Youth & Family Program

Annual education program provided free to 4th & 5th grade students throughout Santa Cruz County & an affordable concert for the whole family.

In the two weeks prior to a free concert, Symphony musicians visit classrooms to introduce students to the instruments of the orchestra, and to help maximize their concert experience. Members of the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony play alongside their adult Symphony counterparts, creating the largest philharmonic orchestra on the central coast. The event is presented in a highly accessible style, using elements of humor, movement and participation. The concert program is presented the weekend following the Youth concerts as affordable Family concerts in Santa Cruz and Watsonville.

How composers “color” a piece of music by using specific instruments or combinations of instruments is explored at this season’s Family Concert, “The Colors of Music.”  A Colorful Symphony is based on a chapter from Norton Juster's popular book for children The Phantom Tollbooth, in which a little boy enters a magic land where an orchestra and its conductor play the colors into the world each day. Rodriguez's setting for Narrator and Orchestra has become a musical classic. There will be vivid and vibrant visual presentation at the concerts to enhance the concept of musical colors.   

Following the concert, there will be a special “Meet the Instruments” event. Audience members had the chance to meet with musicians and learn about orchestra instruments. Over 4000 students and their teachers attended the four concerts at the Santa Cruz Civic and Watsonville's Mello Center.

Kendall Neiblum-Lamkin, 2006

2006 Youth & Family concert