From ArborWiki

Web site: http://www.ypsiyouthorch.org/

Most amateur musicians will tell you that playing in their high school orchestra or band was one of the highlights of their youth. Playing in a group dedicated to music creates an atmosphere of warmth, of structure, of challenge, and of creativity. After all, an orchestra is much more than a group of players doing something together. Knowing that each person depends on every other person to do the right thing at the right time, and if they do, something very much larger than any of them fills the room and creates magic, is a wonderful experience.

Many cities only provide a part of this magical experience. There may be, as in Ypsilanti, a successful band or choir at the high school, but often not a fully successful orchestra, if there is an orchestra at all. Much of the world's great music is only available to full orchestras, involving winds and strings and percussion, all working together to make a whole greater than its parts. To provide an opportunity for middle school and high school students in Washtenaw County and neighboring counties to participate in the very rich experience that only a full orchestra can bring, the Ypsilanti Youth Orchestra was established in 1999, with Mr. William R. Hayes as conductor. Auditions for membership in the Ypsilanti Youth Orchestra have been held, but there are still openings.

The orchestra will start in its eighth year in September, with two regular concerts each year, and a Holiday Concert. All of the concerts have been very well received by the audiences. Rehearsals are held every Saturday morning during the academic year, from 9:30 to 11:30 am, in the Band Room of the West Middle School in Ypsilanti, and the public is invited without charge to all YYO concerts and rehearsals.

Applicants are invited to participate free of charge from Ypsilanti, Willow Run, Lincoln Consolidated Schools, and other area public schools, as well as home-schooled and private school students in the area. (Students in the Ann Arbor Public Schools should not apply, given the excellent orchestra opportunities available in those schools.)

Support in kind is being provided by four sponsoring organizations: The Ypsilanti Public Schools; the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra; Manchester McNeff, Ypsilanti attorneys; and Elser and Briggs, an Ann Arbor accounting firm, and supporting grants have been provided by the Pfizer Community Outreach Program and the Rislov Foundation.

(text copied from web site)