Our History

It might be easy as one's child begins to turn their life towards college, to underestimate or take for granted those critical experiences that helped them get to that place in their life. MYA has been the single most important large experience that our daughter has had in shaping her sense of self and sense of community.
Barbara Butler, MYA Parent and Professor of Trumpet, Northwestern University

The history of Midwest Young Artists (MYA) is a story of a compelling mission, serendipity and hard work. The organization was founded in February of 1993 when a group of parents found rehearsal space at Lake Forest Country Day School and asked Founder and Director, Allan Dennis, to continue working with their children. The week after that organizational meeting, 55 students showed up for the first rehearsal. The students were divided in a Junior and Senior Orchestra, with quite a few of the older or more advanced students playing in both, a tradition of nurturing leadership that continues as a core value of our programs. As we approach the 20th anniversary of MYA, it is an incredible accomplishment that the vision of these first parents and director has resulted in the premiere music ensemble program in the nation, housed in the beautifully transformed Old Stockade Building at Fort Sheridan, bursting at the seams with students enrolled in orchestra, chamber music, jazz, wind symphony and/or choral ensembles, and ambitious plans to create a vibrant arts center in Fort Sheridan.