Mission and Vision

Mission

The mission of the Barthelmes Conservatory is to promote access and excellence in music education. However, the Barthelmes Conservatory provides music education like no other arts organization in the Tulsa community. We strive to provide high quality exposure to musical instruments, the exquisite craft of playing, and a broad view of music’s essential value in the world--to train a child’s mind to process information, organize thoughts, and think critically about the knowledge he or she acquires in life, and experience the satisfaction and joy that comes from playing and listening to music.

Vision

The Barthelmes Conservatory’s vision is to awaken the musician residing within each of us regardless of age, musical ability, ethnic origin, disability, or inability to pay. We strive to serve a multi-age audience of diversity and transformation while conveying the beauty, expression, and joy of music.

Core Value

Exposure to music is a critical part of a complete education. Music and all other art disciplines provide children with different and alternative ways to develop skills, process information, and express and organize their own knowledge.

Goals

The Barthelmes Conservatory goals are to reach as many people in the community through an exceptional education in music. Our goals take a number of avenues to provide music education as broadly as possible. The Conservatory with two in-house divisions, Music School and Music Center, and the Outreach Instrumental Programs in Tulsa Area Schools serve more than 350 students weekly.

• The Music School aims to promote artistic and academic excellence and to prepare musicians of the highest quality. It serves students who display the potential to pursue music in a professional career. Its programs are structured and intensive--modeled after the Russian Music Conservatory method, which focuses on hand technique, musical expression and the development of musicality, performance skills, and a deep understanding of music theory. All students at the Music School receive full, merit-based scholarships. Toward the end of each two-semester academic year, students and faculty participate in closed concert assessments and evaluation and public Open Concerts.

• The Music Center strives to provide superior music education to enhance quality of lives and to promote aesthetic, musical, emotional and creative potentials regardless of ability and age. The Music Center division is non-selective, flexible to scheduling, and designed for community members of all ages who desire to pursue music education for personal enrichment and cognitive development.

• The Outreach Programs in the Tulsa Public Schools put the Conservatory in direct contact with students, teachers, parents, administrators and their respective communities of eight public schools: Kendall-Whittier, Chouteau, Remington, McKinley, Robertson Elementary Schools, and Clinton Middle School. The Conservatory provides violin, viola, cello, guitar, and world percussion instruction to hundreds of school children from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Through these programs, the Conservatory maintains strong personal contact with Tulsa Public Schools. The Conservatory partners with TPS schools which fall into the 91-99 percentile for free-and-reduced lunch programs (an indicator of economic disadvantage). The programs have been revised over time and continue to refine the essential elements necessary to promote true and sustainable transformation of music educational practices. These choices translate to quality of life and cognitive improvement for children and families who may be underserved.