Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, often referred to simply as LaGuardia, is a public high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, located near Lincoln Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Located at 100 Amsterdam Avenue between West 64th and 65th Streets, the school is operated by the New York City Department of Education, and resulted from the merger of the High School of Music & Art and the School of Performing Arts. The school has a dual mission of arts and academics, preparing students for a career in the arts or conservatory study as well as a pursuit of higher education.
A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion families of instruments, and occasionally including the harp, double bass, or bass guitar. On rare occasions, additional, non-traditional instruments may be added to such ensembles such as piano, synthesizer, or electric guitar.
Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts is a Catholic arts high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Admission to the school is granted through an audition process. Serving students from grade 7 to 12, it is one of three schools in the Toronto Catholic District School Board that is an elementary and secondary hybrid. The school has been consistently ranked as one of the top educational institutions in Ontario.
The San Jose Youth Symphony (SJYS) is a non-profit youth orchestra located in San Jose, California.
Minnesota Youth Symphonies, commonly referred to as MYS, was founded in 1972 by Ralph Winkler. The program has five orchestras composed of students from elementary level through high school, with participation's based on an annual audition. All levels of MYS perform at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, as well as other locations, and hosts workshops and classes.
The Louisville Youth Orchestra (LYO) was founded in 1958 in Louisville, Kentucky. The orchestra caters for young people from grade school through age 21. The LYO is made up of four orchestras, two elementary string programs, and various ensembles in which students advance according to their own musical progression and interests. There are nearly 400 musicians from 60 schools and 15 counties in the Louisville & Southern Indiana metro area.
Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6–12 (CAPA) is a magnet school located in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CAPA is one of four 6th to 12th grade schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. It was formed from a merger between CAPA High School and Rogers CAPA Middle School.
California Youth Symphony (CYS) is a San Francisco Bay Area symphony orchestra for young musicians of high school age and younger. It was founded in 1952 by Aaron Sten and in 1963 became the first United States youth orchestra to tour abroad, performing twelve concerts in Japan, including a joint concert with Tokyo Junior Orchestra Society. Since then, the orchestra has toured Mexico, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina and several countries in Europe and Asia. In 1994, the orchestra placed first in the International Youth and Music Festival Competition in Vienna. The orchestra has also collaborated with youth orchestras in Japan and in Switzerland. During the summer of 2014, the orchestra is touring in Eastern Europe, and will perform in Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and the Czech Republic. Leo Eylar has been musical director since 1990.
Empire State Youth Orchestras (ESYO) is an ensemble of classical music performing groups aimed at providing talented young musicians with an opportunity to participate in group ensembles with other similar musicians. Based in the Capital Region of upstate New York, ESYO ensembles are composed of a total of approximately 300 talented and musically advanced high- and middle-school students from New York and western New England. The most advanced group, the Symphony Orchestra, is considered one of the premier youth orchestras in the United States, and regularly performs concerts at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Center, and Carnegie Hall and in New York City.
The Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (GDYO) is a youth orchestra in Dallas, Texas, US, founded in 1972. GDYO has grown from a single orchestra of 35 members to a program of over 450 members. The principal group is the eponymous symphony, presently under the direction of the Maestro Richard Giangiulio. The organization as a whole comprises eight groups, which together provide musical opportunities for students from ages five to eighteen. Auditions are held each spring. Coaches and Judges come from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Opera, Dallas Winds, and area universities and orchestras. Ensembles in the program include two full orchestras, three string orchestras, a wind ensemble, a flute choir, and eight jazz combos. The mission of Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra is to inspire and cultivate excellence in youth through music education, ensemble building, and performance opportunities.
The Centre for Young Musicians, or CYM, is a specialist Saturday music centre formed in 1970 and based at Morley College in London, England. It offers musical training to students 5 to 18 who play a musical instrument and has seen more than 50,000 students pass through its doors since it first began.
Northgate High School (NHS) is a public high school located in the suburban Northgate neighborhood of Walnut Creek, California, United States. The most recent of five high schools in the Mount Diablo Unified School District, the school was built in 1974, and is home to approximately 1,500 students from Walnut Creek and Concord, California, grades 9–12. Its name derives from its location at the north entrance of Mount Diablo State Park.
