Youth Engagement – Chapter 8: Integrating Youth Engagement

In this section:

• Connecting Internal Resources

For decades, orchestras’ education, learning, and community engagement (EdCE) staff members have engaged with diverse communities of schools and families, often enabling orchestras to report demographics not seen in their typical concert audiences. As orchestras have come to prioritize EDI, and to recognize the centrality of youth engagement to this work, EdCE staff have been spotlighted. “When EDI kicks in, then Education gets more internal calls, because it’s the foundation of our work,” observes Lorin Green of the Seattle Symphony and the League Student Leadership Council.

But, as this Catalyst Guide demonstrates, youth engagement must be an institution-wide priority. It is essential to audience experience, audience development, equitable community engagement, talent recruitment, and strategic planning, as well as learning. It needs to be resourced and integrated. As Alison Levinson at the Pacific Symphony puts it, “what we’re learning in arts-X-press, those values can apply to the whole symphony.”

“The rest of the organization can learn so much from Learning staff in ways to engage audiences, build curiosity, and retain patrons,” says Suzanne Perrino of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. For instance, the orchestra can tap EdCE staff’s expertise to provide entry points for audiences through just a few minutes of engaging and inspiring insights, be they historical, artistic, or emotional. Why not entrust this to young musicians who are passionate about the works being performed?

Read about 12 actions to strengthen and align EDI practices in Promising Practices: Actions Orchestras Can Take to Make Progress Toward Equity.

Connecting Internal Resources

The relationship between EdCE staff and other orchestra functions is most impactful when it is reciprocal. While functions ranging from strategic planning to social media have much to learn from EdCE staff, EdCE programs urgently need cooperation, support, and passion from their marketing and PR colleagues. When collaboration is supported, the results can be magical. There is opportunity for leadership to assess the true needs and contributions of all staff and to support them working in an integrated way on the overall mission to serve the community through music.

Tensions between tradition and innovation and between immediate and longer-term goals can complicate this relationship, however. For instance, many EdCE programs struggle to get word out about opportunities for youth. That’s a marketing function, but marketing staff typically work overtime just to meet their sales goals.

Similarly, social media and public relations can also be a challenge for EdCE staff, with the orchestra wanting to maintain a singular voice and image. As the Pacific Symphony works on a brand refresh, Alison Levinson is thinking about how to recruit more students to arts-X-press. “The program needs to relate back to the Symphony, but also be youthful and appeal to an age demographic. How do you hold both?”

Karisa Antonio at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra agrees. In terms of image, “learning and engagement could be our own organization.” But the DSO has made strides presenting a unified identity. “We’re committed to being an organization where music is for everyone. Through Detroit Strategy, we’re expanding what it means to be an orchestra that is for and with its city. I know that a truly excellent musical experience centers the human experience. Everyone has a role to play, whether we’re in Orchestra Hall or out in Detroit neighborhoods. It’s different from what orchestras are used to, and it is better than we ever could have imagined.”

Photo: A group of students and staff at the Pacific Symphony give a “standing O”(vation) to their fellow students. Credit: Adam Kirchoff