Programs for the Community

At the heart of YMF’s work is the Center for Music and Creative Technologies (CMCT), our headquarters and community programming hub in Historic South-Central Los Angeles. CMCT serves as an incubator for creative expression, workforce development, and restorative justice, reconnecting the neighborhood to its roots as a vibrant center of Black arts and culture.

Deeply informed by the cultural legacy of Central Avenue’s jazz scene and South LA’s Black creative community, CMCT offers a media arts technology lab, audio/video recording studio, five purpose-built classrooms, and a flexible performance space. Programming includes music fundamentals, keyboard, guitar, strings, harp, brass, as well as filmmaking, composition/songwriting, music production, and media arts. All courses are shaped by direct community input, ensuring offerings remain relevant, inspiring, and grounded in both artistic excellence and educational best practices.

After-School and Weekend Classes

K - 12th Grade

Classes are free of charge and open to the communities of South Central Los Angeles and beyond. Offerings include keyboard, guitar, violin, trumpet, flute, clarinet, drums, and percussion, voice, composition/songwriting, music technology/production, songwriting, and short-form content creation. Please see our Registration page for the current schedule of classes.

Creative Career Pathway Programs

16 - 25 Years of Age

Digital applications and hardware are ubiquitous and fundamental to the way creative content is produced. In addition to providing foundational skills for participation in the creative economy, these programs open doors to self-expression, personal agency, and self-worth, while building a platform from which participants can make themselves heard and realize that their voice matters.

Mike Stoller's Music Heals

At the Homeboy Art Academy

Made possible through the vision of legendary songwriter Mike Stoller, Music Heals is a trauma-informed, therapeutically-based music immersion experience designed the formerly gang-involved, recently incarcerated men, women, and youth at Homeboy Industries' Homeboy Art Academy.

Concerts and Workshops

Open to all

We seek to feature local artists and performers in concerts, workshops, and other events held in our Center for Music and Creative Technologies. Recent performers have included the Jessa Calderon, Randal Fisher Jazz Trio, Maqueos Music brass ensemble, Street Symphony's Midnight Strings, and Los Cambalache.