SAN DIEGO YOUTH SYMPHONY AND CONSERVATORY
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Mission Statement
Established in 1946, The San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory (SDYS) is the 6th oldest continuously operating youth symphony in the United States, serving over 600 beginning through advanced and pre-professional students annually in 12 orchestras and ensembles. A nationally-recognized leader in returning in-school music education to improve academic achievement, SDYS partners with local school districts, schools and non-profits to provide students in kindergarten through high school with opportunities to learn and perform music. Driven by a vision of accessible and affordable music education for all, SDYS has been instrumental in the return of major arts and music education funding and programs to public schools throughout San Diego County and beyond. SDYS strives for an educational system in which every young person inspired by the art and rigor of making music embodies a future rich with hope, joy, and the rewards of personal achievement and community involvement.
About This Cause
SDYS has been providing orchestral training and performance opportunities for 72 years and is a nationally-recognized leader in returning in-school music education to improve academic achievement. Founded when in-school music instruction was the norm, SDYS enrolled the most talented local music students. About 20 years ago, it expanded to serve students at all levels from beginning to pre-professional. Today, over 600 students from ages 8-25 are enrolled in SDYS’ Conservatory Program which includes 12 orchestras and wind ensembles that meet each weekend to rehearse in Balboa Park, located in central San Diego. Through its Community Program, SDYS partners with local school districts, schools and non-profits to provide students in kindergarten through high school with opportunities to learn and perform music. SDYS’ mission is to instill excellence in the musical and personal development of students through rigorous and inspiring musical training experiences. The mission is pursued by: interacting with all musical communities to broaden cultural horizons; embracing the diversity of current and prospective students; and enriching the community through programs and collaborations that increase access to and appreciation of classical music. A central tenet of SDYS is that every student deserves high-quality music instruction for the myriad benefits it provides. Many studies have demonstrated that learning music from a young age changes the structure of the brain in ways that improve cognition, memory, spatial-temporal and executive function. Learning music in an ensemble setting instills in a student discipline, empathy, collaboration and teamwork. Unfortunately, severe cutbacks in school music education have disproportionately affected students attending schools in low-income neighborhoods that cannot afford to provide it. In 2010 SDYS expanded its mission to use its reputation and resources to influence the return of in-school music, both locally and nationally. It adopted a 10-year vision of Making Music Education Accessible and Affordable for All Students. To achieve that goal, SDYS launched Community Opus Project as a strategy to convince schools and school districts to invest in student achievement through music. Inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema youth orchestra program, it included a major advocacy component aimed at building grassroots support for in-school music education. Partnering with Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD), SDYS began to provide free after-school music instruction to demonstrate the value of learning music. CVESD was selected for the pilot program because it did not provide arts education programming although it once had a music program that was eliminated more than 15 years earlier; and due to its location on the U.S./Mexico Border it has a large population (over 70%) of students from Latino, low-income families with parents who do not have a college degree. Thirty-five percent of the district’s students are English Language Learners. SDYS began by providing free after-school, on-site instrumental music instruction to 65 students at two Title 1 schools and the program grew rapidly. The changes in the students and their families became apparent very quickly and in the third year of Opus, CVESD’s Board voted to return in-school music instruction to all students. In 2015, CVESD invested $5 million for each of three years to hire 70 full-time credentialed arts teachers for its 45 campuses. Music education is now part of every school’s regular curriculum and students also have access to a variety of other arts programs. Research and evaluation have been key to the Opus Project. At the request of SDYS in 2010, UCSD Department of Human Development has been conducting a longitudinal study, SIMPHONY (Studying the Influence Music Practice Has On Neurodevelopment in Youth), of how learning music affects the structure of the brain. SDYS has been widely sharing what it learns through Opus with education and arts leaders across the nation to help influence the return of in-school music education. SDYS and CVESD staff and Board members regularly present at conferences and symposia; the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) produced an Arts Education Webinar in 2016 about the Opus strategy; hundreds of print articles and web posts have discussed how SDYS’ Opus strategy convinced CVESD to invest in the arts to improve student achievement. SDYS is currently collaborating with UCSD TV to produce arts education programming. In addition, it fields requests for advice and hosts visitor from all over the country who want to establish music programs in their communities. Awarded the 2011 Grand Prize for Exceptional Nonprofit Boards by BoardSource/Prudential, in the same year SDYS received Kaleidoscope Award for Exceptional Governance by the University of San Diego. It received the 2015 Distinguished Music Educator Award from Yale School of Music and has been awarded a grant from the NEA for its work in Chula Vista for each of the past five years.