New York State Music Fund Grant
December, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12-22-06
New York Youth Symphony
Contact:   Vanessa Rose, (212) 581-5933     vrose@nyyys.org

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Contact:   Jennifer Robinson, (212) 220-4444     jenn.robinson@gabbe.com

New York Youth Symphony
Receives $125,000 Grant
from New York State Music Fund

$19 million awarded by
The New York State Music Fund to
218 nonprofit contemporary music
appreciation programs.

NEW YORK, New York, December 19, 2006 – The award-winning New York Youth Symphony announced today that it is the recipient of a $125,000 grant for its Growing Music initiative from The New York State Music Fund. This program will expand the groundbreaking Making Score seminar series for composers under age 23; increase the First Music commissioning program for the jazz band, chamber music program, and chorus; and allow for the archiving of the organization’s music library, which includes dozens of recordings of world premieres, making these works available for educational purposes.

The New York State Music Fund was created when the New York State Attorney General’s Office resolved investigations against major record companies that had violated state and federal laws prohibiting “pay for play” (also called “payola”). The settlement agreement stipulated that funds paid by music businesses would support music education and appreciation for the benefit of New York State residents. The Attorney General’s Office enlisted the services of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, one of the nation’s largest and most experienced philanthropy services, to develop and manage the grant program.

An Advisory Panel comprised of recognized leaders from a cross-section of the music world evaluated and recommended applications based on criteria focusing on artistic merit and community impact, and recommended 218 of 402 applications the Fund received for its second cycle.

The award-winning New York Youth Symphony provides the metropolitan area’s best young musicians with programs in orchestra, chorus, chamber music, composition, and conducting in addition to jazz. Among its alumni are Marin Alsop, Cho-Liang Lin, Shlomo Mintz, Gerard Schwarz, Ransom Wilson, and members of the Juilliard, Emerson, and Mendelssohn String Quartets, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Past conductors include Leonard Slatkin, Myung-Whun Chung, David Alan Miller, Samuel Wong, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Mischa Santora.