Sunset Park School of Music Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Teaching of musical instruments, and providing access to music events/education to the community. Free public concerts in the Brooklyn community and throughout NYC.
- Income
- $47,500
- Spending
- $45,200
- Reserves
- 7.1 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 57%
- Highest pay
- $18,000, executive director
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
We do not score finances when yearly spending is very small or the return has too little detail. The ratios stop meaning much at that size.
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
This organization files the short tax form, which does not ask about boards, policies or audits. That is normal for a small charity and is not a mark against it.
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (5)
- $26,000 spent. Free Theory/Performance/Musicianship Classes. Serving 300 students/year. Free Music Theory, Performance and Musicianship/Performance Classes. The School offers free music theory and musicianship classes to students enrolled in private lessons. The classes are held at the school. The Music Theory, Performance and Musicianship/Performance Classes are free to those students enrolled in private lessons. The classes, with 5-15 students in each class, are held weekly throughout the 32-week school year. The classes are 1/2 hour to 1-hour in length. We have three levels: beginner, intermediate/advanced, and adult. The students range in age from 2nd grade to adult.
- $10,000 spent. Free Community concert Series. Serving 3,000 people each year. The school invites a diverse group of professional musicians and the ensembles in residence to perform once-a-month free concerts. We select the artists based previous experience hearing and seeing the artists, professional relationships and collaborations, and recommendations from the faculty, students/parents, and community organizations. Some of the award-winning artists that have performed include Thomas Piercy (www.thomaspiercy.com); Judith Olson; Noritaka Ito; the Milonga Trio; Vilian Ivantchev; Intrepid Quintet; Lost Dog Ensemble; Pablo Aslan (Latin Grammy Nominee); Fernando Otero (Latin Grammy Winner); Yohmei Blasdel (world-renowned shakuhachi player); Yihan Chen (award-winning Chinese composer/pianist). These concerts are held at the music school and the Community Center of the MarienHeim Center in Sunset Park. Students, families, and the general public are invited to the concerts. We notify local schools, local churches, and local community organizations in the hope that they will let their communities know about and attend the concerts. The concerts range in style from classical, jazz and different ethnic styles that represent the native countries of our largely recent- immigrant community. We believe it to be greatly important for the community to see what we do as musicians in bringing many different styles of music to the community. The concerts are held once a month throughout the school year. They generally last for one hour. The Sunset Park area is a low-income area with many recent immigrants from Central America and China. Many of the people in the community would not otherwise be able to afford to go to professional music events.
- $4,000 spent. Free Summer Music Program. Serving 40 people directly. 300 indirectly. A free summer program for children in grades 3 to 7. Any children in the neighborhood were welcome to attend. No previous enrollment as a student in the school was required. We offered an Open-Door policy so students may come and go depending on their schedule and their parents' summer schedule. Student attendance varied from 10-40 students per day. The classes were held at the music school and in the community center and gym of Sunset Park's Marien-Heim Center. The classes were held for four hours (9am-1pm), five days a week (MondayFriday), for five weeks in the summer. Instruction was provided on music instruments as well as music-related activities. Students were introduced to instrumental music through demonstration of woodwinds, strings, piano, and guitar. The demonstrations were done by professional performers/teachers and often included hands-on aspect so the students were able to hold and sometimes play the instruments. Teachers included the Executive Director, current faculty of the school and teaching artists/performers from NYC. Each student was given a recorder to learn and play. Many of these students continued to private instruction on an instrument of their choice in the fall. There were performances by students, faculty and guest artists. The performances by faculty and guest artists often included participation from the students. We try to not a have "wall" between the students and faculty/guest artists. Hopeful Impact: Many of the students in the Sunset Park community are unable to afford to go to a summer program with the usual high fees. Our program allowed students in Sunset Park to have musical activities during their summer break.
