A Century of Enriching Lives: ENCORE!
A $2 million campaign for the 100th Anniversary season will advance the mission of Civic Music Association to bring world-renowned musicians to greater Des Moines. Donors will have opportunity to both ensure the future growth of Civic Music Association through a gift to the CMA endowment fund as well as support the presentation of the 2025-26 Anniversary Season. The season will be supported through 25% of each gift and the remaining 75% of cash gifts, along with all planned gifts, will be allocated to the CMA endowment fund, unless otherwise designated by the donor.
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Our Mission
Our mission is to engage, enrich and educate the central Iowa community through provocative, world-class musical performances by legends and rising stars.
Season History1925 to Today.
For 99 continuous years, Civic Music Association (CMA) has brought world-renowned artists to Des Moines and central Iowa, offering unforgettable and life-changing artistic and educational experiences. The 1925 was a historic one for Des Moines and its music lovers, for it was then that Civic Music was born. For this, a great debt is owed three far-sighted women - Gertrude Schloss, Elizabeth Cowles, and Elsa Neumann - who didn’t see why the citizens of Des Moines should be deprived of hearing performances by the many great musical artists of the time, artists who appeared regularly in Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis, but for whatever reason, tended to bypass Des Moines on their travels.
Still vibrant and thriving today, CMA carries on the tradition of its founders and is one of the nation’s longest continuous running cultural organizations.
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”“We have had season tickets to Civic Music for over 60 years, and we
– Joyce and Harold Templeman
have had the privilege of being in the audience to hear some of the world’s top musicians. It is a privilege to live in the Des Moines area where the best of the best come to play and sing. Thanks to all those through the years at CMA who made it happen. Someone said, “Music is Life”, so PLAY ON!”.”
Civic Music Association presented its first concert in 1925, featuring the Kibalchich Russian Symphonic Choir. A performance by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now known as The Minnesota Orchestra) followed. Soon, performing arts luminaries such as Sergei Rachmaninoff were visiting Des Moines.
At a time before the founding of the Des Moines Symphony (1937) and the Des Moines Metro Opera (1973), CMA ensured that major national and international orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists, and opera and dance companies could be seen and heard in Des Moines. We continue that legacy today, bringing the legends and rising stars of jazz and chamber music to central Iowa.
Students have benefitted from hands-on musical experiences since CMAs beginnings in 1925.
ENRICHMENT: SERVING THE MISSION
A core element of CMA’s mission is enriching the community through music education. Every season, our guest artists deliver free educational events in the community.
Students from local schools, colleges, and universities, as well as the general public, are invited to learn from some of the greatest musicians of our time. All CMA enrichment programs are open to the public and offered at no cost to schools.
We believe music can have a very positive impact on children. Involvement with music, especially playing an instrument, has been shown to improve socialization skills, school attendance, and academic achievement and increase classroom engagement.
Since its inception, CMA has provided enrichment to students. In 1946, the Shrine auditorium was teeming with 3800 energetic students, anxious to hear the music, played by the Minne- sota Orchestra, that they had been studying for months in their school’s music appreciation classes in anticipation of this performance.
”“Through CMA, our young son had the unforgettable opportunity to listen to Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer (casually seated on the edge of the stage, legs dangling), as they shared insights into their collaborative process, followed by Fleck’s memorable description of musical improvisation as “... akin to riding a bicycle full speed downhill through a forest while blindfolded?” That dedication to creating such up close and personal opportunities to inspire young, diverse artists in the community truly is what sets CMA apart from the pack.”
– Martha & Jim Fifield
THE FUTURE: ENCORE!
With Your Support, the Legacy Continues.
The marriage of the founders’ vision and the continuous broad-based support has produced nearly a century of musical enrichment in our community. Students and adults lives have been impacted through exposure to the world-renowned international artists CMA has engaged to perform.
In particular, we understand that the role of Civic Music Association and its programming is vital to both its legacy and its future. We recognize the sense of empowerment and belonging that is generated when diverse audiences, musicians and varying performance venues come together to make a difference in lives. We take our role seriously to respond to the diversity of today’s audience to build a legacy for the future.
By investing today in the A Century of Enriching Lives campaign, you can help ensure that Civic Music Association continues to enrich the lives of our students, family, friends and community.
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