Growing Up Making Music: Youth Orchestras in Australia and the World

Every year, all over the world, tens of thousands of children, teenagers and young adults participate in youth orchestra workshops, camps and concerts. Supported by parents and volunteers, and staffed by some of the world’s leading conductors and instrumentalists, youth orchestras are important institutions for training young musicians.

The youth orchestra is a global musical phenomenon but its roles extend far beyond training musicians for orchestral careers. Many orchestras are established to help under-privileged families; some exist to channel talent to parent orchestras, while others aim to achieve inter-racial harmony and overcome cross-cultural divides. Youth orchestras are a culturally significant institution whose wide-ranging social, educational and cultural benefits are often either overlooked or taken for granted.

This is the first detailed scholarly study of youth orchestras. Led by a team of researchers from Monash University in Australia, it focuses on the lives, aims, repertory, economics and educational outcomes that orchestras set out to develop. Focusing mainly on the Australian Youth Orchestra, the study also discusses orchestras from other parts of the world, including North American youth orchestras and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra established by Daniel Barenboim and the late Edward Said. This study is an important and new endeavour that will be essential reading for youth orchestra personnel, music educators and researchers.

Contents

Foreword

Daniel Barenboim

Preface

Malcolm Gillies & Colin Cornish

Introduction

Margaret Kartomi

Youth Orchestras in the Global Scene

Margaret Kartomi

The Australian Youth Orchestra Inc.: Its Identity as a National Icon and Expansion of its Performance and Educational Programs

Margaret Kartomi

The Pursuit of Excellence and Social Equity in AYO’s Young Australian Concert Artists Program 1999 –2007

Kay Dreyfus

Youth Orchestras and Repertoire: Towards an Australian Case Study

David Pear

The Queensland Youth Orchestra and its Role in the Development of Young Musicians: A Case Study of Benefits

Morwenna Collett

Instrumentalising Musical Ethics: Edward Said and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Ben Etherington

The Family Symphony Orchestra: Growing Up Making Music

Andrea F. Bohlman and Philip V. Bohlman

The Impact of Visiting Conductors on the Development of Melbourne Youth Music’s Annual Music Camp and the Building of a Symphonic Band Program within a Youth Orchestra Association

Andrew Mathers

Writing Good Sense about Music: The Art of Listening

Andrew Ford

Published: 2007

Paperback, xiv, 186 p.

ISBN 978 0 734037 68 8

ISSN 1325 5266