WYSO was founded in 1966 to expand instrumental music education and performance opportunities for young people of diverse backgrounds. Today more than 500 young musicians from communities across southern Wisconsin take part in its five orchestras, chamber program, instrumental ensembles and Music Makers, led by an artistic faculty of more than 50 conductors, coaches and teachers under Music Director Kyle Knox.
WYSO's home is the WYSO Center for Music at 1118 E. Washington Avenue in Madison: three large rehearsal halls, each built for a full 100-piece orchestra, plus studios, a music library and the offices. WYSO Connects sessions take place in Marvin Rabin Hall and Founders Hall. The building also hosts events and rentals through WYSO Center.
The teachers, church musicians and former school players around WYSO's orchestras kept asking for something of their own: a reason to play, and a room full of colleagues to learn from. WYSO Connects is the pilot answer, two programs for adults run by the same conductors and veteran teachers who work with WYSO's students every week. The Teachers Collaborative is professional learning for school and studio music teachers. The Adult Reading Orchestra is a relaxed evening of reading a full orchestral work. Both are at the WYSO Center, both are priced to be easy to say yes to, and both are shaped by what the people who come tell us afterward.
