About Us
Our History
We are the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), the largest majority Black orchestra in the country.
Founded in 2009, ICYOLA is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that transforms the lives and minds of young people in Inner City Los Angeles through high-quality music education. We teach inner-city youth the great music of the world and provide opportunities for them to perform that music in the most magnificent settings of our community. We prepare our members for advanced study and high-caliber success in music and otherwise. We instill the ancillary benefits that music instruction provides: problem-solving skills, critical thinking, self-reliance, self-confidence, self-discipline, and the crystallization and pursuit of meaningful purpose.
Mission Statement
To cultivate musical expression as a vehicle for personal development, and to bring to fruition the full musical and academic potential of young inner-city residents of Los Angeles.
ICYOLA is a proud member of the League of American Orchestras, and is a national leader in efforts to assure diversity in the arts.
Goal
To teach young people in Los Angeles the great music of the world, provide opportunities for them to perform that music in some of the greatest settings of the world, and prepare them for opportunities to play in major American orchestras.
Objective
To learn and perform the great orchestral literature of the world, and equip minority youth, especially Black and Latino youth, with the tools needed to join major American orchestras; and to present those young people to those orchestras as candidates for employment.