The Richmond Delta Youth Orchestra (RDYO) is a respected orchestral training program for young musicians located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The RDYO was formerly known as the Delta Youth Orchestra. The name was changed in March 2013. In September 2014 moved its base to Richmond, British Columbia. It previously rehearsed at the Ladner Community Centre, 4734 - 51st Street, Delta, British Columbia. The RDYO is sponsored by the BC Youth Music Society (formerly the Delta Symphony Society which is a registered non-profit charity and the society provides this orchestral and chamber music training program for young musicians from ages 5 to 24 years. The Orchestra was founded in 1971 by Harry Gomez, Fred Preuss, Charles Glushka, Anita Sleeman, and Aileen Docherty.
Founded in 1976, the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras (EYSO) is the oldest and largest youth orchestra program in northwest Illinois and is composed of three full orchestras, two string orchestras, a brass choir, two percussion ensembles, a flute choir, and a large Chamber Music Institute.
The Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony (MAYS) is a youth orchestra in the Central Florida region founded in honor of conductor and cellist, Jonathan May. The MAYS is led by Artistic Directors Maureen May and Michael Miller and features eight orchestral groups spanning beginner, intermediate and advanced skill levels, as well as several in-school strings programs. In 2015, MAYS added Dr. Chung Park, Director of Orchestras and String Music Education at the University of Central Florida, to the artistic staff as conductor of the Symphony. The MAYS currently rehearses at St. Alban's Anglican Church in Oviedo, Florida and Lake-Sumter State College in Leesburg, Florida.
The University of California Jazz Ensembles, also known as the UC Jazz Ensembles, UC Jazz, or UCJE, is the student jazz organization founded in 1967 on the University of California, Berkeley, campus. Founded in 1967, it comprises one or more big bands, numerous jazz combos, a vocal jazz ensemble, an alumni big band, and instructional classes. With a mission statement to foster a community for the performance, study, and promotion of jazz at U.C. Berkeley, its Wednesday Night big band provides free concerts every Thursday noon on Lower Sproul Plaza, its various units perform throughout the San Francisco Bay Area including area high schools, travel to collegiate jazz festivals, and perform overseas, and for many years it sponsored the annual Pacific Coast Jazz Festival. It also provides master classes by its instructors and clinics by prominent guest artists. It has nurtured numerous musicians who have become professional jazz musicians and educators. UC Jazz Ensembles is one of three groups, with the Cal (marching) Band and UC Choral Ensembles, forming Student Musical Activities (SMA), a department within Cal Performances on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Its members are primarily U.C. Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students, representing many academic disciplines.
The InterSchool Orchestras of New York (ISO) was founded in 1972 by Annabelle F. Prager as a response to the limited opportunities for school children in both public and private schools to play in an orchestra. It has since grown to include three beginning orchestras, an intermediate band, two intermediate orchestras, a symphonic band, and an advanced orchestra. An essential part of its mission is that no child ever be turned away because of lack of financial resources; 50% of its students receive some financial aid, including all members of the top orchestra. Its music director for much of its history was the late Jonathan Strasser.
The Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy (OYOA) is a registered Canadian charitable organization that comprises two full orchestras, eight instrumental ensembles for strings, winds, brass and harp, a beginner's and pre-school program, and instruction in music theory and history through Grade 3 in the RCM Syllabus. Over the past years, these programs have shown increasing enrollment, reaching over 300 students. Furthermore, members of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra regularly qualify for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Hawaii Youth Symphony is a statewide youth orchestra in Hawaii. Students come from many different Hawaiian islands and the orchestra consists of hundreds of students. The Hawaii Youth Symphony has been training students since 1964 and is one of the largest and oldest youth symphonies in the country.
Kelly Tang is a Singaporean composer known internationally for his wind band, chamber and orchestral works. For his contributions to the local music scene, Tang was conferred the Cultural Medallion in 2011.
