Youth Orchestra Research Articles

‘The barrier has to be jumped out with this music’: Collaborative creation in an after-school community music programme

Contemporary research into community music programmes highlights diverse contexts for collaborative music making. This article contributes a case of the collaboration in music making to a growing literature on creative practice in community music initiatives led by major orchestras. The authors reflect on field research involving an after-school programme that provides free, classical instrumental music instruction to primary school-age students who would not normally have an opportunity due to their socio-economic circumstances. The Pizzicato Effect, run by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) in the City of Hume, Australia has operated in the northern suburbs of Melbourne since 2009. Through focus group interviews with students, family members and teaching artists, the researchers examined community experiences of accruing cultural capital in conditions of social inequality and multicultural practice. Using qualitative methods, the case study aimed to position respondents as experts in their own lives, who own their knowledge of their worlds. Collaboration was central to a model of improvisation developed locally by teaching artists and applied on site. Furthermore, improvisation took the programme in different directions to the El Sistema model of youth orchestra training in Venezuela, which had been the original source of inspiration for the programme.

Who has access to a career in Western classical music? Building a tool to evaluate intersectionality in barriers to music education and careers

This article reflects on the “Hiddenness Index” we developed, implemented, and evaluated for Concertgebouworkest Young (Young), the youth orchestra of the Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Concertgebouworkest) for musicians with “hidden talents.” “Hiddenness” alludes to various barriers that young musicians aspiring to a career in Western classical music may face, due to their social identity and positioning. These barriers may cause their talent to remain underdeveloped, invisible, or undiscovered; that is, “hidden.” We developed the Index in response to Concertgebouworkest’s request for an “evaluation and learning tool.” Informed by intersectionality theory, it is an alternative to quantitative research into arts and culture, which takes a single-axis approach to the explanation of inequality in access to cultural production and participation. The first phase of our design-based research consisted of a theory- and practice-based mapping of the dimensions of “hiddenness.” The outcome was that Geographical, Socio-economic, Family networks, Ethno-cultural, and Confidence-support dimensions should form the basis of the Hiddenness Index, which was constructed as a composite indicator. In the second phase of research, the Index was applied to the backgrounds of Young participants. The evaluation of the Index’s strengths and weaknesses was central to the third phase. Complementing qualitative research, the Index offered a statistical way to evaluate the extent to which Young participants’ talents were hidden and which dimensions of hiddenness were most prevalent at the group level. The Index affirmed and illustrated intersectionality theory, including the way two or more dimensions can compensate or reinforce one another. Through the use of the Index, the Young team gained a better understanding of intersectionality, which enabled them to fine-tune the selection process for future cohorts. The Index helped the team members to check their preconceptions (unconscious bias) and made them more aware of and able to attend to the different needs of individual participants.

Generating rhythm game music with jukebox.

Music has always been thought of as a "human" endeavor- when praising a piece of music, we emphasize the composer's creativity and the emotions the music invokes. Because music also heavily relies on patterns and repetition in the form of recurring melodic themes and chord progressions, artificial intelligence has increasingly been able to replicate music in a human-like fashion. This research investigated the capabilities of Jukebox, an open-source commercially available neural network, to accurately replicate two genres of music often found in rhythm games, artcore and orchestral. A Google Colab notebook provided the computational resources necessary to sample and extend a total of 16 piano arrangements of both genres. A survey containing selected samples was distributed to a local youth orchestra to gauge people's perceptions of the musicality of AI and human-generated music. Even though humans preferred human-generated music, Jukebox's slightly high rating showed that it was somewhat capable at mimicking the styles of both genres. Despite limitations of Jukebox only using raw audio and a relatively small sample size, it shows promise for the future of AI as a collaborative tool in music production.

