The Los Angeles Youth Orchestra is a creative environment where young musicians from the Los Angeles area come together to rehearse and perform symphonic music alongside professional musicians. The orchestra presents young musicians with the chance to study established masterworks and the exciting opportunity to premiere new music. Additionally, the orchestra offers a variety of unique enrichment
experiences including working with guest artists and mentoring with major orchestras. By providing an orchestral experience available to all students, the vision of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra is to become a musical voice that embraces the entire Los Angeles community. The Los Angeles Youth Orchestra is a true youth orchestra, not a college or post-college age group. It now includes between 80 and 90 students ranging in age from 8 to 18, from both public and private schools. It serves students who attend schools with full music programs and many other students who come from schools without any music program. The diversity of students is a strong reflection of contemporary Los Angeles. Students all have in common a love for music and a willingness to spend their Sunday afternoons rehearsing and playing together. These students make important friendships and discover a passion for music that continues whether or not they pursue an instrumental career. Original Founder Ruth Borun expresses repeatedly that the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra is ultimately about "community". She notices that students from every imaginable social, cultural, and economic background play together on the stage, and that this is in every way a natural integration fusing music and friendship. The Los Angeles Youth Orchestra is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, and donations made to the orchestra are deductible as provided by the US Tax Code. We are an Emeritus Youth Orchestra Partner of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and we are supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
