YOLA

 
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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Last Call! Apply for the Fire Up – The Field Teaching Artist Residency

07-09-2025

Fire Up – The Field is a free five-month program from the Academy for Impact through Music (AIM) in collaboration with LA Phil’s Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) and its National Accelerator program.

ESUSA Regional Gatherings

03-05-2025

El Sistema USA is hosting two regional gatherings this year, bringing together program leaders, teaching artists, and students from across the country for community-building and professional development.

EDITORIAL
The Sound of the World

Anis Barnat, Co-founder, El Sistema Greece; Managing Director, Community Arts Network (CAN)

09-04-2024

National and international youth orchestra and choir festivals instill a collaborative mindset in their participants and provide all attendees with powerful, lasting memories. But they are time-consuming to organize, requiring logistical know-how and well-considered, family-flexible safeguarding policies for the children and young people. It’s not only tiring; it’s expensive. And program leaders know firsthand that students progress with or without these national or international festivals. So why bother? What do they offer to young people that their own programs can’t provide?

My answer, in a word: perspective.

International ‘Chords of Harmony’ Resound in Barcelona

Tricia Tunstall, Advisory Editor and Co-Founder, The Ensemble, with “Chords of Harmony” participants

07-10-2024

“Throughout the entire concert, the young musicians were free to laugh. And so was the audience…Music was being felt and lived in another sphere.”

Isn’t this a description of how we would all love our students to experience music, at some point in their learning journey?

YOLA National Festival 2023 Opens Call for Applications

11-16-2022

As the year winds down, summer festival opportunities are already knocking on our students’ doors—including the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s YOLA National Festival.

A September 2021 Resource Bulletin

09-21-2021

Venezuela’s El Sistema will hold a World Congress of El Sistema on September 28th, 29th, and 30th. The virtual event is designed to foster an exchange of ideas on topics of global relevance for like-spirited programs and projects around the world. The Congress will include discussions, presentations, workshops, and screenings, all with Spanish-English translation. Focal topics will include organizational and pedagogical issues, artistic vision, social impact, research in the field, child and youth protection policies, and fundraising.

Save the Dates: Three Huge Conferences This Fall

07-06-2021

Three conferences this fall promise to spark your creativity and passion. And, happily, none of them fall on the same day:

Register for the 2021 YOLA National Symposium

06-01-2021

The 2021 YOLA National Symposium will be held October 20–23, 2021. Happening both in person and virtually, the Symposium will explore the theme of Embracing Change: how to “adopt a transformational approach to teaching, learning, and program design for a stronger future for our young people and communities.” The array of sessions will provide attendees with opportunities to collaborate, share, learn, train, and network. Registration opens on June 3, and the deadline to submit a proposal is July 15. Email [email protected] with questions and visit the YOLA site to register and learn more.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Launches Partners in Music Learning Grant Initiative

04-06-2021

Thanks to an anonymous donor, YOLA and the LA Phil are launching a new regranting initiative for creative youth development and music programs across the U.S.

The Influence of Music Education on Developing Children

Assal Habibi, Principal Investigator, Brain and Music Program, Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles; Beatriz Ilari, Department Chair, Music Teaching and Learning, USC

12-01-2020

The past two decades of psychological and neuroscientific research on music have provided robust evidence that learning to play music can support brain maturation and the development of cognitive and social skills in children and adolescents. Learning an instrument requires long hours of practice, focused attention, memory, and discipline; mastering one involves the continuous capacity to improve motor, auditory, and executive skills, and is likely to influence the differential development, maintenance, and function of certain brain structures and systems.

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