On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Michelle Obama presented the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards—the country’s highest honor for after-school creative youth development programs—to 12 students representing programs from across the nation. The programs were chosen from a pool of more than 285 nominations narrowed down to 50 finalists. Each winning program receives $10,000 and a year of communications and capacity-building support from the President’s Committee on Arts and the Humanities. Among the winners is the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s (MYSO) Community Partnership Programs, recognized for the engagement of 1,000 students a year in programming that empowers young people from diverse backgrounds to joyfully pursue musical excellence while building crucial life skills.
The MYSO Community Partnership Programs began in 2003 with its flagship program, Progressions, as an opportunity to address the lack of access and equity for City of Milwaukee children to participatory music education. Today, nine Community Partnership Programs serve students from more than 215 schools from 60 communities and 14 counties throughout Southeast Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, with instruction taught by about 50 teaching artists and music educators and additional support provided by hundreds of volunteers each year. The programs are provided for extremely minimal costs to families—as low as $35 annually depending on the program, a fee that includes an instrument, small group lessons, orchestral work, master classes, transportation and any other resources.
“We’re thrilled to receive an honor of this magnitude,” says Linda Edelstein, executive director of MYSO. “This award allows us that opportunity to be in the community sharing the impact of how our students’ lives are changed through the work here at the MYSO. We’re delighted to have the opportunity to tell the story of what we do and why we do it to the community in a much more comprehensive way than we ever were before.”
To learn more, contact Edelstein at 414-267-2990 or lindaedelstein@myso.org, or visit myso.org.
