Chicago College of Performing Arts

Chicago College of Performing Arts or CCPA is a performing arts college that is housed at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. While CCPA is officially a part of Roosevelt University, CCPA (both the institution and its students) has its own distinct personality. The relationship between the two is much like that of the Eastman School of Music and The University of Rochester or The College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Cincinnati. The college has two divisions: the Music Conservatory and the Theatre Conservatory. Nearly 600 students come from more than 40 states and 25 countries to study at CCPA. The faculty consists primarily of world class professional actors, directors and musicians, including nearly 30 members of the Chicago Symphony and the Lyric Opera of Chicago (half of whom are principals) and theatre performers with credits from Broadway to Chicago and the West Coast.

Chicago Musical College was founded in 1867, less than four decades after the city of Chicago was incorporated. It has given over a hundred years of uninterrupted service to music and music education and has played an important role in the development of the cultural life of the Midwest.

In 1865, after initial efforts to establish a college of music, the Chicago Conservatorium of Music was founded, with Florenz Ziegfeld, Sr. as its director. (Ziegfeld Sr. was the father of Florenz, Jr., who is better known as a successful and trail-blazing Broadway impresario.)

Two years later, in 1867, Ziegfeld established his own Chicago Academy of Music, the fourth conservatory in America. In 1871, the conservatory moved to a new building which was destroyed only a few weeks later by the Great Chicago Fire; despite the conflagration, the College was again up and running by the end of the year.

In 1872, the school changed its name to Chicago Musical College; over 900 students were enrolled in that year. A Normal Teachers' Institute was added to the school's offerings. Tuition in those far-off days cost an average of one dollar per lesson. Four years later the State of Illinois accredited the College as a degree granting institution of higher learning. A Preparatory Division was opened which established branches throughout the city.

...
Wikipedia