Overview

SYO Summer Music Programs (formerly known as the Symphonic Youth Orchestra of Greater Indianapolis) is a non-profit summer youth orchestra program founded in 2008 by Shawn Goodman. SYO exists to provide unique and necessary music and arts education opportunities to talented youth from many schools throughout Marion County and the Greater Indianapolis area. The program encourages life-long learning by presenting free educational concerts throughout Indianapolis and provides students with a healthy, safe learning environment in which to grow musically, culturally, mentally, and socially. Students are encouraged to take on leadership responsibilities within the organization and to engage in problem-solving activities in teamwork settings. SYO offers a college internship program to selected music education, performance, and arts administration majors, and to SYO alumni. SYO students engage with college professors and professional musicians weekly in sectionals, masterclasses, chamber ensembles, and fieldtrips. SYO is committed to providing educative experiences to all talented musicians, regardless of socio-economic status or ability to pay tuition. The summer program typically holds auditions each April. Rehearsals begin at the end of May and run through mid-July. The SYO program maintains between 80-100 members each summer. In 2017, SYO performed on the main stage of Carnegie Hall as a participant in the Viennese Masters Youth Orchestra Invitational. SYO took a performance tour to Washington D.C. in 2019. SYO has now commissioned three works for orchestra with non-traditional instrumentation, including Blender in 2017 and Rhapsody on Cue in 2018, both by composer Ryan Fraley, and will debut a piece in 2020 by composer Benjamin Dean Taylor.