About The VYOA

For over 50 years the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association (VYOA) has been a leader in shaping our region’s young musicians. This season, over 300 musicians in grades 1 – 12 represent 60 elementary, middle, and high schools and hail from 41 towns from across Vermont and neighboring states. With a keen focus on children of all ages, the VYOA offers a wide range of programming; this includes three orchestras, three training programs for beginning to intermediate strings, winds, and brass students, a percussion ensemble, a private lesson program, school partnerships and community initiatives, summer camps, and an early childhood concert series. You can hear VYOA musicians of all ages perform over 20 concerts, recitals, and community engagement presentations throughout the 2018-2019 season.

All programs are based at the Elley-Long Music Center at St. Michael’s College. The Elley-Long Music Center is the former Cavalry Riding or Drill Hall located at Fort Ethan Allen and was renovated by the VYOA between 1999 and 2001. This beautiful building is the home of the VYOA and the primary rehearsal and concert venue for many northern Vermont performing arts organizations.   

Music Inspires

The Vermont Youth Orchestra was founded in 1964 by the Burlington Friends of Music with the mission “to do more for music in the schools.” We continue that work today with Music Inspires. Now in its 7^th year, Music Inspires is the VYOA’s community engagement program committed to eliminating access barriers to students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Partnership with area 21C funded after-school programs is at the very heart of the program. Music Inspires provides group lessons, coachings, instruments, school-day performances, and materials at no cost to students and their families or their schools. VYOA ensembles reach nearly 3,000 schoolchildren annually through school-day concerts. This season, the VYO also looks forward to presenting the second concert of Carnegie Hall’s Link Up concert series in partnership with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the Flynn Center’s School Day Matinee program.