Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) is the oldest youth orchestra in California, and the second oldest in the nation. Founded in 1935, our mission is to guide young musicians to achieve excellence within an orchestral setting.

Description:
YPSO provides an unsurpassed orchestral training program for committed musicians between the ages of 13 and 21, with exceptions made for exceptional talent. We offer an educational environment that fosters accomplishment, serves as a cultural resource for the community, and builds future audience by instilling a passion for music. We encourage young people to become exemplary musicians, and young musicians to become exemplary people. Under the guidance of conductor and Music Director David Ramadanoff, who is currently celebrating his 18th season with the orchestra, 85-100 young musicians expand their musical experience through rehearsals and performances of a wide range of symphonic repertoire. Members come from throughout the Bay Area: 40% from Contra Costa County, 50% from Alameda County, and 10% from San Francisco and other Bay Area communities.

Members are selected through a competitive audition process. Once admitted to the orchestra, students pay tuition to attend weekly rehearsals and receive weekly sectional coaching from highly qualified professionals. Performances take place at least four times each season, in November, March, May and June. We actively support school music programs and strongly recommend that our students participate in school ensembles, making every effort to compromise when scheduling conflicts arise.

No qualified and committed student is excluded because of financial concerns. Scholarship support is contributed by private donors as well as corporate, foundation, and government grants.

Members come from throughout the Bay Area: 40% from Contra Costa County, 50% from Alameda County, and 10% from San Francisco and other Bay Area communities.

History:
YPSO has educated thousands of students, many of whom have become professional musicians. Among YPSO Alumni are cellist Bonnie Hampton who is a faculty member of Juilliard School and San Francisco Conservatory; violinist Donald Weilerstein, co-founder of Cleveland Quartet and a faculty member at Juilliard and New England Conservatory; and Phil Lesh, guitarist with Grateful Dead, who credits YPSO as "where it all began."

YPSO has performed in prestigious locations including Carnegie Hall, the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, the Calvin Simmons Auditorium, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the International Kiwanis Convention, and has been broadcast live on KGO and KKHI Radio. The orchestra toured on a cultural exchange to China in 2006, performing four concerts with students from universities in Beijing and Hangzhou, and from the Shanghai Conservatory.

Contact person: Wendy Howe, Executive Director, (510) 849-9776, (email)
Office fax number: (510) 654-0274

Address:

P. O. Box 5593 Berkeley, CA 94705

Web Site: http://www.ypsomusic.net