BRAVO Youth Orchestras

 
The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.
 
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In Oregon, a More Neighborly Approach Brings Joy

Neal Spinler, Executive Director, BRAVO Youth Orchestras

09-03-2025

The majority of the population is in Portland, at the northern border, with most everybody else residing along the “I5 Corridor”—Interstate 5, a major north-south highway that runs from Portland to California. BRAVO serves a region at the very northern tip of Portland; JOY serves students in Yamhill County. North Portland is a diverse blue-collar area with shipyards, warehouses, and port terminals; Yamhill County is the heart of Oregon’s famed Willamette Valley, a region known best for its fabulous wineries. But while the county boasts fancy vineyards and tasting rooms, it is also filled with farms and the hardworking farmhands and families.

Just 46 miles apart, our landscapes could not be more different. And yet the work we do could not be more aligned.

Out of Our Comfort Zones: Inviting communities to teach us how to serve them well

Alonzo Chadwick, CEO, Bravo Youth Orchestras

05-03-2023

What makes a community beautiful is the diversity and the village mentality established before we arrive. We can’t serve a student and not have connections with their family. And we can’t have relationships with a family and not have connections with the village and community they love.

Crossing Borders IV: Africamerica, April 18

04-06-2021

BRAVO Youth Orchestras (Oregon, USA) is staging its fourth Crossing Borders concert, happening online on April 18 at 6:30 p.m. PDT.

Crossing Borders: A Musical Passport to the World

Seth Truby, Executive Director and Co-founder, BRAVO Youth Orchestras, Portland, OR

04-07-2020

Each spring, the students of BRAVO Youth Orchestras in Portland, Oregon take the stage alongside professional musicians with international backgrounds in a celebration of the world of music called Crossing Borders. BRAVO’s young musicians have played jigs from Ireland, lullabies from Morocco, bossa novas from Brazil, Latin pop from Mexico, a French-Canadian fiddle concerto, and so much more. Their professional collaborators have included jazz pianist Darrell Grant, electric looping violinist Joe Kye, Trinidadian neo-soul singer Blossom, and world-renowned Irish fiddler Kevin Burke, among others. Crossing Borders is a highlight of BRAVO’s program year and also serves as our primary fundraising event, generating needed revenue to support our rigorous after-school music programs in priority schools. Our audiences are delighted to see a full student orchestra (strings, winds, and percussion) playing music from so many traditions alongside their professional musical partners.

The El Sistema USA National Symposium

Isaac Sinnett, Associate Director, Reach*Teach*Play Education Programs, Ravinia, Chicago Ravinia

03-01-2019

It was clear that the 2019 El Sistema USA National Symposium was going to be special when, in the midst of a historic cold spell, over 200 attendees representing 80 different El Sistema-inspired organizations braved sub-zero temperatures to attend. Attendees arrived early for the welcome and filled the ballroom with the type of vibrant energy surrounding a convening of friends for their annual trip. Christine Taylor Conda, the ESUSA board chair, chose to forgo the typical welcome and, instead, immediately had the entire room singing a three-part song to meet and welcome one another, setting a tone of collaboration and camaraderie for the symposium.

Collective Composition

Cecille Elliott, Director of Creative Play, BRAVO Youth Orchestras, Portland, OR

02-01-2019

At BRAVO Youth Orchestras, there are ongoing conversations about the impact of introducing collective composition–composing together as a group–often focusing on how it impacts the staff, our students, and our community, and on what it means to facilitate and support a collective musical voice. There’s an active effort to establish equitable practices that reinforce a supportive environment for BRAVO students during creative projects. BRAVO’s central goal is student empowerment to discover what it is they want to say through their music.

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