Community Outreach

“Youth Serving Through Music”

NYSO’s Outreach program meeting community needs

“Youth Serving Through Music“ serves NYSO students and families, as well as several hundred people who attend our free outreach concerts. In addition to the musical growth of our young musicians, teaching young people to share their talents with others often leads to a lifetime of future service in all walks of life.

Senior citizens benefit greatly from enrichment of their day-to-day lives by outside programs and interaction with others. Through quality concerts at senior residences and hospitals, senior citizens have the opportunity to enjoy music and to interact with our young people
Many instrumental programs in schools that serve economically disadvantaged children need outside reinforcement to give them a vision and to boost motivation. Community Charter Day School and now Esperanza School in Lawrence benefit from joint concerts that bring their students and NYSO members together.
Inadequate musical staff is a significant problem in school programs serving young instrumental students in disadvantaged communities. We bring in well-trained and accomplished teachers and also student mentors to help meet this need. In addition, the personal connection and the role modeling are very important to these children.
Young musicians who have the opportunity of taking music lessons and participating in musical organizations need practical ways of using these talents to serve others; in this way, our students discover a place and opportunity to share their abilities with those less fortunate. This combined approach of educational and community service meets important goals of the NYSO mission.

NYSO’s many free performances of the three orchestras, Wind Ensemble, three flute choirs, one clarinet choir and NYSO’s Lawrence Youth String Ensemble allow an economically diverse population in our communities to enjoy classical music.

Outreach Concert Description of Project

“Youth Serving through Music” has many faces and involves every member of the Northshore Youth Symphony Orchestra in community service performances and service. This project has two parts: 1) educational and 2) community service.

Educational

Weekly rehearsals provide the educational component for all students. In addition, all Senior Orchestra members and selected Intermezzo members are part of our Chamber Music project that includes an intensive eight weeks of rehearsal from December through February. Students rehearse in several small chamber music ensembles and prepare for outreach concerts. Throughout the project, students interact with outstanding Boston-area musicians who coach their ensembles.

Community Service

This component is an outgrowth of the training. The chamber ensembles perform in selected concerts for underserved groups and school music programs in our communities. Our Flute Choirs, Clarinet Choir and Wind Ensemble join the chamber ensembles to perform for many of these outreach concerts. Prelude String Ensemble and Intermezzo Orchestra perform as full ensembles for after-school programs and at a Thanksgiving Basket Benefit concert.

NYSO Lawrence String Program

An important part of NYSO's outreach project is the string program that NYSO has helped to develop at Community Day Charter School, a latchkey program and early learning center in Lawrence. This program, which began in 1998 with three eager young violinists, now serves over 70 children with violin lessons, two group lessons, a Saturday program and a summer program. This year, we have also begun a collaboration with Esperanza, a new girls school in Lawrence, where we have a beginning string program. Each year, members of NYSO mentor these young violinists on a weekly basis. Marcia Lier directs the program and provides individual and group lessons and Trudy Larson provides teacher training, on-site instruction, organizational direction and fundraising for the program. She also directs the Lawrence Youth String Ensemble, a string ensemble for the advancing students. Through its fundraising, NYSO is able to provide instruments, music and group instruction for the program. The Lawrence students perform to enthusiastic audiences in many venues in Lawrence as well as in NYSO's spring concert. The excitement and pride of these students are evident wherever they perform, and we are proud to be a part of this important program.

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