The Score | Long-Distance Partners

Many orchestral training programs for musicians regularly collaborate with local orchestras and other groups in their hometowns. But two new partnerships are forging long-distance relationships. The New York Youth Symphony and Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts have launched a program for young musicians from across the social and economic spectrum, with scholarships for musicians from underserved communities and a co-commissioning and programming initiative for orchestral composers. Each year NYYS awards need-based fellowships to five of its musicians, and Interlochen will match the fellowships, with the five fellows invited to attend Interlochen Arts Camp with financial support. In addition, Interlochen and the orchestra will award $3,000 to one of the three winners of the New York Youth Symphony’s annual competition for composers between ages 18 and 30. The winner will receive a commission to write a new orchestral work to be performed by NYYS at Carnegie Hall and by Interlochen’s World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp. This summer, California’s Music Academy of the West and the London Symphony Orchestra start a partnership program. During the program, principal musicians from the LSO will teach and mentor Academy fellows in Santa Barbara, and twelve fellows will spend ten days in London performing and receiving audition training with the LSO. The LSO will travel to California in 2019 and 2021 to perform side by side with Music Academy of the West fellows.