YOUNG VOICES OF AUSTIN

We provide high-quality music education to a racially and socioeconomically diverse population of young people ages 6 to 18. Musical instruction includes rigorous sight-singing and ear-training, general musical literacy, vocal technique, and stage presence and movement. Choristers learn to analyze scores from many styles and traditions, and to sing texts in many different languages from around the world. Young Voices of Austin’s curriculum is consistent with national standards, at tiered levels designed to reinforce lessons and increase challenge and achievement as choristers progress. Our program curriculum reflects our commitment to academic achievement, including assistance with identifying and applying to colleges, tutoring, guidance on auditions and essay-writing, and SAT/ACT preparation. Young Voices of Austin is committed not only to creating stronger musicians but stronger people, empowering the voices of Austin's youngest citizens so that they may become its future leaders.

Young Voices of Austin celebrates the rich diversity of the city's youth. By supporting the musical, academic, and personal achievements of our choristers, YVA provides a high-quality, community-based afterschool experience for young people ages 6 to 18. Young Voices of Austin provides fully funded bus transportation for every chorister who needs it. We see this as the key to bringing together students from all neighborhoods of Austin. It is crucial to the success of our mission. It is also our greatest challenge. It costs over $800 to transport each chorister from school to the program and back again in the evening. In this, our third program year, we provide transportation for 71% of our students, joining us from 25 schools throughout Austin. In addition, 73% of our choristers are on full or partial scholarships. YVA’s Board and Staff are dedicated to raising scholarship funds each year and are passionate in their belief that no student should be turned away due to their inability to pay.

Young Voices of Austin has been in operation for three academic years. 100% of graduating students in our 2017/18 and 2018/19 programs were accepted into leading colleges and universities and are still in their college programs. In the 2019/20 program year, lack of scholarships and inability for families to be able to cover shortfalls have forced several of our graduating students to take a gap year. Post-COVID, and hopefully with families back on their feet, they expect to begin college courses in August 2021. All other graduates were accepted into colleges and universities (with sufficient scholarship dollars) and will begin their courses in August 2020. We also pride ourselves on a 90%+ re-enrollment rate. In addition, we count ourselves fortunate to have over a dozen younger siblings having joined our program as soon as they became of school age. Musically, we have been able to form an honor choir, Vox Electus, comprised of accomplished singers in our Vox Medius and Vox Dominus divisions. These students have represented our organization at local events and have even traveled out of state to perform.

What have you accomplished so far and what’s next? We have engaged several dozen community partners that have joined together to provide over 1500 meals and 1700 bottles of Richard’s Rainwater for our students. Austin’s own BookSpring has provided hundreds of books for us to distribute to our families, and the Library of Congress has provided a small lending library for our office. We have partnered with PriceWaterhouseCoopers to provide our students with annual Financial Literacy workshops and have worked with the world-renown Paramount and Stateside Theatre to host our annual concerts. In each of the past three program years, all of our seniors have graduated High School on time with most receiving at least partial college scholarships. Below are few statistics about our program’s recent achievements. 75% percentage of choristers on full or partial scholarship 100% percentage of Austin area applicants accepted into our program 25+ Austin area schools represented through our choristers. 44 Choristers enrolled 2019/2020 Moving forward: Since the COVID-related suspension of our program in March 2020, we have been working closely with our local school districts as well as following guidelines from local and state health officials to ensure that we are adhering to recommended safety protocols. We hope that by developing a hybrid model (remote learning and on-campus instruction) of our program, we can ensure that Young Voices of Austin will continue providing resources and opportunities for our students. We have accepted 40 students into our Fall program and look forward to reimagining and reenvisioning our program to thrive in this post-pandemic world.