#53: Mike Simons and Intonation Music Workshop

Our guest this week – Mike Simons – is doing incredible things for kids and he’s doing it using music!

The Intonation Music Workshop, based out of Chicago, is after-school program that is making an incredible difference in the lives of young people in the Chicago area.

I was inspired by our conversation and I am excited to share it with you this week!

About Mike Simons

Michael Simons is the founder and Executive Director of Intonation Music Workshop. While spending his college senior year abroad in Sweden, Mike conducted a study project on free band-based after-school music programs. Years later, as a lead panel member at Community Panels For Youth in Chicago, he became convinced that such programming could become a crucial community resource in Chicago. A year later he started The Intonation Music Workshop.

Professionally, Mike spent his twenties traveling the world as a tour director, after which he landed in Chicago and co-founded Skyline Chicago Tour & Travel, a tour planning and special events company. A practicing musician and avid fan, Mike’s love of music led him and his partners to found the Intonation Music Festival, a production company that presented an acclaimed two-day independent music extravaganza in Chicago’s Union Park in 2005 & 2006. Mike plays bass and drums in several bands.

About Intonation Music Workshop

The Intonation Music Workshop empowers children to become rock stars on every stage in life through innovative music education. Using donated instruments and a unique pop band curriculum, our after-school music program provides kids age 6-17 in Chicago’s under served communities with access to instruction and performance opportunities in a safe and positive environment, sparking for many a life changing sense of accomplishment and belonging. Our students learn to express themselves musically, at the same time developing essential life skills such as cooperation, practice, risk taking, and setting and meeting goals.

IMW Instructors work closely with the students as they explore each aspect of the pop band format- drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and vocals-before choosing their niche and forming a band with fellow students. The bands are then mentored through weeks of preparation for a community performance.

More information is available online at www.intonationmusicworkshop.org.

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