CALIFORNIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC

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Grantee Database

Grant Year

2025-26

Grant Program

Arts and Youth

Award Amount

$17,750.00

Project Description

With support from the California Arts Council, CALIFORNIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC will reach more students by increasing accessibility to violin, cello, vocal, and musicianship instruction for 2nd-6th graders and will compensate Teaching Artists for increased annual hours from 170 to 261, honoring school leadership requests. Sound Minds will expand the number of days/hours into the school day in addition to existing after-school programming. The benefit of additional hours of instruction will amplify the depth of programming for participating youth. More hours will also serve to: 1) accommodate more advanced learning for 5th and 6th graders in preparation for middle-high school advancement into regional partnership youth orchestras, 2) help students resist the inclination to select soccer or other competing after-school activities instead, and/or 3) recruit youth who might have not approached the after-school opportunity beforehand.

Organization Summary

California Symphony is a cornerstone producer at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek and presents its 10-concert subscription series in the 785-seat Hofmann Theatre. The orchestra musicians also regularly perform with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and San Francisco Ballet, among others. California Symphony is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that combine classics alongside American repertoire and works by living composers, and for presenting emerging talents.

Outside of the concert hall, California Symphony actively supports music education as a driver for social change through its El Sistema-inspired Sound Minds program, which brings intensive music instruction in an area where 91% of students qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. The orchestra also hosts the highly competitive Young American Composer-in-Residence program and has launched the careers of some of today’s most well-known artists and composers. Its newest education program, Fresh Look, aims to fill the gap left by a lack of arts education for the “classically curious” adults in our community.

Organization