Philadelphia Youth Orchestra Information

The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra is the Tri-State region’s premier youth orchestra organization for gifted, young, classical musicians and one of the oldest and most highly regarded youth orchestra organizations in the United States. For over 75 years, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization has been providing professional-caliber musical experiences to young instrumentalists, thrilling discriminating audiences in the Greater Philadelphia region and across the globe. The organization has five programs: Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO), Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra (PYAO), Bravo Brass, Philadelphia Region Youth String Music (PRYSM), and Tune Up Philly, an after-school program modeled after Venezuela’s El Sistema. Ranging in age from 6 to 21 years, the musicians of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization are selected by competitive audition and come from a seventy-plus-mile radius of Philadelphia encompassing nearly 20 counties within Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Through advanced orchestra repertoire, students are challenged to perform at professional levels, to strive for advanced musicianship and to achieve superior technical, musical, and personal application. Former PYO musicians currently hold chairs in most of the top twenty professional orchestras in the United States, with 15 PYO alumni currently serving in The Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent alumni credit the PYO organization in helping them gain admittance to some of the best universities, colleges, and conservatories in the United States.