YOUTH ORCHESTRA LA (YOLA) is the LA Phil’s initiative, supported by a network of stakeholders, to provide access to exceptional instrumental and orchestral education in order to promote youth development. Central to YOLA is the LA Phil’s plan to build, with

community partners, youth orchestras in communities throughout Los Angeles. YOLA is inspired by El Sistema, the Venezuelan music education system that nurtured the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Music Director, Gustavo Dudamel. El Sistema annually provides a quarter-million children with free musical instruments and music instruction so that they may play in youth orchestras throughout their country.

The YOLA EXPO Center Youth Orchestra program is a partnership of the LA Phil, The Harmony Project, and the EXPO Center, a City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks facility. The YOLA Heart of LA Youth Orchestra (YOLA at HOLA) program is a partnership between the LA Phil and Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA).

Harmony Project is supported by generous grants from the Weingart Foundation, John W. Carson Foundation, Green Foundation, Colburn Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Herb Alpert Foundation, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Howard and Jackie Banchik.

The EXPO Center Youth Orchestra is supported by Betty Anderson and the Friends of Expo Center.

HOLA’s youth orchestra program is made possible by the Weingart Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, The Mark Hughes Foundation, The Skirball Foundation, The Ziering Family Foundation, The W.M. Keck Foundation, The Diller-Von Furstenberg Family Foundation, and the Thomas and Dana Riccard Family.