Support our Youth
and Education Programs

The Las Vegas Philharmonic is committed to providing the finest possible programs to enrich and inspire school-age children. We strongly feel that music is essential to the proper growth and well-being of all children, a belief that is increasingly supported by modern research.

Organizations have an opportunity to contribute to one or all of the educational programs offered by the Las Vegas Philharmonic including naming rights, competition prize money, and/or general operating expenses to support the educational programs.

The Las Vegas Philharmonic Youth Concert Series is an effort to bring as many fourth and fifth grade students as possible to the concert hall to experience a full symphony orchestra in a concert setting. The program is specifically designed for children of this age group because Clark County School System offers musical education in the 6th grade. For many of these students these concerts are their first exposure to orchestral music.

The overall purpose of the Youth Concert Series is to:

• Energize the students in attendance, to encourage them to further pursue musical studies.
• Educate the students about orchestral music and musicians.
• Highlight careers in the entertainment field.
• Engage at-risk youth in schools so designated, in an uplifting program of music and dialogue targeted to their tastes.

Learn more about how music affects children and improves their test scores, graduation rates and overall disposition.

This past year the school district cancelled one day of concerts due to their own budget cuts. The school district provided 142 buses to bring students to these concerts. Over 11,200 students participated in the program. Out of these numbers, 38 at-risk schools sent 5,184 students. These students come from the entire Clark County region, not just the Las Vegas valley. We have been asked by the school district if it would be possible to feature these same concerts during the fall. The only hindrance with this is the availability of the hall and funding. In this last concert series alone, we were forced to turn down over 30 schools who had requested seats for their students. Furthermore, the school district may lose the funding for the busses for next year. We hope to secure funding for the transportation as well.

Expenses range from $45,000 - $75,000 depending on the number of youth concerts offered each year. There is no ticket revenue since attendance is free to the students. The school district covers the cost to bus the children to the concert hall. The Las Vegas Philharmonic hosted 11,200 children at the most recent Youth Concert Series and over 140,000 students since the program's inception. The Las Vegas Philharmonic would like to expand the series to other grades in order to continue building music appreciation in the schools, but funding and sponsorships are necessary to help the Las Vegas Philharmonic achieve that objective.

Goal:

• Reach more students and offer a larger scholarship thereby encouraging more students to strive for excellence in their music.
• To focus on the inclusion of all ethnic groups and at-risk schools in this program.
• To become one of the leaders in arts education by expanding this competition to encompass a larger area preferably on the national level, and eventually, even internationally.

Every year the Las Vegas Philharmonic selects a young up and coming artist / prodigy to feature in our Rising Star Concert . These artists come from all over and have won worldwide acclaim as competition winners for the most prestigious international awards in music. The expense for this concert and bringing these artists to the Las Vegas Philharmonic include facility and equipment rental, orchestra, travel/ transportation, marketing, and coordinator fees totaling approximately $50,000.00.

Goal:

• Generate awareness and encourage Las Vegas youth to attend the rising star performance thus inspiring them to get involved in music and play an instrument.
• Expose the Las Vegas community to diverse and international talent.
• Expand the Rising Star Concert in to a series showcasing various young, up and coming artists throughout the season.