How the El Sistema Inspired Programs, Miami Music Project and the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, Directly Impact the Underserved Youth of Miami and LA

This research is in the form of a collective case study focused on the Miami Music Project (MMP) and the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA). This study explores the various functions and goals of these El Sistema-inspired programs, and how they directly serve and impact under-represented communities. It also highlights the impact on the youth’s future and what these experiences tangibly and indiscriminately provide for their futures, be it beneficial or detrimental. This will also briefly touch on how MMP and YOLA’s approach to training young musicians subverts the idea of instrumental training typically being perceived as an activity only for those with few social and financial restrictions. Through virtual, individual interviews with various people that were either current alumni of these programs, recent graduates of college age, or adults in the field, their responses were recorded. This allowed for a holistic view of how these programs serve their students, thus resulting in answers that are representative of a larger population. Results showed commonalities between responses that trended towards highly positive results from being students in MMP/YOLA. In conclusion, this study clearly demonstrates that these programs have left positive, tangible impacts on their current and former students.

Estrategias de desarrollo e inclusión social a través de la cultura Las sociedades musicales de la Comunidad Valenciana y El Sistema de Abreu en Venezuela

Dentro de los modelos de desarrollo, el arte y la cultura desempeñan un papel relevante en los procesos de inclusión social. Como actividad comunitaria, la experiencia musical muestra un gran potencial para fortalecer los vínculos personales, grupales y comunitarios. En este artículo profundizo en el papel de la interpretación colectiva de la música y el desarrollo de la comunidad, desde una perspectiva sociológica de la práctica de la interpretación en grupo. Para ello me centro en dos realidades diferentes que comparten este mismo fundamento: el Sistema de Orquestas y Coros Infantiles y Juveniles de Venezuela, fundado por José Antonio Abreu en 1975, y el fenómeno de las sociedades musicales de la Comunidad Valenciana (España). En ambos ejemplos, la práctica colectiva de la música genera el crecimiento personal y la integración social de quienes participan en estos proyectos. Fomentan la integración en el grupo y el trabajo en equipo como base de su acción pedagógica y social. En ambos casos, articulan sistemas pedagógicos en los que se desarrollan las habilidades de los participantes para poder practicar y disfrutar de la música en grupo dentro de la comunidad.

Teaching Citizenship Through Music Education: A Case Study of a Community Youth Orchestra Program

Abstract This instrumental case study was designed to elicit a nuanced view of perspectives and approaches to citizenship education in one context of music teaching and learning. I chose an El Sistema-inspired youth orchestra program as an instrumental case of citizenship education given the program's explicit mission: to educate students as citizens through intensive ensemble-based music instruction. Throughout one academic year, I conducted observations of the program's routine activities and engaged with five participants in interviews and processes of member reflection. Through these interviews, one program director, two instructors, and two student participants illuminated the phenomenon of citizenship education within the case. I chose a theoretical framework encompassing Nussbaum's (1998, 2000) world citizenship, as well as categories of legalism and communitarianism, to analyze perspectives and program practices relevant to citizenship education. Primary themes related to participants’ perspectives on citizenship education included expectations for individual development via musical and intrapersonal skills. Additionally, program participants discussed possible instruments of wider social and community change through long-term program outcomes. Based on this analysis, I suggest that organizations intent on citizenship education more closely examine whether classical techniques and curricula inspired by El Sistema best fulfill their missions or if the needs of their communities transcend these traditions.

California Joins Six States in Setting Standards for MH/SUD Appointment Wait Times

California Joins Six States in Setting Standards for MH/SUD Appointment Wait Times

Youth and Children's Orchestras: Analysis of the Educational Experience and Some Reflections from the Field of Lifelong Guidance and Counseling

Youth and Children's Orchestras: Analysis of the Educational Experience and Some Reflections from the Field of Lifelong Guidance and Counseling

Teaching artist preparation and professional development: perspectives from the youth orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program

