Youth Orchestras Of Fresno

Programs: Our foosa (fresno opera & orchestra summer academy) brought together world-class faculty members and international students to work with our local young musicians in an intensive two-week training session to create a 100+ piece orchestra. An additional 70+ students participated in the half-day program for less intense studies. The foosa orchestra toured to los angeles, ca to perform at the walt disney concert hall. Concerts in los angeles and fresno brought in over 2,000 audience members. Foosa emphasized its high-caliber faculty which included lynn harrell, francisco caban, dr. Limor toren-immerman, michael chang, dr. Thomas loewenheim, thomas landschoot, bruce bransby, edmund cord, mihoko watanabe, luis fred, matt darling. . .

the organization trained almost 300 young musicians in its three orchestras. Internationally acclaimed guest artists joined our young musicians in concert, shared their performance skills and also offered workshops and master classes to our students. The organization offers complimentary concert access to the community. The 2016-2017 season was the organization's 66th anniversay season and performed coming home: a youth music extravaganza on may 28, 2017 at fresno's william saroyan theater. Blockbuster performances, with side-by-side mentoring with professional orchestra members are the norm. The organization hosted their acclaimed academy with international musicians culminating with a concert at the disney hall in los angeles, ca.

our accent on access violin program, offered in partnership with the fresno county office of education, the fresno regional foundation, california arts council and the bonner family foundation, served second, third, and fourth graders in an inner-city, low income elementary school (usda 100 percent free/reduced lunch program). The el-sistema-inspired (venezuelan derived) program, in its foruth year of operation, was offered after school four days a week, 90 minutes a day. Students involved in the program consistently show improved test results and attendance rates when compared to non-violin-program peers.