Victor Ribadeneyra (He/him/his)

Director of Community Engagement | Music Institute of Chicago

Victor Ribadeneyra (He/him/his) is a nonprofit programs director, teacher, and musician currently serving as Director of Community Engagement at the Music Institute of Chicago (MIC), a nonprofit music school with 7 Chicagoland locations. The MIC Community Engagement Department, founded in 2017 through Victor's hiring, focuses on community relationship building, data-driven arts programming, and community arts programs that reflect the diversity of Chicagoland.

Victor's results at MIC include over 200 new Chicagoland community partnerships, over $150,000 in new achieved funding, and MIC's Music as Service Direct Service Learning program. MIC community engagement programs have also achieved new, landmark funding from individual donors and foundations including the RRF Foundation for Aging, Highland Park Community Foundation, Evanston Arts Council, Y.O.U. Highland Park, the Les Paul Foundation, and the DuPage Community Foundation.

As a musician, Victor teaches jazz and classical music lessons at New Trier High School, Evanston Township High School, and the Music Institute of Chicago. He has received multiple honors for his music including finalist at the United States Air Force Golden Band of the West trombone audition, finalist at the Indiana University Concerto Competition, and Jazz Fellow selection at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. Student groups under his direction have earned two trips to Indiana Class B Marching Band State Finals and Munster High School's first top ratings at ISSMA jazz competitions in over a decade.

Prior to the Music Institute of Chicago, Victor served as Orchestra & Chamber Music Program Coordinator with Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, Production Assistant with the Ravinia Festival, and K-12 Band Director & General Music Teacher with the School Town of Munster.

In his free time, Victor volunteers as a Cat Care Shift Leader with Community Animal Rescue Effort (C.A.R.E.), a volunteer led animal shelter in Skokie, Illinois.