Oakland Youth Chorus

Each year, Oakland Youth Chorus provides more than 600 youth between the ages of five and nineteen with multicultural music and choral instruction, as well as numerous performance opportunities. It provides both in-school and after-school classes at more than fifteen sites throughout the cities of Oakland and Alameda. This model allows the Chorus to reach a wide variety of youth, while providing greater opportunities for those who want to be more involved. Renewed support would enable the organization to provide additional prep time for its teachers, strengthen its evaluation practices, and diversify its board to better reflect the diverse population it serves.

Oakland Youth Chorus (OYC) was founded in 1974 and engages Oakland youth ages 5-25 in three low-cost after school chorus programs and is the primary external provider of music education in Oakland public schools working with 700 kids at 14 sites. OYC teaches music that is relevant to the cultures of the majority of its students – 80% of whom are Latino or African-American - while ensuring that children become adept at singing a multicultural repertoire. OYC’s focus is on working with under-served communities - particularly in the poorer neighborhoods of East Oakland, West Oakland and Chinatown. Because much of OYC’s revenue has come from fee for service work in public schools and from institutional and municipal arts funders it has been severely impacted by a recession that has triggered reductions in both categories of support. OYC has had to lay off staff and with renewed support will strive to grow its board and improve its fundraising abilities while sustaining its current level of involvement in Oakland schools and improving the quality of its non-school based choral programming.