April 9, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
South Central Los Angeles, an area long associated with violence and blight, is gaining a different kind of recognition by becoming a hot spot for classical music.
The Expo Center Youth Orchestra, which began in October 2007, is the first of several such projects the Los Angeles Philharmonic plans to start in impoverished parts of the city, as part of its Youth Orchestra L.A. program. About 200 children have been recruited from local schools to receive free instruments and music instruction, and 100 of them perform in a local youth orchestra.
But the goal of the effort, which was inspired by a youth-orchestra movement for needy children in Venezuela, isn’t just to help the students become skilled musicians, says Deborah Borda, the Philharmonic’s chief executive.
“You see the progress that these children make in learning to work, to study, to excel, to interact with their parents in a positive way,” she says. “These are all things that are very healthy.”
The Youth Orchestra L.A. project, which is supported by the Los Angeles Philharmonic along with two other nonprofit organizations — Harmony Project and the Expo Center — is expected to cost about $750,000 this year and serve double the number of participants.
Beyond establishing youth orchestras throughout the city, the Los Angeles Philharmonic hopes to create a model to help other cities start their own. “You can come to our Web site and we’ll have cheat sheets you can follow,” says Ms. Borda. “That’s our goal.”
Here, a violin student practices playing her instrument at home.
