Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra receives nationwide grant

Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra is one of five orchestras that received $6,000 American Orchestras’ Futures Fund seed grants from the League of American Orchestras, according to a news release.

The grant highlights the groundswell of innovation occurring at smaller-budget and youth orchestras across the country, the release said.

The grant was made possible with the support of the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, according to the release.

“These orchestras are in the forefront of experimentation and visionary problem-solving,” League President and CEO Jesse Rosen said. “The League is proud to support this work for the benefit of the orchestra field.

The League’s American Orchestras’ Future Fund Program provides support and opportunities to orchestras across the country, according to the release. The League of American Orchestras is the only national organization dedicated solely to the orchestral experience.

Andrew Machamer, NOYO’s executive and artistic director, said the NOYO Lab Group gives the students of Lorain County and Northeast Ohio access to an exciting new way of making and creating music.

“We are humbled to receive support from the League of American Orchestras and look forward to the continuation of this innovative and progressive programming,” Machamer said.

The NOYO Lab Group is a collaborative composing ensemble that operates in parallel with NOYO’s traditional orchestral ensembles, the release said. The group is open to all high schoolage musicians in northern Ohio. Student musicians work with staff facilitators to create new work through a process that draws from improvisation as well as traditional and experimental composition.

MORNING JOURNAL FILE Under the direction of Andrew Machamer, executive and artistic director for the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra, four musicians perform in front of the New Union Center of the Arts, in Oberlin, July 12, 2017.