The Score | Super-Sized Performance

Musicians of Youth Orchestra Los Angeles had the chance of a lifetime this February, when they and Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel made a high-profile appearance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Before 70,000 fans at the stadium and 115 million television viewers, they performed with Chris Martin, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars, bringing young classical musicians to a stage that is dominated by pop and rock. YOLA, launched in 2009 by Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, provides free instruments, intensive music training, and academic support to students from underserved neighborhoods. About YOLA and Dudamel’s Super Bowl appearance, Los Angeles Times classical-music critic Mark Swed wrote, “That Dudamel will up his viewership ante by an estimated 120 million is nothing but good news for classical music and the L.A. Phil. But what matters most is that … through YOLA, regular kids given the opportunity and encouragement to devote themselves to studying music will now ascend an unimaginably vast stage.”