Professional development can help to ensure teaching artists have the requisite knowledge and skills to lead effective instruction. However, the specific format of professional development can vary. One organization that provides professional development for their teaching artists is the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program, which is an El Sistema-inspired program. In many communities there is a lack of access to a quality music education, and El Sistema-inspired programs attempt to provide opportunities for access to musical experiences through private lessons and large ensemble settings. Grecia Serrano Navarro provides a unique perspective concerning El Sistema-inspired programs, as well as the backgrounds, preparation, and professional development of teaching artists. Her story outlines her experiences of pursuing classical music study in high school, earning a degree in music education, her public school teaching experience, and her current role as a provider of professional development for teaching artists at YOLA. Through examining Grecia’s experiences, along with related literature providing contextual support for her perspective, the role of El Sistema-inspired programs is considered, including the structures of support that these programs provide aspiring musicians. The varied paths of preparation and professional development for teaching artists who work for El Sistema-inspired programs are also examined, including the impact of music teacher education on the field of teaching artistry.

Ritornello: El Sistema, music education, and a centuries-long narrative of socio-musical activism

ABSTRACT Between 2007 and 2017, El Sistema – Venezuela’s national system of youth orchestras – enjoyed a seemingly unexplainable meteoric rise, followed by an equally spectacular sunset. Although it would be easy to dismiss this Sistema decade as being no more than a peculiar aberration of music education history, I assert that El Sistema more accurately represents a poignant return – or ritornello – to one of the recurring rationales for music education, namely social activism. By situating this brief but notable decade of Sistema enthusiasm amidst a wider historical context of Venetian Ospedali, British Brass Bands, and American Settlement Music Houses, I highlight and critique the use of social activism as a rationale for music education. Ultimately, I argue that the societal importance claimed by El Sistema and derivative music education initiatives is not tenable, especially in consideration of the unremarkable legacies of similar socio-musical endeavours. I also argue that a stronger socio-musical lens would be advantageous for the field of music education to adopt. Thus, in addition to establishing a centuries-long pattern of socio-musical ritornellos, the purpose of this paper is to use a rise-and-fall dialectic to further explore the complexity of music education and its capacity for directly addressing society’s inequities.

Beneficios de la práctica musical en los niveles de educación básica obligatoria en México

Este estudio se realizó con la finalidad de analizar los beneficios que pueden resultar de la práctica musical en los niveles de educación básica obligatoria en México a través de la implementación de coros y orquestas juveniles. Sus principales objetivos son explorar las razones que conllevan a la creación de estas agrupaciones en el contexto educativo mexicano, describir las posibles fortalezas académicas y sociales que aportará a la formación integral de generaciones venideras y establecer criterios relevantes respecto a su implementación en el entorno mexicano. Para este trabajo se realizó un estudio de investigación no experimental, bajo el diseño exploratorio transeccional descriptivo sobre la base de la investigación cuantitativa. Se hizo una revisión de la relevancia de la educación musical en los panoramas nacional e internacional: se observaron los beneficios que conlleva la implementación de coros y orquestas en la población estudiantil y se conocieron las iniciativas que se han desarrollado para lograr que los jóvenes tengan la misma oportunidad de participar en actividades artísticas. Finalmente, se analizaron los resultados del instrumento de medición. Estos mostraron que las prácticas musicales favorecen la educación integral, es un trabajo en equipo que infunde disciplina, logra que los estudiantes se sensibilicen y mejoren su comportamiento, aumenta la calidad en el estudio, se desarrolla la empatía y la creatividad, genera un ambiente de bienestar que posibilita el incremento de las relaciones interpersonales y logra prevenir situaciones de violencia y embarazos no deseados.

Sistema-inspired music education as an agent of change in and beyond the musical lifecourse: Perceptions of the transferable skills and transferability

