The Seattle Symphony's Youth Education Partnerships is our commitment to provide long term support to music education organizations focus on historically unserved communities. We are pleased to collaborate with: Key to Change, Kids in Concert and Yakima en Acción (YAMA). These partnerships will be centered around enhancing musical education for racially and economically diverse youth and will formalize and augment the important, ongoing community work already undertaken by all four organizations. Together, these organizations will help build a solid foundation to further evolve longer-term collaboration, expanding opportunities for historically underserved youth across the Puget Sound region and beyond to enhance their musical development and broaden music education access in the community.
As part of these ongoing partnerships, the Seattle Symphony will provide masterclasses with Seattle Symphony musicians and guest artists, sectional rehearsals, and career education opportunities with Symphony musicians, staff, board and crew members. Students from these organizations will also participate in Seattle Symphony open rehearsals and receive free tickets to Seattle Symphony and Benaroya Hall events, as well as opportunities to perform with the Symphony at Benaroya Hall.
Key to Change inspires underserved youth through world-class music instruction and supports their development as self-aware leaders through a holistic environment where they can flourish. Key to Change removes the barrier to entry for underserved students and students of color with an inclusive approach that helps build trust and connection. By offering excellent music instruction below the market rate, Key to Change extends the benefits of a classical music education to a new generation of young musicians.
Kids In Concert is a free, after-school music education organization for students ages 6–18 in North Kitsap County. KIC is an El Sistema-inspired program that offers students the opportunity to learn an orchestral instrument, participate in musical ensembles and contribute to the lives of others, with the ultimate goal of leveling the playing field for all of our kids. The program is available to students most school days and serves more than 80 students. While music is at the heart of KIC’s mission, students also participate in the Healthy and Whole program that has been adapted from years of work with the Suquamish tribe, teaching emotional and social learning and providing tools for healthy communication and emotional regulation. Every child has limitless possibilities and the ability to strive for excellence. “Trust the young” informs every aspect of the work.
Yakima Music en Acción (YAMA) educates and empowers young people of color from working families through musical ensembles. YAMA was created in response to an expressed need for accessible, accountable, and enriching after school programming in Yakima. Since its inception, YAMA has consistently sought to respond to this need with integrity, collaboration, and creativity.
YAMA’s model emphasizes shared learning and collective accountability through our instruction of string instruments. We are más que una orquesta—more than an orchestra—and we aim to disrupt cycles of intergenerational poverty by using music as our vehicle to offer access to opportunities, leadership development, and community cohesion.
YAMA is based on a model from Venezuela, El Sistema, which is rooted in the motto of ‘music for social change,’ and is Washington state’s first and longest-standing El-Sistema-inspired program. YAMA believes that young people, when engaged as the wise, creative, and knowledgeable people that they are, flourish in an entirely different way, which translates to direct positive impacts in their communities, whether in their schools, neighborhoods, or within the city at large. When invited to develop their innate leadership skills and offered the space to practice those skills in a safe and collective community, young people at YAMA come together in support of one another in a way that allows each young person to be truly witnessed and valued, while fostering a sense of belonging and purpose.
The Arakawa Foundation proudly supports the Seattle Symphony’s Community Partnerships for Youth and Education. Additional support is provided by Delta Air Lines.
The Seattle Symphony’s Family, School & Community programs are supported by 4Culture, Marco Argenti, ArtsFund, the Merriman-Ross Family, the National Endowment for the Arts, and individual contributions to the Seattle Symphony Annual Fund.