- $5,200 spent. Music Technology Classes. Served 30 people directly. Served 500 people indirectly. Students were offered classes in computer music technology software and its application and real-life usage. Students were of high-school-age and came from the surrounding Sunset Park area. The main software used is Finale. Other composing/arranging software used is Sibelius. These are the two main music composing software in use today. Until March 15, 2020, the lessons/classes were held for one hour, once a week for 32 weeks at the school. After March 20, 2020, we transitioned to online classes/lessons. This may have been the easiest class to transition to online. Students/teachers were able to share their information easily through emails and google drive. It was easy for the teachers and students to demonstrate their compositions/arrangements through shared audio files. Students had access to the professional Finale/Sibelius software while using the school's computer, and had access to a free version at home on their own computers. The lessons were taught primarily by Executive Director Thomas Piercy. Mr. Piercy is a published composer and has helped edit works published by Boosey & Hawkes and Carl Fischer, Inc. Guest teachers from the professional composing, arranging, and recording field were brought in (in person or online) to demonstrate further usage of software such as Finale, Sibelius, and ProTools. Students were encouraged to compose their own pieces as well as arrange and orchestrate others' works. Students were taught the details of music copying and layout for professional use. These skills are highly useful to them as musicians in the fields of performance, composing, copyist, editing and publishing. Students, faculty, and ensembles-in-residence performed some of these works throughout the year at school concerts and in-person and online events. Guests artists and faculty performed originally composed trios for clarinet, tape and piano; ryuteki and shakuhachi (Japanese flute), clarinet and piano; duos for clarinet and piano; two guitars; voice and piano; solos for piano, clarinet and guitar, and mandolin quintets. Student ensembles performed arrangements of music by such varied composers as Piazzolla, Mozart, Bach, and Gershwin. Examples of the students' work can be found at this webpage on the school's website: Music Software and Technology Class www.sunsetparkschoolofmusic.org/software-and-technology-class
- Instrument making workshops. Served 50 directly. Served 500 people indirectly. Instrument Making workshop. Professional instrument makers and players of the Japanese shakuhachi, hichiriki, and the Chinese/Japanese flute (ryuteki/fue/guanzi) instruments worked with the students to make their own instruments. The workshops were held twice each semester and once during the summer session. The workshops were held on Saturdays and were scheduled for four hours to cover a short performance and demonstration by the instrument maker, instruction on how to make the instruments, the actual making of the instruments using tools and bamboo provided by the school, and the teaching how to play the instruments once made. The instrument makers/players included the Executive Director, who has studied instrument making in Japan, and other artists that have studied instrument making in China, Korea, and Japan. The instruments included the Japanese shakuhachi (flute), Japanese hichiriki (double reed instrument), Chinese double reed instrument (guanzi) and Chinese/Japanese flute. These workshops were held throughout the school year at the Sunset Park School of Music. We were able to complete the workshops before the school transitioned to online on March 15, 2020. Each workshop lasted approximately four hours. The students not only made their own instruments but also learned how to play them in the workshop. These instruments are used throughout Asian countries in formal, informal and folk music settings. Many of our students are recent immigrants of Asian countries and we think this is a great opportunity for them, and other non-Asian students, to learn about their indigenous music instruments. A highlight of the participants of these workshops in previous years was attending the Annual Concert of Japanese Heritage Music, a free concert sponsored by Columbia University's IMJS: Japanese Cultural Heritage Initiatives. This concert was cancelled due to the coronavirus, so unfortunately the students were not able to attend this year. We were able to set up and invite the students to an online concert of traditional music broadcast from Japan. This concert allowed the students to see and hear the instruments and meet (online) some of the leading practitioners of traditional instruments. Sunset Park School of Music Executive Director Thomas Piercy was a featured hichiriki performer at the online concert. There are several traditional instrumental Japanese and Chinese ensembles for amateurs in NYC. People from our workshops will be able to join these ensembles to further their interest in the instruments. Private instruction is also available to those students interested in taking lessons.
Source: Form 990EZ for the year ending June 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending June 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since April 1985.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
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