Within Sistema-inspired music education initiatives, claims have been made relating to the ways in which these experiences may contribute to the musical lifecourse, having lifewide and lifelong implications for young people. For example, a commonly held aspiration amongst Sistema-inspired programmes around the world is to foster participants’ well being, personal development and enhanced academic engagement. This article explores perceptions relating to the wider, transferable competencies derived from participation in one such programme. The National Orchestra for All (NOFA), an inclusive youth orchestra residential programme targeting under-served young people who face diverse barriers to musical participation, seeks to function as an ‘agent of change’ within participants’ lives. NOFA aims to improve the life chances of the young participants using music as means to support the development of personal, social and citizenship skills, their objective being to equip young people for achieving their potential within education, work and community. Our aim in this article is to address whether, and how, a short-term residential orchestral programme is perceived to function as an agent of change in the areas of personal, social or citizenship skills, and whether those skills are thought to be transferable beyond the programme context. Drawing on interviews and focus groups carried out over the course of three years, we present a thematic analysis representing participant perceptions. Overall, a number of transferable ‘life skills’ emerged. However, while some participants indicated that their experiences in NOFA did have an influence that transferred beyond the programme itself, others described persistent challenges that remained outside of the influence of any new skills or competencies gained within NOFA. These findings have implications for developing nuanced understandings of the role that intensive, inclusive orchestra programmes may have in nurturing transferable competencies and wider benefits in the lives of their participants.

Art Music as Universal Language: Youth Orchestras' Reactions to Social Conflict

This article identifies the role art music plays in orchestra projects that deal with social conflicts of youth populations. I argue that art music serves well in this context because it is a universal language that allows for an alternative method of communication and expression between the young musicians themselves and with others. I apply metaphysical explanations, studies from cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy of language in three specific youth orchestra contexts: the Retiro Youth Orchestra, El Sistema, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. These different lenses help uncover why and how art music positively impacts the development, both socially and personally, of young musicians in a healthier or alternative manner.

The Fruits of Sin

The Fruits of Sin Gina Chung (bio) It was Mrs. Lee who first heard it from Mrs. Suh, who heard it in turn from Mrs. Park, who said she'd confirmed it with Mrs. Kim: that Reverend Chang's seventeen-year-old daughter Sora—the skinny one who never looked anyone in the eyes and never did insa properly, barely bobbing her head downwards in the most perfunctory way—was pregnant. "Perhaps it's an immaculate conception, a second coming," the bolder among us tittered over hot Styrofoam cups of barley tea after services, taking care not to spill any on our patterned blouses. "Who might the father be?" the rest of us wondered, telegraphing our curiosity to one another with our carefully plucked or tattooed eyebrows. We were none of us young anymore, and our eyesight was going, but very little escaped the attention of our eyebrows, which quirked upwards at the first sign of gossip, like antennae. Soon after we heard of Sora's condition, Reverend Chang, who often began Sunday services with prayer, stopped delivering the sermon. Instead, his assistant, Pastor Mark, who had recently graduated from seminary, commandeered the pulpit, while Reverend Chang sat on the side. We noticed that the reverend's thinning hair was, as always, combed neatly over his bald spot, but his lips pressed themselves into a white line of concern as Pastor Mark stumbled through the Bible verses in his terrible Korean. Next to us, our husbands dozed, checked their phones, or impatiently flipped through the tissue thin pages of our leather-bound Bibles for us when we couldn't find the daily scripture verses. We wondered when our husbands, these men we'd known for most of our adult lives, whose shirts we'd ironed and whose bellies we'd filled and whose children we'd borne without complaint, had become so old and crotchety and dull, and when they had started taking on that old man smell, like sweaters left in a basement. We studied Sora Chang, who sat in the front pew and didn't open her mouth once, not even to sing the hymns. Her hair, the only thing beautiful about her, hung long and straight down her back, its reddish-brown strands catching the light. When we were called to bow our heads to thank the Lord for another blessed week, we noticed that Sora didn't bother to close her eyes, instead keeping them cast up towards the ceiling, as though she was reading something fascinating there. "She doesn't look very pregnant," we whispered to one another, and indeed, Sora seemed to be as thin as ever, her bad posture turning her body into a lazy C hunched over itself. ________ We thanked God that our children were not like Sora. Before her disgrace, she was known for being a straight A student at the local high school—bound for Harvard or Yale or at least Princeton, we had all thought. She had been accepted into the regional and state youth orchestras every year, sitting in the front row of the woodwinds section with her clear-tongued clarinet, her hair neatly combed into a French braid. Sora Chang had everything a girl in our community could want—a father with a [End Page 11] respected position, brains, credentials, youth—only to throw it all away, and many of us considered this unforgivable. We were grateful that our children were also not like Melody, the older Chang daughter, who had hair that, when she parted it, was completely shaved off on one side, like a prickly half-moon. Melody came to church only on holidays, wearing dark lipstick and dresses that didn't even make an attempt at hiding her tattoos. We heard that she no longer lived in the state, that she lived in a house in the country with—and this we only whispered over the phone to one another when our husbands, who disapproved of us gossiping, weren't listening—another woman. "Just like husband and wife," Mrs. Lee said, her surgically enhanced double eyelids almost disappearing as she widened her eyes at the scandal of it all. Mrs. Lee also said...

