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  • LAPA
  • YOUTH ORCHESTRA LOS ANGELES (YOLA) EMBARKS ON FIRST-EVER TOUR
  • Sep. 26, 2016
  • The Los Angeles Philharmonic's Landmark Education Program Celebrates 10 Years

    Los Angeles, CA (September 26, 2016) - Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) will embark on its first-ever tour from October 23 to October 30, 2016. YOLA will travel across California with stops at Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge, LJ Williams Theatre in Visalia, and William Saroyan Hall in Fresno, and end at Paramount Theatre in Oakland, where they will be conducted by the LA Phil's Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel.

    YOLA's California Tour celebrates the 10-year anniversary of YOLA, the LA Phil's landmark education program launched in the Fall of 2007 as an unprecedented initiative to establish youth orchestra programs in underserved communities throughout Los Angeles. Inspired by Venezuela's visionary El Sistema program, which nurtured Gustavo Dudamel, the YOLA program works with community partners to provide free instruments, intensive music training, and academic support to students, empowering them to become vital citizens, leaders, and agents of change. YOLA currently serves nearly 800 students in three programs: YOLA at EXPO Center, YOLA at HOLA, and YOLA at LACHSA, and reaches thousands more young people through YOLA-inspired music education residencies in 15 elementary schools that surround YOLA sites.

    For the tour, 80 of the most advanced YOLA students, representing all three sites, will perform 45-minute educational concerts that will feature works by Beethoven, Bernstein, Brahms, Dvořák and John Williams and involve a narrative and video component that will illuminate the transformative power of music and community, as well as pay homage to YOLA's rich 10-year history.

    YOLA's California Tour is supported by generous grants from The Legacy Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.

    YOLA California Tour concert repertoire:

    BERNSTEIN Candide Overture
    BEETHOVEN Ode to Joy (excerpt) from Symphony No. 9 in D minor
    BRAHMS Hungarian Dance No. 5
    DVORAK Movement IV, Allegro non troppo, from Symphony No. 8 in G major
    WILLIAMS Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark

    Gustavo Dudamel, conductor October 30 ONLY
    Juan Felipe Molano, YOLA conductor, October 23, 27 and 28

    YOLA California Tour dates:

    Sunday, October 23, 2016, 3PM
    Co-Presented by Valley Performing Arts Center:
    Valley Performing Arts Center, Northridge

    Thursday, October 27, 2016, 7PM
    Presented by Tulare County Symphony:
    LJ Williams Theatre, Visalia

    Friday, October 28, 2016, 7PM
    Presented by Youth Orchestras of Fresno:
    William Saroyan Hall, Fresno

    Sunday, October 30, 2016, 3PM
    Cal Performances at UC Berkeley presents:
    Paramount Theatre, Oakland

    For a preview of the tour, view Fox 11 Los Angeles' coverage of a recent YOLA California tour rehearsal at EXPO Center here.

    Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) is Gustavo Dudamel's signature initiative through which the LA Phil and community partners provide free instruments, intensive music training, and academic support to students from underserved neighborhoods, empowering them to become passionate learners and vital citizens. Beginning with 80 students in 2007, today YOLA serves nearly 800 students studying 15-18 hours per week at three after-school sites where mentorship and leadership training is integral. YOLA students have the opportunity to work with LA Phil musicians and world-renowned artists and conductors, travel to cities foreign and domestic, and perform in iconic venues Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. YOLA is made possible in South Los Angeles, the Rampart District and East Los Angeles through the following community partners that share fiscal and programmatic responsibilities with the LA Phil: EXPO Center, Harmony Project, Heart of Los Angeles, LA County High School for the Arts. Learn more at laphil.org/YOLA.

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres - orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop - at two of L.A.'s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall (www.laphil.com) and the Hollywood Bowl (www.HollywoodBowl.com). The LA Phil's season extends from September through June at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.

    As an internationally renowned symphonic and operatic conductor, Gustavo Dudamel is motivated by a profound belief in music's power to unite and inspire. He currently serves as Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and the impact of his leadership extends from the greatest concert stages to classrooms, cinemas and innovative digital platforms around the world. Dudamel also appears as guest conductor with some of the world's most famous musical institutions: in 2017, he tours Europe with the Berlin Philharmonic and is the youngest-ever conductor to lead the Vienna Philharmonic's famous New Year's Day Concert, watched annually by over 50 million people in 90 countries. As he enters his eighth season as Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dudamel's contract has been extended to the end of the 2021/2022 season. At his initiative, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has dramatically expanded the scope of its community outreach programs, including most notably the creation of Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), influenced by the philosophy of Venezuela's admired El Sistema, which encourages social development through music. With YOLA and diverse local educational initiatives, Dudamel brings music to children in underserved communities of Los Angeles. These programs have in turn inspired similar efforts throughout the United States, as well as in Sweden (Hammarkullen) and Scotland (Raploch). As Music Director, his 18th season, of the entire El Sistema project in Venezuela, he continues to lead the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela as well as on tour. A Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2005, Grammy winner Gustavo Dudamel has numerous recordings on the label, as well as many video/DVD releases that capture the excitement of significant moments of his musical life.  

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  • Contact:

    Sophie Jefferies, sjefferies@laphil.org, 213.972.3422
    Lydia Fong, lfong@laphil.org, 213.972.3689
    PR Office: 213.972.3034