Young Artists in Harmony (YAH) is a unique music composition program offered in partnership with A Reason To Survive (ARTS) in National City, where advanced music students have the opportunity to:
Explore musical composition with professional musicians with the opportunity to write for strings, percussion, piano, and more
Create and be part of a live performance at ARTS, which will also be professionally recorded
Meet and collaborate with other like-minded music students
Build a musical composition portfolio for college
Participants in YAH receive mentoring from professional Art of Elan musicians, and meet weekly on Saturdays from 1-3pm in person at ARTS, with optional individual workshops available via Zoom during the week, personalized for each participant. Saturday afternoon sessions will involve professional musicians from Art of Elan to help coach, workshop and give feedback on student works.
The Spring 2024 program will run Saturday, March 23rd - Saturday, May 25th with the culminating public concert taking place at ARTS on Saturday, May 25th at 2:30pm.
Applications are now closed for Spring 2024.
Please contact David (Deejay) Rich, YAH Program Coordinator, with any questions:
davidrichmusic@gmail.com
Since 2014:
117
Original Compositions
created by Young Artists in Harmony participants
31
Professional Musicians
have participated as mentors and performed works for the program
18
Showcase Performances
served over three thousand listeners
For the past 9 years, Art of Elan has offered its “Young Artists in Harmony” (YAH) program in partnership with the nationally recognized A Reason To Survive (ARTS), an organization that believes in the power of the arts and creativity to literally transform lives. YAH consists of weekly workshops where high school and community college students have the opportunity to explore musical composition with professional musicians, to create and be part of a professionally recorded public performance, to meet and collaborate with other like-minded music students of high school and college age, and to build a musical composition portfolio. Participants in YAH receive weekly mentoring and coaching from professional Art of Elan musicians who workshop and provide feedback on student works. This unique program culminates each semester with a multidisciplinary and collaborative concert that showcases original compositions the students create over the 6-10 week period, performed by Art of Elan musicians. Each concert is professionally recorded and is available for free streaming and download on Instant Encore (www.instantencore.com/artofelan).
Watch Young Artists in Harmony compositions performed live at
the Spring 2023 Cohort in the Video Below.
The Young Artists in Harmony program is generously supported by the Clare Rose Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Conrad Prebys Foundation, Schoenith Foundation, San Diego Commision for Arts and Culture, and the Pratt Memorial Fund.
About ARTS | A Reason To Survive:
Established in 2001, ARTS’ mission is to lift young people to become confident, compassionate, and courageous community builders through the transformative power of creativity and the arts. In 2012, the ARTS Center opened in National City, with the goal of becoming a South County hub for creative youth development, or CYD: a theory of practice that integrates creative skill-building, inquiry, and expression with positive youth development principles, fueling young people’s imaginations and building critical learning and life skills.
Today, ARTS offers creative arts programs for youth and young adults ages 6-24. Through a combination of after-school classes and community-based art and design projects – delivered virtually through our ARTS @ Home offerings during this time of COVID – ARTS connects young people with opportunities to elevate their creativity and artistic skills, build strong foundations of social-emotional well-being, grow meaningful relationships with peers and role models, and engage deeply with their own communities and the world around them.
With our focus on the historically disinvested South County region of San Diego, ARTS believes: 1) young people should be given more power to make decisions and play a role in the shaping the spaces and systems that affect their futures; and 2) place-based art practices implemented with a health equity lens are essential for building vibrant, resilient, and inclusive communities.
To find out more, visit www.areasontosurvive.org