Composer and Broadway Pianist Invites Listeners ‘Inside His Head’

Composer and Broadway Pianist Invites Listeners ‘Inside His Head’

Rescate, promoción y difusión de la música mexicana como estrategia educativa para el fortalecimiento del patrimonio cultural nacional

El Festival Internacional de Música Mexicana es una estrategia educativa que fortalece diversas áreas de oportunidad en los estudiantes de la Facultad de Música de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León a través de la creación de una plataforma musical y social que pretende mantener una permanente actualización acerca de los compositores e intérpretes mexicanos. En sus cuatro ediciones ha sido el único festival dedicado exclusivamente a la música mexicana de concierto, siendo su principal objetivo rescatar, promover y difundir la música de estructura académica mediante la impartición de conferencias, talleres, clases magistrales, recitales de ensambles, coros y conciertos con orquesta de cámara, orquesta juvenil, banda sinfónica, orquesta filarmónica y orquesta sinfónica. En tal sentido, los objetivos de este proyecto de investigación-acción fueron 1) potenciar los conocimientos de las estructuras formales de la música mexicana en los estudiantes del técnico medio en Música y de las licenciaturas con acentuación en composición, instrumentista, educación musical, canto y dirección coral que ofrece la Facultad de Música, 2) promover la creación de autores e intérpretes a través de exposiciones artísticas, 3) evaluar los cambios en el proceso de aprendizaje fomentando una enseñanza más ágil y activa, 4) utilizar el conocimiento de los elementos musicales y artísticos en el análisis de producciones artísticas propias y ajenas, y 5) compartir la experiencia musical de esta plataforma con el público en general como parte del patrimonio cultural del país. Para este estudio de investigación cualitativa se utilizó el diseño de la investigación-acción. Sobre esta base se efectuó un estudio descriptivo apoyado en la observación para analizar los diferentes procesos musicales en las obras de reciente creación, el acervo histórico de autores con trascendencia internacional y el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en los estudiantes a través del análisis formal de la exposición artística presentada en el marco del IV Festival Internacional de Música Mexicana. Los resultados muestran que dicho evento se ha consolidado como una plataforma anual donde se impulsa la creación de propuestas artísticas nacionales que promueven información actualizada sobre los contenidos educativos y musicales que son parte de la formación profesional de facultades y conservatorios. Esta estrategia educativa, además, favorece el aprendizaje efectivo porque permite a los estudiantes conseguir una relación estrecha con los investigadores y especialistas foráneos a través de las conferencias, talleres y clases magistrales. Una de las temáticas principales fue el estudio de los instrumentos prehispánicos, lo cual se consiguió con un taller de elaboración de flautas y ocarinas con el fin de conocer los procesos usados desde hace siglos por artesanos mexicanos. Asimismo, se logró la participación de estudiantes, profesores e investigadores de la Facultad de Música a través de talleres, conferencias y exposición de piezas de autores mexicanos con obras de reciente creación en recitales y conciertos. El público que acudió a los conciertos y talleres manifestó su satisfacción por sentirse incluido en este proyecto, ya que tuvieron la oportunidad de participar en las actividades académicas y escuchar obras de música mexicana con profesionales en la materia y sin costo alguno.

