2024 Annual Report

Music is what makes us uniquely human. Music teaches us to synchronize. Music heals. Music connects us to the cosmos. Music is life.

And musical interaction strengthens a community.

This page offers financial transparency, figures on our effectiveness, and snapshots of some of the musical interactions in and around C4A in 2024.

2024 Financial information

Our 2024 Operating budget was $293,638.

$234,492 from programming accounts for 79.8% of our total income.Our generous donors contributed $38,762 during the year, 13.2% of our income.

We received grants from the Illinois Arts Council for a total of $11,950, and a grant from Urbana Arts and Culture for $5000. Combined grants were 5.6% of our income.

The remaining income—1.4% of our total—was from facilities and instrument rentals, sale of extra instruments, and sale of honey donated as a fund raiser.

Total expenses in 2024 came to $241,003.

Programming accounted for 62.3% of total expenses, including teacher payments and supplies, totaling $172,1993, with $2253 in scholarships awarded.

Occupancy, including rent and utilities, came to 18.3% of our expenses, $50,520.

15.3% of our expense budget went toward paying administrative and bookkeeping staff, a total of $42,360.

Business expenses made up the remaining 4.1%, including: $3190 for office supplies and technology and $1590 for advertising.  The balance consisted of insurance, bank fees, licensing, professional membership dues, and bad debt.

2024 facts and figures 

We gave 5796 individual lessons in 2024, to an average of 170 individual students per month.
We gave 5 six-week group classes for violin and one for guitar.
We offered 8 twelve-week ensembles sessions, including:

  • Bow-Dacious String Band and Kids’ Rock Band for school age kids and Fledgling Jam for toddlers
  • African Drumming,  Country Music Ensemble, Marvelous Cretaceous Band, and Jazz Band for high school aged to adult participants
Our ensembles performed for 15 community events, including: Champaign County Fair, C-U Pride Fest, Chinese New Year, Fairy Tale Rides at Hope Lives Youth Ranch, Lincoln memorial dedication at Champaign County Courthouse, Urbana Post Mark series.
We engaged 21 teaching artists, local musicians who live and work in our community, on a year-round basis, plus an additional 9 local and regional artists for our annual fiddle & jam weekend.
73 students performed on our in-house recitals.
We provided performance space for these externally-produced events: C-U Folk and Roots Festival; Illinois Arts Council Master/Apprentice program lecture-demonstration; All ages DIY punk concert series for youth attendees; C-U Tango Music workshop.
We collaborated on events with these community partners:  Ngoma African Festival, Urbana Country Dancers, The Urbana Free Library, Rose Bowl Tavern, Sousa Archive and Center for American Music

Some 2024 highlights

In May we held our 4th annual Cheap Instrument Sale, putting donated instruments into the hands of families at very low cost. This has become a popular event!
In June we held our 3rd annual Fiddle & Jam weekend, a great event with jams, workshops, performances, and a family dance. This year’s featured fiddler was Aaron Albrecht, from Springfield.  He gave a terrific lecture about the influence of some key Black fiddlers on our midwestern fiddle tradition. Later that evening he and his accompanist, Blake Korte, performed and led an outdoor jam.
Also in June, we helped with the first Ngoma African Festival, spearheaded by C4A’s African music specialist, Jean René Balekita. The festival included children’s activities, a fashion show, a street dance with food vendors, and a ceremony recognizing the first members of the CU Congolese community.
In September members of the Kids’ Rock Band, led by Johnny Lusardi, and Bow-Dacious String Band, led by Robin Kearton, performed together at the C-U Pride Fest.
In October members of the Olde Music Group (OMG), led by Robin Kearton, gave an invited performance at the Champaign County Courthouse as part of a Lincoln dedication ceremony. The members who performed are shown here in front of a historic US flag at the courthouse.