Support
a musical theatre education by and for creators.

Musical Creators’ Institute is on a mission to empower early-career musical theater creators. We work to provide unique tools and insights into musical theater form from highly-experienced, top-level musical theater professionals. We aim to do this with a program size that is large enough to provide ample collaborative opportunities and small enough to provide individual attention and at a price-point that will not saddle our students with years of debt.

We believe in fostering a shared language between artists with diverse areas of specialization. This involves supporting the development of multi-disciplinary artists and offering all artists opportunities to expand their areas of knowledge.

The philosophy of program founder, Kleban-Award-winning lyricist-librettist Sam Carner considers all ideas and concepts as viable and views the role of a training program as helping students to express their ideas with greater clarity and to build greater drama around their themes. This leads to a supportive, non-judgmental environment that encourages exploration and artistic passion.

Donate

Your contributions make a tangible difference in our students’ experiences. This is what your donations can do:

$50 sponsors a guest speaker

$150 sponsors a guest teaching artist

$200 sponsors a performer in a student reading

$500 sponsors the music director for a student reading

$1,000 sponsors a special 4-class module

$2,000 sponsors the reading of student work

$3,000 sponsors an entire course

Student Centred Sponsorship

Until now, aspiring musical theater writers looking for opportunities to refine their craft and meet collaborators and mentors have found their options extremely limited. The programs that exist have come with logistical drawbacks, such as overwhelming price-tag and very large or tiny class sizes. They also come with artistic limitations, providing an extremely rigid (and outdated) framework or so loose a structure that creators can lose their way.

The Musical Creators’ Institute was established as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with the sole mission of providing up-and-coming composers, lyricists, and librettists with the training, connections, and structure they need to truly understand the form and build their careers. We do this by working outside the traditional academic infrastructure, hiring musical theater professionals working at the highest levels of the business. This keeps student costs down and ensures that students receive mentorship from true experts who have field-tested their approaches.

Our educational model shows students how to reflect deeply on the unique ways in which musicals communicate, expands their technical toolkits, leads them to ask better questions of themselves and their collaborators, and empowers them to convey their ideas with greater clarity.

Through scholarships and our goal of truly merit-based admissions, we are committed to providing unprecedented access to the best musical theater writing training available.

Students coming out of MCI will have the foundations they need to make the work that they are passionate about, supported by a community of artists and mentors. We are investing in the next generation of musical theater creators, giving them the tools they need to bring joy, meaning, and inspiration to audiences for decades to come.

Contributors to the Musical Creators’ Institute have the opportunity, through their tax-deductible support, to help shape the next generation of musical theater and make a stunning difference in the lives of young artists.

Donors are invited to participate in our concerts and readings, getting to see first-hand the new work and careers that they are making possible.

Donor
Benefits

  • Acknowledgment on our website and discounted tickets to streamed and live concerts

  • Acknowledgment on our website, complimentary tickets to streamed concerts, discounted tickets to live concerts

  • Acknowledgment on our website, complimentary tickets to streamed concerts, and 2 complimentary tickets to all live concerts and readings

  • Acknowledgment on our website, complimentary tickets to streamed concerts, 2 complimentary tickets to all live concerts and readings, and meet-and-greets with students, faculty, and board of directors

  • Learn more below.

Want to make a bigger impact?
Join the Founders Circle.

Founders Circle