“Cuícas e pandeiros para Stokowski ouvir!”

Em 1940, no contexto da chamada Política da Boa Vizinhança, o regente Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) visitou alguns países da América do Sul em turnê com a All-American Youth Orchestra. Por meio da análise de fontes da imprensa e do acervo documental do Museu Villa-Lobos, o presente artigo pretende iluminar aspectos relacionados à gravação do disco Native Brazilian Music, que reuniu, sob a iniciativa de Stokowski, alguns expoentes da música popular do Rio de Janeiro – como Donga, Pixinguinha e João da Baiana. O trabalho discute o papel desempenhado por músicos na esfera diplomática e argumenta que um dos efeitos da Política da Boa Vizinhança foi criar um jogo especular no qual, apesar da pretensa unidade cultural do continente, a aproximação promoveu discussões sobre identidade nacional, diferença e resistência.

Playing the white man’s tune: inclusion in elite classical music education

AbstractThis study examined the nature of inclusion for female and black and minority ethnic (BME) young people in elite-level classical music in England. By contrasting the numbers of female and BME students taking part in elite youth orchestras and music schools with the representation of female and BME compositions in the professional classical music repertoire, the study asked whether female and BME inclusion was limited to participation as performers or whether it included adequate representation in terms of the music performed. The survey analysed 4897 pieces from 681 composers drawn from the 2017/18 concert seasons of 10 major English orchestras, 1 week’s play lists from two classical music radio broadcasters and the programmes from the last four London Promenade seasons. The study found that female and BME students were well represented in elite music education, but they were very poorly represented in the professional repertoire, where 99% of performed pieces were by white composers and 98% by male composers. Applying Bourdieu’s concepts of doxa and illusio, the study concluded that inclusion in classical music in England allowed female and BME musicians to play, but structures in the field maintained a repertoire that continues to be white and male and does not recognise the contributions of female and BME composers. This suggests that inclusion for female and BME musicians is limited and the field continues to promote white and male dominance in its cultural values.

The impact of art-education on human Capital: An empirical assessment of a youth orchestra

Research on the causal relation between extracurricular activities and the development of cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes is scarce at the individual level, despite increasing international evidence that such activities are highly relevant and even, in some cases, more effective than traditional school improvement support programs. Based on an unprecedented intervention in the area of music, this paper evaluates the impact of intensive participation of children and young at-risk students in the creation and development of the first youth orchestra of the municipality of Curanilahue, a small and poor county in the south of Chile, South America. After confronting many potential sources of selection bias in the impact estimation–self-selection, parents selection, orchestra selection, payment capacity–we found positive effects of this experience on participants at both the cognitive and socio-emotional levels. We found that orchestra participation positively affects both language and mathematics in SAT-like tests. The estimated impacts are in the upper bound of the impact evaluation sizes range in the developing world (e.g. Duflo et al., 2013; McEwan, 2012; Ganimian and Murnane, 2016). Furthermore, having analyzed the increase in test scores for those students participating in the orchestra who take the test more than once, we find results that indicate a progressive increase in their scores, both in mathematics and in language, an indicator that can be considered as a proxy of socio-emotional outcomes related to the orientation and persistence to obtain personal goals.

An Analysis of the Repertoire Performed by Youth Orchestras in the United States

The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of repertoire performed by youth orchestras in the United States. Through an online survey, youth orchestra administrators ( N = 39) provided information about repertoire performed by their program’s premier orchestra during their 2015-2016 season. Orchestras performed 302 different pieces of music by 158 different composers. The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky, Carmen Suite No. 1 by Georges Bizet, and Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture by Mikhail Glinka were performed most frequently. Approximately three quarters of all compositions were written after 1850, and only 7.14% were composed after 2000. Compositions by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Brahms were the most frequently performed, and female composers only wrote 0.78% of the repertoire performed by youth orchestras during their 2015-2016 season. Conductors should use these findings as an impetus to identify culturally diverse repertoire appropriate for youth orchestras by non-male composers.