Music Curriculum
YOLA focuses on a unified curriculum experience across all sites, not only practicing music education but embodying what it means to nurture and develop artists. Simply put, YOLA continually strives to be the model standard for what progressive, creative youth and artistic development can be for young people. YOLA is a rigorous program.
Framework of the YOLA Curriculum
YOLA is taking its mandate forward for a progressive, evolved approach to pedagogy and youth development by integrating core tenets of Creative Youth Development and Ethnic Studies into the Artistic development benchmarks, and by centering practices that are community and culturally responsive.
As a part of a unified YOLA curriculum, the following components inform the lens through which YOLA curriculum is applied:
The Pillars
- Artistry
- Personal & Holistic Development
Core Tenets
- Ethnic Studies
- Creative Youth Development
- Musical Virtuosity
- Artistic Development
With this perspective in mind, the Conceptual Framework will then influence the following areas:
- Repertoire Selection
- Facilitation of Student Voice and Student-Centered Practices
- Scope and Sequence of Technical Study (both music-based and socially-based)
YOLA focuses on a unified curriculum experience across all sites, not only practicing music education but embodying what it means to nurture and develop artists. Simply put, YOLA continually strives to be the model standard for what progressive, creative youth and artistic development can be for young people.
Like many community-based programs across the country, YOLA’s purpose is not to merely produce the next generation of classically-trained musicians for an orchestra stage. It is to create a learning environment where young people thrive, stretch, and imagine the impossible on a daily basis, all while using the discipline of music as their leveraging force for creative space-making.