disrupt the class.

To see hardworking, paying families treated like this by the classroom staff is beyond comprehension and is reprehensible. What we observed was not an isolated incident. Staff will openly talk poorly about kids and parents beneath their breath in front of other families. Now, let's talk about the curriculum itself. Do yourself a favor and go to Target, buy a talking Elmo, and save yourself some $. Seriously, a robotic Elmo that talks and plays music would provide more educational value (and entertainment) for your child.

As other reviewers have noted, this is more of a story time with background music than anything else. They give the appearance of a "class" by providing parents with a rule book and curriculum, but that's merely for the sake of appearances. Once you've paid your tuition you are locked in, so they are literally doing a bait and switch. This program 100% pulls on the hearts and good intentions of parents to find educational opportunities for their kids, but it's far from educational.

The only education it provides is teaching kids how NOT TO treat others (re: my comments about the teachers). If the $ spent and time and effort spent is not bad enough, parking around the area is a pain (not Merit's fault, just a function of the West Loop). I wouldn't mind the $ or the effort spent trying to find parking if the program was more effective, but alas, it's not.

In summary, I'll give -4 stars for the actual program, +5 stars to their marketing department for their amazing bait-and-switch tactics, to land on a 1 star rating (only b/c I'm not allowed to give less). My expectations were very high for the program given the Merit name and other positive experiences we've had there (i.e., 5-star concerts).

Save your hard-earned $, spare yourself from either seeing people be belittled or being openly belittled yourself, and look elsewhere.oh, and go buy that robotic Elmo at Target down the street.

Super classy, all around chill, sounds! The students are mega talented musicians. Such an amazing organization that Merit has become. Makes me proud and hopeful for the Chicago music community, some real stars are coming out of the program here. Future chillers for sure!

I've had the pleasure of attending multiple public events at Merit and love what they are doing. Their contribution to the Chicago community in music education is incredible and such a value to these talented kids.

I miss this place! When we lived in the Chicago area we took our daughter there and she loved it! The teachers and staff were great, they weren't judgmental or cliquish (they never played favorites and treated every student equally). And they really kept her focused and entertained which was hard to do at that toddler age. Now that we've moved we are having a hard time finding something comparable.

We visited to attend a chamber music concert, so my review is limited to opinions regarding the concert facility and premises. Nice Gottlieb Hall, excellent acoustics.

Ms. Irica was so AMAZING! She was my 15 month olds first teacher experience. She was so talented and kept his short attention span. She also did story time and was a saint for maintaining all the chaos. Wonderful beautiful woman!

Totally disappointed after that first music class with my toddler. 45 mins and 2 instruments!?! Class was very babyish; teacher read a book!?! Isn't this music class!?!

Do not go there. Takes private piano lessons at this facility. There were 32 lessons in a school year. Teacher won't track each student's schedule. Just use the generic one for everyone. So we had to track the schedule by ourselves. In the first year, we were given 31 lessons. In the 2nd year, we were given 29 lessons. Talked to the staff and were told that there were hundreds of students asking for the same thing. Overall, unorganized facility.

I went there for a year while I was in high school and I really enjoyed my experience there.It is too bad that there aren't enough reviews of this place that is already so popular. the theachers are very high qualified and you have to practice a lot and do the best that you can to go to the next level. A great place for kids and high school students.

I went there for a year while I was in high school and I really enjoyed my experience there. It is too bad that there aren't enough reviews of this place that is already so popular. the theachers are very high qualified and you have to practice a lot and do the best that you can to go to the next level. A great place for kids and high school students.

I'm not a student here per se, but I just joined the Chicago Metropolitan Symphony orchestra, a community orchestra that rehearses here. I'm very impressed with the mission of this school, which "provides high-quality music education to students in metropolitan Chicago. Its primary goals are to help young people achieve their full musical potential, to remove economic barriers to participation, and to stimulate personal and educational growth through music without regard to national origin, race, religious belief, gender or physical handicap." They relocated to this building after a long life in the Dearborn station. It's incredible that such a place exists, as I am a strong believer in the transformative and spiritual process of music making with others, and to provide it to those that would otherwise not have tasted it is one of the greatest acts that I can imagine.

I am a music junkie. The teachers listed here are of high caliber and some of the most famous musicians in the world have visited, as witness by the endless rows of signed photographs in the hallways. There is an impressive, smaller-but-very-nice concert hall as well, which makes for an intimate concert experience.