The school is run as a public/private partnership between the New York City Department of Education and Kaufman Music Center, a not-for-profit, multi-arts organization.

In the lower and middle school's children have two private lessons per week in piano, cello, violin, flute, French horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, or clarinet, as well as classes in music theory, chorus, and movement.

Students from all five boroughs of New York City are eligible to apply for admission, across all grades in lower and upper schools, which is by audition.

SMS consistently ranks among the top NYC public schools, based on student academic performance on New York State assessments.

Instead, students are encouraged and expected to devote most of their extracurricular time to practicing their instrument, joining high-level music ensembles in the city and/or making use of Kaufman Music Center's Lucy Moses School classes as well as concerts at Merkin Concert Hall.