After recently announced major cuts to its youth orchestraThe Los Angeles Phil has secured additional donor funding to ensure that the East Los Angeles branch of the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) program will operate at full capacity through the end of the school year.
In an email to students' parents last week, the nonprofit announced it would have to make “significant changes” to the program at Esteban E. Torres High School “due to unforeseen financial and funding challenges for the organization.” As a result of these proposed changes, the site's teaching artists were fired, programs for younger students were cut, and practicums for older students were cut.
Parents of students and the local community have united in response to the cuts, organizing a campaign to Instagram and organizing town hall meetings. Hearing this outcry and receiving additional funds, the Los Angeles Phil was able to temporarily retain Torres' lot.
In a statement to The Times on Wednesday, LA Phil President and CEO Kim Noltemi said, “We are thrilled that our donors recognized that this funding provides vital access to music education for the East Los Angeles community.”
“United, we will continue to work tirelessly in the coming months to ensure that we can continue to support this program because it is more important than ever,” Noltemi said.
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel rehearses with young musicians from across the country participating in the Los Angeles Phil's annual national YOLA program at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2023.
(Danya Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
YOLA has been offering free music education to students aged 5 to 18 since 2007. The program, run by LA Phil, gives students access to free instruments and first-hand experience of playing in a musical ensemble. YOLA currently operates in Inglewood, East Los Angeles, Rampart and Westlake/MacArthur Park. Specifically, the Torres site serves 165 students.
This program has been supported by star conductor Gustavo Dudamel since he first came to Los Angeles in 2009. Her teaching format is largely inspired by El Sistema, the government program where he first studied music in Venezuela. After 17 years with the Los Angeles Phil, the conductor will leave the orchestra in June to work with New York Philharmonic.
A spokesperson for the LA Phil told The Times that their ongoing funding challenges stem from “fundraising restrictions and rising operating costs,” as well as maintaining their day-to-day operations, including free/low-cost community programs.
Initially, these cuts were supposed to take effect after December 12, several months before Dudamel left. But with these new facilities, teaching and rehearsal time will remain fully operational, and previously laid-off staff will be reinstated for the remainder of the program.
These tentative changes were also announced days before teaching artists voted to unionize with the American Federation of Musicians in the United States and Canada. There has been some speculation about whether unionization played a role in these cuts.
In a statement to the Times, the LA Phil said it has a long history of “working constructively with unions” and that the cuts were based “solely on [on] financial and organizational needs.”
At the end of the 2025-2026 school year, the Los Angeles Phil Council will evaluate the Torres site to determine whether it is “the best and most sustainable location for YOLA programs after this school year.” The Philharmonic said in a press release that its board is “committed to supporting the long-term YOLA program in the East Los Angeles community.”
In an effort to create a transparent, collaborative community, Phil also announced that he will be working to create a parent advisory committee where YOLA families will have a voice in future decisions.
