Spring 2011

350 YOLA students from EXPO and HOLA play together in first combined performance

On Saturday, May 14, students from both YOLA sites performed on the stage of Walt Disney Concert Hall during the LA Phil's Youth Orchestra Festival Day. The YOLA EXPO Center Youth Orchestra played a program featuring Bizet, Tchaikovsky, and a work by LA Phil Composer Fellow Aaron Ishibashi. The young musicians were joined by YOLA at HOLA’s choir and wind ensemble to debut for the first time as a combined ensemble, performing arrangements of America the Beautiful and Wagner's Tannhäuser. The combined concert, which featured 350 students, came at the culmination of YOLA at HOLA's first seven months of programming and YOLA at EXPO's fourth year of programming. The LA Phil's annual Youth Orchestra Festival Day also featured performances by the Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra and LAMusArt LAPCA Orchestra, participants in the LA Phil's Youth Orchestra Partners Program (now the Youth Orchestra Mentorship Program).

Gustavo Dudamel inspires students at YOLA rehearsals

This spring, students from both YOLA sites had the opportunity to work under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. On March 9, Dudamel visited the YOLA EXPO Center Youth Orchestra, during which he led the group through a dynamic rehearsal of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet (click here for video). On May 21, the maestro visited YOLA at HOLA to work with the first-grade string and fourth-grade wind ensembles, and led a private coaching session with teachers from EXPO and HOLA. The maestro first saw YOLA at HOLA's young musicians in fall 2010, just four weeks after the program launched. Seven months later, he had the opportunity to hear how the students have progressed and to rehearse arrangements of music from Brahms' Symphony No. 1 and Mahler's Symphony No. 1 with the fourth graders.

Performance highlights from YOLA at HOLA's first year

During its first year, the fourth grade students of YOLA at HOLA have already made a splash in their local community through a series of exciting performances. In May, YOLA at HOLA fourth graders performed with LA Phil members as part of the LA Phil’s free Neighborhood Chamber Music Concerts series. The interaction between the LA Phil and YOLA musicians brought out the best in both groups (click here for video). In April, students performed for the LAUSD Parent Summit at the L.A. Convention Center for their biggest audience to date (4000+ people); in February, they performed for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the opening of the Lafayette Park Recreation Center, a new facility of HOLA.

New from the YOLA Resource Library

We are delighted to share the findings from our first year of Paper Orchestra planning and implementation. A joint collaboration among staff of the LA Phil, YOLA at HOLA, and Juneau, Alaska Music Matters (JAMM), the Paper Orchestra Cookbook and Video provide a rationale, a how-to guide, and basic lessons to help you start your own paper orchestra program. It's the latest addition to the LA Phil's growing YOLA Resource Library.

YOLA Neighborhood Project Day

On March 12, YOLA Neighborhood Project (YNP) Day brought one thousand students together at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A. to celebrate the music-making that takes place in their neighborhoods. Students in kindergarten and 1st grade from South L.A. and Rampart District schools performed "Simple Gifts" alongside their community youth orchestra – YOLA at EXPO and YOLA at HOLA – with Dudamel Conducting Fellow Manuel López. With the help of their teachers and the LA Phil Teaching Artist Faculty, students had been exploring the simple gifts that surround them in the months leading up the concert. Dr. John E. Deasy (Superintendent-elect, LAUSD), Mónica García (Board President, LAUSD), and Guillermo Cespedes (Los Angles Deputy Mayor of Gang Reduction and Youth Development) welcomed families and advocated for music education on this special day as we celebrated the gift of communities bound together by beautiful music. To see pictures from YNP Day, please visit the YOLA Media Library.

COMING SOON: YOLA appears on The Tonight Show and at the Hollywood Bowl!

On Sunday, July 24, YOLA students will perform on the stage of the Hollywood Bowl during Global Soul, a KCRW World Festival series concert featuring Stevie Wonder, Emmy-nominated musical director Rickey Minor, and a stellar line-up of friends in a celebration of soul music from around the world. The YOLA students, Rickey Minor, and select artists from the program are also scheduled to perform prior to the concert, July 21, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The young musicians will join all of the guest artists at the conclusion of the July 24 concert in a 40th-anniversary tribute to Marvin Gaye's classic album What's Going On. This is the first time YOLA will perform on a subscription concert presented by the LA Phil and their second performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Their first appearance was in 2009, when Gustavo Dudamel led the YOLA EXPO Center Youth Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" during ¡Bienvenido Gustavo!, the maestro's inaugural celebration concert.

Student Spotlight

Name: Isaac, age 14
Program: YOLA at EXPO
Instrument: Bass
What are some of your favorite memories of being in YOLA? Playing with and learning from my teachers.
You've been in YOLA for almost four years. What are some of your favorite pieces of repertoire? Besides jazz, I really like Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." It's still one of my favorite pieces of classical music.
Where do you want to be in five years? In five years? I want to be in college. I want to go to USC to study music at the Thornton School.

Name: Kevin, age 9
Program: YOLA at HOLA
Instrument: French horn
What are some of your favorite memories of being in YOLA? Playing on the stage of Walt Disney Concert Hall [during Youth Orchestra Festival Day]. It was a really exciting feeling! I liked playing with the kids from EXPO, because we got to share what we learned.
How do you think your ensemble has improved since you started last September? We’re more mature and can control ourselves better – and we sound a lot better on our instruments!
What other types of music do you listen to? Rock music. I like Aerosmith, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin.

Stakeholder Spotlight

The Pasadena VYMA Music Project (VMP) at Longfellow Elementary is concluding its second year, rich with new components and more community involvement. An Elementary Musicianship class provided new students with a steppingstone to the beginning string orchestra. Three VMP graduates from last year, now seventh graders, participated in the program as proud mentors to the younger ones, starting a tradition that will continue next year. Year Two connected VMP musicians with their community: a VMP Music Festival engaged parents and public by inviting them to join in the learning during their children's sectionals, and VMP musicians played for the Pasadena Board of Education and the Altadena Christian Children's Center. VMP musicians also traveled this year, visiting the Verdugo Youth Orchestra and the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, and participating in a "seminario" by performing with another nucleo, the Santa Barbara ICAN Music Project. This seminario – the first on the West Coast – brought about much bonding and fun. The mutual generosity and great affinity of spirit between the two programs made this a preciously memorable and empowering event for the musicians and their families, one that all intend to repeat next year. (Photo credit: Monie Photography.)

Click here for more information about the YOLA Stakeholder Network.

Leadership support for the LA Phil's Education and Community Programs is provided by Fidelity Investments, the Annenberg Foundation, Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, Amgen Foundation, The Rose Hills Foundation and the Lee and Hope Landis Warner YOLA Student Fund.