BYSO’s Intensive Community Program
is Recognized as a
2007 Coming Up Taller Semifinalist

On April 30, 2007 the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO) was informed that it’s outreach initiative, the Intensive Community Program (ICP), had been chosen for recognition as a 2007 Coming Up Taller Semifinalist by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and its partner agencies, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

The BYSO was congratulated for the highly impressive work that it has accomplished in youth out-of-school arts learning. Out of more than 350 nominations from 46 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the ICP was selected as one of the 50 semifinalists. This distinguishes the program as one of the top arts-based programs in the country serving youth beyond the school hours.

The BYSO’s nomination is currently being reviewed for a Coming Up Taller award by a national jury of composed of field experts. This year’s award recipients will be notified by the end of June.

In 1998, BYSO created the ICP, a rigorous stringed instrument training program serving students from Boston’s inner-city. ICP accepts young students (ages 6-8) who show exceptional interest in studying stringed instruments and provides them with financial assistance for weekly music lessons, ensemble classes and instrument rental. The purpose of ICP is to bring fine music training to students who may not otherwise have access to it, enabling them to pass auditions to enter one of BYSO’s four orchestras.  Once admitted into a BYSO orchestra, ICP students receive support in the form of tuition subsidy, weekly lessons and use of an instrument until they graduate from high school.  Prior to ICP, only 1% of BYSO students represented inner-city communities in Boston.  After eight years, 20% of BYSO’s student body comes from these communities. There are a total of 76 students in the ICP, the oldest in eleventh grade and the youngest in kindergarten.

For the past seven years, the National Endowment for the Arts has supported the ICP.  In a recent funding cycle, NEA panelists praised the high artistic quality and teaching methods of the ICP, calling it a model music training program for underserved youth.  Locally, the Massachusetts Cultural Council recognized the artistic merit of BYSO and the ICP with the 2003 Commonwealth Award, the state’s highest honor in the arts.  Finally, the spring 2003 issue of Boston Magazine listed ICP’s Artistic Director, Bonnie Black, as one of Boston’s most influential women due to her work with ICP.