CHICAGO STUDENT COMPOSITION WORKSHOP

MYAC Chicago Student Composition Workshop provides aspiring composers of all levels with a supportive yet rigorous environment to advance their craft. Participants receive one-on-one composition lessons and take part in group classes on such topics as theory, score reading, orchestration, and notation. The workshop is intentionally structured to accommodate students with a range of experience. Each composer works at an appropriate level on their own projects while benefiting from a collaborative setting where students learn from one another at every stage of the compositional process.

The workshop will culminate in a performance of student compositions on the final day.

2026 Dates and Times

June 29 - July 16
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays - 4:00 - 5:30 PM

(Final week includes a Friday performance for students and families.)
For students entering grades 8 - 12

Final Concert July 17

This schedule allows for students to also participate in the Chicago Chamber Music Workshop and Evening Ensembles that take place these same three weeks.

Requirements

Some theory experience. Basic knowledge of keys, intervals and chords. 

Laptop: Prefer notation software of your choosing but will accept handwritten notation.

Willingness to participate in realizing student scores with your own instrument (including voice).

Willingness to put time in outside of class times to work on composition projects.

For questions, please contact Jean Milew (jeanmilew@mya.org). 

Faculty

Megan Grace Beugger received her PhD in music composition from SUNY University at Buffalo, where she was a Presidential Fellow. She is interested in finding situations that highlight the physicality of making sound, and the physical nature of the performers’ bodies themself, often creating art that sits on the borderline between music, dance, visual art, and performance art. 

Her music has been performed at festivals such as June in Buffalo, Qubit Noise Festival in NYC, the Munich Philharmonic Gasteig new music series, Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, SICPP in Boston, and the MATA festival in New York. She has worked with musicians such as the JACK quartet, Lucas Fels, Dal Niente, Ensemble SurPlus, saxophonist Ryan Muncy, ICE, cellist Katinka Kleijn, and dancer/choreographer Melanie Aceto. She has taken lessons and presented her music in master classes with composers including Jo Kondo, Chaya Czernowin, Steven Takasugi, Amnon Wolman, Kaija Saariaho, Rand Steiger, Lei Liang, Oliver Knussen, Augusta Read Thomas, John Harbison, Brian Ferneyhough, and Pauline Oliveros. 

In 2010, she graduated cum laude from Northwestern University with departmental honors. Her principal teachers have been Robert Ian Winstin, Aaron Travers, Aaron Cassidy, Lee Hyla, Chris Mercer, Marcos Balter, Jay Alan Yim, and David Felder. Megan has taught and designed courses in theory, musicology, and composition at the University at Buffalo, the Walden School in New Hampshire, and is currently teaching theory and composition at Midwest Young Artists Conservatory.

Jean Milew received her PhD in music composition with a minor in ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago, supported by a Century Fellowship and a Sara Lee Foundation Fellowship grant to support her dissertation writing. She received her master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

Her music has been performed by such ensembles and performers as the Pacifica Quartet, eighth blackbird, the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players, and soprano Tony Arnold and featured at such festivals as the Apsen Music Festival, Bowling Green New Music and Art Festival, Musica Moderna Contemporary Music Festival in Poland, and the University of Missouri-Columbia New Music Festival. Her music has received awards from such groups as SCI/ASCAP, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the National Association of Composers in the USA (NACUSA). Her most recent orchestral work, A New America, was commissioned and premiered by Midwest Young Artists Conservatory to reflect on the tragic shooting that occurred in Highland Park, IL on July 4, 2023.

Her principal teachers have included Shulamit Ran, Marta Ptaszynska, Rick Lesemann, and James Hopkins. She has taught courses in music theory, analysis, and history at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Concordia University Chicago. Currently, she has turned her energies towards work in arts administration at Midwest Young Artists Conservatory yet continues to enjoy teaching theory to choral students there.

2026 Summer Tuition and Refund Policy

Tuition: $420

Summer invoices will be sent out by June 1, 2026. Full payment is due two weeks before the program start date. Cancellations made prior to this date will be refunded minus the $100 non-refundable deposit. Cancellations after this date will not be refunded. There will be a 10% monthly fee for late payments.

For questions or further information, please contact us at (847) 926-9898, or email jeanmilew@mya.org.