The founding group—composed of alumni, friends, students, and former faculty—organized informally in 1991 to wage an effort to resume operations of the bankrupt institution. The effort was headed by Richard Allen Schulze and wife, Theodora Schulze. The group formed an entity named "Friends of the Conservatory, Inc.", in Illinois and began to operate a school in the Chicago building that the American Conservatory had vacated. The new entity had some of the same faculty and continuing students. They represented the new entity as an uninterrupted continuation of the American Conservatory of Music. However, the State of Illinois deemed the new entity—Friends of the Conservatory—a different entity, one that was operating under the assumed name, American Conservatory of Music. The State of Illinois prevailed in court. The State held that Friends of the Conservatory had no legal connection with the original institution and warned that offering degrees without licensing was a violation State statutes. Ultimately, an Illinois court, in 1997, prohibited individuals involved with Friends from awarding degrees. In 1998, the Illinois Board of Higher Education reasserted its opinion that "the American Conservatory of Music ceased to exist in 1991 as an entity legally constituted to grant degrees in the state of Illinois".
1998 move to Hammond, Indiana, and reincorporation as an Indiana entity
In 1998, the new entity gained a sponsor—the Orthodox Monastery of St. Michael the Archangel in Belize, and began operating from a new venue: St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Hammond, Indiana. The Indiana Commission on Proprietary Education exempts ACM programs from state oversight because it is a religious institution protected under the Indiana Constitution and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. As an exempted religious institution, the State of Indiana neither grants nor prohibits ACM the right to offer educational programs leading to degrees of any type. The Indiana entity was created on August 20, 1998, as a non-profit corporation under the name American Conservatory of Music, Inc., then located at 4117 Wabash Avenue, Hammond, Indiana—now located at 252 Wildwood Road in Hammond. Its Articles of Incorporation declare it to be a "religious corporation which is organized primarily or exclusively for religious purposes".
Officers and directors
Current
Otto T. Schulze '', Chairman, son of Theodora and the late Richard Allen Schulze
Theodora Schulze, President
Rev. Daniel J. Gorham, Director, Santa Elena, Belize
Rev. Joseph T. Magnin, Director, Santa Elena, Belize
