Teaching Our Children: the Seattle Symphony's Education & Community Engagement Team

By Leilani Polk

Many who are familiar with the Seattle Symphony are at least peripherally aware of our Tiny Tots performances and Family Concerts, both series that appeal to families with children. Beyond these programs, the Education & Community Engagement team (EDCE) is working to engage youth and connect them to orchestral music at every level of their growth, and they do so through a myriad of channels. 
 
The orchestra’s two perennially popular family offerings catch kids at their earliest stages. Tiny Tots is geared towards the youngest listeners, ages 0–5, with 30-minute presentations that feature a host, musicians from the orchestra representing a section — the winds, brass, percussion and, this month, The Strings: Travel Through Time (February 27 & 28, 2026) — and a culminating performance revealing how all these sections play together. Family Concerts get a more traditional symphonic program treatment, but are more condensed, running an hour or less without intermission. These concerts showcase shorter, accessible symphonic pieces in themed concerts (like the upcoming jazz-infused Orchestra Swings program on February 7, 2026, ranging from George Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm” and Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” to movements from symphonic works by Florence Price and Wynton Marsalis). Families can come early to both Tiny Tots and Family Concerts to engage in pre-concert activities, from crafts to instrument discovery. “Tiny Tots and Family Concerts are staples of our annual symphony schedule,” said longtime patron and new Seattle Symphony Board Member, Jason Garms. “All five of our children began their musical journeys here; they love everything from the pre-concert crafts to the instrument discovery zones. I’m consistently impressed by how the Symphony engages them through movement and rhythm, while also providing thoughtful, neuro-inclusive accessories.” 

By design, most of the Seattle Symphony’s Education programs are created to support and augment the great work being done in Washington State public schools and nonprofit education organizations. EDCE’s annual Link Up program (in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute) provides teachers of students in grades 3–5 with an interactive curriculum that includes music for voice, recorder and movement and hands-on activities that explore different facets of orchestral music, from melody to rhythm. These students spend months learning the music in school before the culminating concerts at Benaroya Hall, where they can sing, play and dance along with the Seattle Symphony. For those aspiring young musicians inclined to continue their musical education beyond the classroom, EDCE fosters partnerships with community organizations like Kids in Concert and Key to Change music studio, each offering lessons or chances to play with other local youth, with a focus on underserved communities. Seattle Symphony musicians and guest artists can often be found teaching, mentoring and giving masterclasses to these young instrumentalists. 

There are also Side-by-Side Concerts for middle and high school orchestras, some in collaboration with partner organizations like Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. During these concerts, young players perform alongside the Symphony in free concerts that happen around the community; the next one takes place at the Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center and features the Renton High School Orchestra (March 6, 2026). 

EDCE’s longest-running initiative, the Merriman-Ross Family Young Composers Workshop, has been active for more than three decades. This tuition-free 15-week course is for pre-college students (ages 18 and under) interested in using music as a means of expression. For the past three seasons, the workshop has focused on electroacoustic composition. Participants learn to compose music that incorporates electronics with acoustic instruments, broadening their musical vocabulary and collaborating closely with Seattle Symphony musicians to compose electroacoustic works and explore new sonic possibilities through electroacoustic techniques. Working closely with a composer and specialist in the electronic field (most recently, Marcin Pączkowski), students learn practical skills — how to make music for today, with tools and technology that exist today — while the current format allows for EDCE to reach students from a wider variety of genres, not just those focused on classical music. They also experience the labor that goes into creating and preparing their work for a culminating concert, during which their compositions are performed by Seattle Symphony musicians at Benaroya Hall. This year’s concert happens on June 8, 2026. 

Brannon Warn-Johnston wrote her first full-orchestra piece in the workshop and is currently celebrating her fifth year as a participant. She’s had her compositions programmed by International Contemporary Ensemble and Seattle Festival Orchestra, among others, won awards (including recognition from the Tribeca New Music Young Composers Competition), and her electroacoustic work, A Year with Cancer, has been performed nearly a dozen times with support from multiple grants in community spaces and venues around the Seattle region and across the country. “Having my music workshopped, performed and recorded by professional musicians from the symphony has been invaluable, and the program has helped me build lasting connections with collaborators, mentors and composers.” 

Advanced young instrumentalists can audition for the chance to be a featured soloist with the orchestra in Family and Community concerts via the Young Artist Auditions. EDCE now offers applicants the ability to apply in four divisions; upper strings (viola and violin) and piano are now joined by lower strings (cello and bass) and winds, brass, percussion and harp divisions, with up to four soloists to be chosen for the 2026/2027 season. This season, EDCE is also offering a brand-new program to create more opportunities for aspiring musicians: the Young Artist Collaborative. This week-long summer intensive gives passionate young musicians (ages 13–18) the chance to work side by side with Seattle Symphony musicians to explore what it means to be a collaborative musician, playing in small ensembles, studying and learning to perform repertoire by composers from communities that are underrepresented in classical music, exploring a variety of rehearsal techniques, and collaborating with others to make group decisions about musical interpretation and overall performance. “We wanted to create a program that adds to the landscape of music education in Seattle, where our orchestra musicians can be a greater resource to the young musicians in our community, and to provide a meaningful educational opportunity that is less about competition and more about collaboration,” Community Engagement Programs Manager Allison Damon explained. Applications for the Young Artist Collaborative are currently being accepted and are due on March 1, 2026. 

“All of these programs are meant to connect the youth to orchestral music at every stage of their musical development, from going to a concert for the first time, to learning what goes into becoming a professional musician,” said Senior Director of Education & Community Engagement Jérémy Jolley. “We also want to give them the practical skills to do this through collaboration and performance, as well as helping them realize the work that goes into creating music and what it takes to work together to achieve what they imagined.” 

Interested in getting your child’s school involved in Link Up? Have a student who might be interested in collaborating with orchestra musicians in the new summer-time Young Artists Collaborative? Want to find out about the rest of the 2025/2026 season’s Tiny Tots performances and Family Concerts? Email education@seattlesymphony.org. 

The Merriman-Ross Family Young Composers Workshop is generously underwritten by Pamela Merriman, Sonja Ross, and Kelley Ross. Additional support is provided by Patricia M. Davis, Ann Holbrook, and Michel and Christine Suignard. 

The Arakawa Foundation proudly supports the Seattle Symphony’s Youth Education Partnerships. Additional support is provided by Delta Air Lines. 

Performances of The Strings: Travel Through Time are generously sponsored by Katie and Jason Garms.