The Youth Orchestra from a Kids-Eye-View

Youth orchestras are central to the music education of tens of thousands of children and teenagers throughout the world, yet studies of their social function, cultural significance, and pedagogical value remain largely unexplored. Even if students receive their principal musical training through individual lessons and school ensembles, participating in a separate youth orchestra can be a life-changing experience for many musicians. This article defines youth orchestras in an international context, and then articulates and measures the pedagogical value of them in one particular case study: the ethos and educational outcomes of the Young Australian Concert Artists program of the Australian Youth Orchestra.

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Kentucky Youth Orchestra on Tour

American String Teacher ◽

10.1177/000313135800800217 ◽

1958 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 11-11

Keyword(s):

Youth Orchestra

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The National Youth Orchestra

The Musical Times ◽

10.2307/934862 ◽

1950 ◽

Vol 91 (1288) ◽

pp. 219

Author(s):

Alec Strahan

Keyword(s):

Youth Orchestra

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Britain's National Youth Orchestra

Music Educators Journal ◽

10.2307/3387289 ◽

1950 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 58-59

Author(s):

Joan Littlefield

Keyword(s):

Youth Orchestra

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Forgan, Dame Elizabeth (Anne Lucy), (born 31 Aug. 1944), writer and broadcaster; Chair, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, since 2013

10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u16115 ◽

2007 ◽

Keyword(s):

Great Britain ◽

Youth Orchestra

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BBC Proms 2013: Gerald Barry, Peter Eötvös, Nishat Kahn, Frederic Rzewski and Mark Anthony Turnage

Tempo ◽

10.1017/s0040298213001356 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 68 (267) ◽

pp. 55-57

Author(s):

John Rodney Lister

Keyword(s):

Great Britain ◽

The Moon ◽

Ninth Symphony ◽

Western Instruments ◽

Youth Orchestra

Mark Anthony Turnage's Frieze – performed by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, conducted by Vasily Petrenko, on 11 August – and Nashit Kahn's The Gate of the Moon, a concerto for sitar and orchestra – performed by Kahn himself with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by David Atherton on 12 August – both raise the question of how, in a new piece, one can meaningfully reference other music. Turnage's work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society to celebrate the organisation's bicentennial and to share a programme as their most famous and, probably, greatest commission, the Beethoven Ninth Symphony; this shorter work, which is clearly modelled on the Beethoven in its general layout, is a sort of gloss in Turnage's own language on the older one. Kahn's concerto brings together an orchestra of western instruments and a single Indian one and aims at joining their indigenous musical languages in a meaningful way.

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Musical Legacies: The Contribution of the Music Association of Ireland to an Irish Musical Infrastructure

Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland ◽

10.35561/jsmi10141 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 3-22

Author(s):

Teresa O’Donnell

Keyword(s):

Music Education ◽

Coming Out ◽

Classical Music ◽

Pedagogical Practices ◽

Voluntary Organization ◽

Musical Life ◽

The Arts ◽

Twentieth Century Music ◽

The Times ◽

Youth Orchestra

Drawing on archives preserved in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin, this article examines the history and significance of the Music Association of Ireland (MAI). During its sixty-year lifespan, from 1948 to 2007, the association contributed considerably to the musical life of Ireland, particularly in its educational initiatives and its efforts to influence national music policy and create an infrastructure for composers. Its voluntary efforts, especially its initiatives such as the Composers’ Group, Country Tours, Coming Out recitals, the Schools’ Recitals Scheme, the Irish Youth Orchestra and the Dublin Twentieth-Century Music Festival, grew into or influenced many of the independent, professional organizations prominent in Irish musical infrastructure today. At a time when government funding of the arts was limited, the MAI filled an important niche and acted as a voice for classical music, particularly in Dublin. The association’s initiatives, particularly the Schools’ Recitals Scheme (1967) and the Irish Youth Orchestra (1970), thrived in a climate which experienced pioneering developments in the arts and increased educational opportunities and leisure time. The times were marked by remarkable transformations in cultural, social and pedagogical practices which resulted in the opening up of access to the arts from the 1970s. The MAI benefitted greatly from this surge in cultural activity and the association became the Arts Council’s model in its pursuit of professionalizing the arts in Ireland. However, the MAI was unable, or unwilling, to make the transition from a voluntary organization to a professional one, and gradually went into decline. The long-term nature of a number of its projects meant that the MAI’s six objectives could not be achieved by one voluntary organization. Some sixty years later, many of these objectives are only now being realized through professional, government-funded agencies. The evidence of the MAI archive shows that the association played a valuable role in developing music and music education in Ireland—a notable achievement that deserves to be remembered.

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