Young Musicians

El Sistema USA’s Youth Leadership Initiative brings together young musicians and program leaders in the US to develop and spread leadership and life skills.

Conservatory and university music students and recent graduates can join the League of American Orchestras for free as a League Student Member, or upgrade to the professional level for $80.

El Sistema USA just opened the applications for the 2027-28 Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), a year-long cohort that brings together program leaders and young musicians as co-learners.

Almost a hundred years ago, as construction began on the majestic Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium, Director Marcel Cuvelier walked through the construction site with a dream. “I always thought of giving concerts for young people,” he later wrote. “When I walked like an insect in that huge frame that would become a concert hall, meeting rooms, offices, halls…I thought about an audience that is demanding, worthy of respect, living: young. I could already hear the shouts and the applause.” 

The European Union Youth Orchestra will host their annual Model Sharing Symposium on October 13–17.

To Be Young, Gifted and Black, a new book by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, offers an intimate look at how her children navigated their professional path into the classical music world while exploring their cultural, racial, and national identities.

Our partners at El Sistema USA recently launched an invaluable resource for students.

Carnegie Hall’s World Orchestra Week festival in August was a week of one “WOW!” after another, as seven youth orchestras from five different continents joined forces in and around Carnegie Hall to play for and with each other, to share singular musical works and ethos from their countries, and to show us all what the next generation’s Wishes for Our World might be.