Brooklyn Conservatory of Music opens Prospect Park West campus and music therapy institute

The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music has opened a second campus in Park Slope, a new home for its music therapy program that the school says will let it more than double the number of New Yorkers it reaches.

Conservatory leaders and elected officials cut the ribbon this week on BKCM Prospect Park West, CBS New York and Brooklyn Paper reported. The campus sits at One Prospect Park West near Grand Army Plaza, across from Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Public Library, with its entrance at 963 President St., according to the conservatory. It is four blocks from BKCM's longtime brownstone at 58 Seventh Ave.

What's inside

The roughly 12,000-square-foot space has 13 acoustically designed studios, a performance hall named for The Joel Foundation and a community gathering room, all designed to be ADA-accessible and sensory-friendly, the conservatory says. Brooklyn Paper put the project's cost at $17.8 million, paid for by the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, city, state and federal partners and dozens of private donors. CBS New York reported that the campus will also offer musicians affordable studio rentals.

A national-scale therapy institute

The building is the official home of the new BKCM Music Therapy Institute, seeded with a $2 million gift from The Joel Foundation, started by Alexis and Billy Joel. BKCM's music therapy program is the largest in the city, serving more than 3,000 clients at more than 50 sites across the five boroughs, according to the conservatory. Toby Williams, its music therapy director, told CBS New York the expansion will let an additional 8,000 people receive services.

The institute will also focus on workforce training, research and advocacy for the field, the conservatory says. Executive Director Chad Cooper told CBS the school intends to add a research capability in partnership with higher education. Cooper told Brooklyn Paper the project had been about eight years in the making, during which both the therapy program and the community music school more than doubled.